Lands End to John o'Groats 2008

The video

2008-09-10T18:15:00.002+01:00

Here are the videos of our trip, in four easy (!) stages....

Part 1: Lands End to Bath

Part 2: Bath to Ambleside

Part 3: Ambleside to Tyndrum

Part 4: Tyndrum to John o'Groats

Post-journey reflections

2008-06-23T14:50:00.003+01:00

Firstly, our overall statistics:

Total distance: 1045.52 miles (includes the ten miles from Penzance to Land’s End)
Average speed: 11.7 mph
Hours in the saddle: 89 hours and 28 minutes (which is 3 days, 17 hours and 28 minutes). For reference, the time taken by last year’s winner of the Tour de France was 91 hours and 26 seconds. OK, maybe he was slightly faster than us, but he wasn't carrying panniers...!

Ten days have passed now since we stood at the signpost at John o’Groats, and we still can't quite believe we did it. The vast majority of the trip was really enjoyable, and we have great memories of many parts of the country we hadn't seen before, and some we already knew and loved. In fact, even the sections which were hard graft at the time are good memories now, with the benefit of knowing it was all ultimately fine. In a way, you tend only to have experiences like those tough days when you do a long tour, because you have to ride the whole route, including sections you wouldn't necessarily choose for a single day ride. You also have to ride in the prevailing weather conditions, whatever they may be, and that gives you a different experience. The days of battling into a fierce Scottish headwind were hard, but it's ultimately very satisfying to find that you can face that challenge without cracking.

It's very definitely an 'eating an elephant' challenge (!), cycling from Land's End to John o'Groats - you have to take it a little bit at a time, rather than thinking about the entirety of what you are trying to achieve. It's obviously a big physical challenge, but if you've trained enough then it's the mental element which could make or break your attempt. Getting up each day, donning the cycle-wear and doing the miles seemed to be as much about attitude as it was about legs. Staying cheerful when it's raining, or when the riding is hard, or when you suddenly find you have 8 more miles to cycle than you thought, or when you find yourself wishing your saddle was made of something considerably softer is really important!

You need a good dollop of luck, of course. So many people said "You're nearly there now" as we progressed through Scotland, but we were very aware that one silly slip in the shower, or a nasty fall on the road and it could all have been over. There are always going to be events beyond your control, and the prospect of encountering such an event is worrying, especially when you're nearing the end. All you can do is plan for as many potential problems as you can, and try to cope with whatever comes up.

Many people have asked us since we finished whether we would do it again, and the answer for us is definitely not. Not because we didn't enjoy it, but, strangely, because we did. We've acquired a taste for tandem touring now, and knowing that we are strong enough to complete a long journey opens up lots of new possibilities for future rides. There's undoubtedly a significant challenge in cycling LEJoG. Can we do it? Are we strong enough? Will we last the distance? We know now that we are, and doing it again, even perhaps doing it in reverse, wouldn't add anything to that. Which isn't to say that we would now want to go longer, or higher, or more extreme in any way, just to see if we could succeed. We enjoyed the challenge of trying to finish something big, but it was just one aspect of the trip. Doing it again would also inevitably involve re-treading some of the same ground, and while there are definitely areas to which we'd like to return (including Glencoe, preferably on a clear day!), there were also parts of the country where we wouldn't choose to cycle again.

So what next? The tandem is also home now, and incredibly shiny and clean after a serious service and some TLC from JD Cycles in Ilkley, without whom we would never have become so enthusiastic about tandem-riding in the first place, and whose help and advice was invaluable along the way. And now the sun is shining again, we are starting to feel the urge to turn those wheels. So to start with, perhaps just a Kettlewell and back. After all, that's just Golspie to Helmsdale.....

And now some lists, mainly for the benefit of others planning a LEJoG of their own…

Things which worked well:

Doing lots of planning - the route, knowing where bike shops were, having a list of B&Bs, knowing the 'height' profile of each day. The BikeRouteToaster website (strange name, useful site) was particularly helpful in producing gpx files which could be loaded directly onto the Garmin GPS unit.

Trying to stay off A-roads as far as possible. We cycled along some fantastic traffic-free little lanes, and although it meant we did over 1000 miles instead of the more direct 874-mile route, it was very much worth it for the relaxing ride and great scenery. If we were planning with the benefit of hindsight we’d try harder to avoid the A38 between Wellington and Taunton, which we used to avoid a lengthy detour on minor roads. The A9 between Alness and Golspie was also an uncomfortable ride, because of a high volume of traffic. This could perhaps be avoided by taking the B9176 to Bonar Bridge, then the minor road between Bonar Bridge and Golspie via Loch Buidhe. Note that this detour would add a few climbs, so use your own judgement here!

Training hard, especially the deliberately tough weekend to Kirkby Stephen and back around a month before departure. Nothing we faced on LEJoG was even close to the rigours of those two days, and knowing you have successfully completed two hard days with lots of climbing is mentally very helpful when you're facing the ups and downs of Devon and Cornwall or Glencoe. For the last two weeks before departure, we deliberately reduced the training. This was also a good move, as it meant we were fresh and raring to go when we started.

Taking our time over the trip, and being flexible about where we stopped each day. Taking three weeks and not having any accommodation booked in advance isn't for everyone, but it worked really well for us, and meant we could adjust our days according to how we were feeling, whether we were meeting friends or relatives, whether we liked a particular town or not.

Using local knowledge - we had some great route tips from people who knew the local area, and the local history related to us by our host at Carlisle really enhanced our day as we cycled through the areas he had described.

Travelling light. They say you should lay out everything you want to take, and then ask yourself for each item whether it's really worth hauling it 1000 miles. When you're unsupported, every ounce you take really matters. We reckon we got this about right, despite not sawing the handles off our toothbrushes!

Having some milestones along the way (on the 'eating an elephant' principle). It gives you something smaller to aim for if you know you're meeting someone on day four, or crossing a border on day eleven.

Having Gary the Garmin Edge 605 GPS along for the ride. He always knew where we were, which was helpful, and had a full map of the roads of the UK.

Things which could have worked better:

Gary, frankly. He had freezing and crashing problems, some of which we believe are sorted out by a software patch now. The route recalculation algorithm is really dire though, and we had to keep an eagle eye out for the 'Calculating' message appearing, as our carefully planned route had always gone out of the window after a re-calculation. We'll be passing some specific examples along to Garmin, which should help them to improve things in this area.

The wind. It was supposed to be south-westerly. It wasn't. Not even once! It was frequently blowing from the north… Not much you can do, though, just have to get your head down and keep the wheels turning as best you can.

Getting onto Scottish cycle-paths. Scotland has lots of very good cycle-paths, well-signed once you're on them, but we found them difficult to locate initially (see entries for Coylton to Balloch and Balloch to Tyndrum). Maybe we should have known they were there. Or maybe there should be more signposts. Why isn't there a sign-post at the end of the cycleway on Erskine Bridge directing you to the canal cycleway, which starts only a few hundred yards away?

The 'sheep' project. Clare decided to record in photographs the way the country changes from bottom to top, including houses (from stone cottages in Cornwall, thatched cottages in Devon, through red brick in Lancashire to rendered bungalows in the Highlands), beer (from Tribute in Devon and Cornwall, through Thwaites 'Wainwright' in Cumbria, to Belhaven Best in Fort William) and sheep. As it turns out, though, sheep are the same the country over. Oh, except in the Lakes, where there are huge numbers of different breeds. Rest of the country, though - all entirely the same....!

Things we learned:

It's a big country. Especially Scotland. On crossing the border into Scotland you soon realise there’s still a long way to go – almost 50% of the journey, in fact.

The hills in Devon and Cornwall are as tough as everyone says, short but sharp gradients and plenty of them, but if you can get through them, it does get much easier.

Scotland is a country of big mountains, but the passes between them are usually comfortably low, and the climbs are long but gentle. Spectacular scenery, too, of course. Midges only seem to catch up with you when you stop to repair the bike. So in the event of a breakdown of some kind, stop, then apply anti-midge measures, then fix the problem, in that order!

The motorists of Great Britain are (for the most part) patient and considerate. There's a very uneasy relationship between cyclists and motorists in this country (the blame for which frankly belongs on both sides), but on our trip we felt safe and were given a wide berth, particularly by lorry-drivers on the thankfully rare times we had to ride along A-roads. There were only a couple of occasions on the whole trip when the Captain felt moved to shout 'Oi!'. There was only a single occasion on which we used more colourful language – congratulations to the white van driver who tried to emerge from a side-road onto a main road without once looking left….

The people of Great Britain are (for the most part) really lovely. So many people came to chat to us, encouraged us with waves and toots on the horn as they passed in the car, and gave us donations for Macmillan. It was hugely morale-boosting and really made us feel we were doing something worthwhile.

Places we particularly enjoyed staying:

Thorneyfield Guest House on Compston Road in Ambleside
Spean Lodge in Spean Bridge
The Bridge Hotel in Helmsdale

People we'd like to thank:

The Edge Cycle Works in Chester, who replaced the middle chain-ring on a busy Saturday morning, despite the fact that they were right in the middle of moving premises.

Calvin at Ghyllside Cycles in Ambleside, who helped us understand and sort out our hub problem.

The inestimable JD Cycles in Ilkley, who are always so incredibly supportive and helpful. We have no links with this shop or its staff other than as customers, but we really can't recommend them highly enough. Their advice is always unbiased and spot-on, and there is a fantastic culture of creative problem solving when it's needed. Thanks to everyone, especially John and Ruth, Jamie, Mitch, Joe and Dan.

Emma and Rob in Bath, and Phil, Claire, Kate and John in Bispham Green, who fed and watered us, and washed all our kit. And Sue at Spean Lodge, who was unfazed by our horrible shoes.

And of course all our sponsors, online and off, and all the people who gave us donations and encouragement along the way. Your support was fantastic!

Resources for other similarly minded cyclists...

2008-06-23T11:49:00.003+01:00

We've uploaded a file containing the following resources, for use by anyone else attempting a similar journey:

A list of bike shops along our route
A list of Tourist Information Centres
A list of Bed and Breakfast establishments
The entire route as a Google Earth file
A set of Garmin-compatible GPX files, one for each day of the route.

To download the zip-file containing the above, click here. You will need WinZip to open the file.

Good luck!

Clare and Jonathan

Day 20: Thurso to John o'Groats

2008-06-13T19:34:00.004+01:00

Distance: 32.12 miles
Time: 2 hours 40 minutes
Average speed: 11.8 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 1035.49 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 0 miles
Number of islands cycled from bottom to top: 1
Number of happy tandemists: 2

The outskirts of Thurso were a little unpromising but the centre was better, and after recuperative showers we loaded up on carbohydrates at a simple but good Chinese restaurant. We didn't dare open the fortune cookies, though - finishing on Friday 13th felt inauspicious enough already. Once again the lights were out good and early, although this far north the daylight continues to stream through the curtains well into the early hours.

A peep through said curtains this morning revealed a similar day, fairly cloudy with yet another northerly wind. Today, however, we were cycling east (mostly). We set off at 8.30 wearing our arm-warmers and, although it was cold, we were warmed by the prospect of arriving at our final destination. The first visual highlight of the day arrived fairly swiftly, as we turned a corner and Dunnet Bay was revealed. The wide sandy beach is sheltered by Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of the British mainland, and our first destination today. The strong wind was piling rolling waves onto the shore as we turned northwards into the wind and started to work our way up the Dunnet Head peninsula. By this time we were already receiving numerous toots of support and thumbs-up signs from passing motorists.

Cycling into the wind should perhaps have felt as hard as it did yesterday, but we knew it was four short miles to the viewpoint, and we made good progress. Passing a field full of highland cattle we stopped to take photographs, as we saw very few of them in the Highlands proper. The headland was covered in yellow gorse bushes, and as the road joined the coastline we started to get good views of Duncansby Head to the East. Apparently when the weather is good the view extends to Cape Wrath, the north-western tip of Britain, but low clouds, looking increasingly threatening, hampered our view.

The road to the viewpoint was uphill, but fairly gently so, and, passed by a succession of motor-homes, we made our way to the lighthouse. Here we paused to take a look at some lofty cliffs, but the wind-chill made standing still rather uncomfortable, so we soon hopped back on the tandem for the return journey down the peninsula. A very sharp gust of wind nearly knocked us over halfway down. On our way down we passed a couple of solo cyclists bent on visiting the same headland, and shouted encouragement to them.

The dark clouds were approaching rapidly from the north, and we quickly stopped to don rainwear, only just in time as a sharp shower began. Someone has clearly forgotten to program in the instructions for summer around here! With the wind now almost behind us though (for the first time in our journey) we dropped rapidly down from Dunnet Head and turned towards John o'Groats. As we headed past Castle of Mey in the distance the shower stopped. Determined to arrive proudly displaying our shirts we took off the rainwear.

Our progress along the coast was rapid, and the distance to John o'Groats diminished quickly. Finally, we arrived at a sign pointing left, giving a distance of a quarter of a mile to our destination. Shunning the sign's instruction we turned right, determined to reach the true north-eastern tip of the mainland at Duncansby Head before returning to the bright lights (!) of John o'Groats. A two mile, slightly up-hill road took us up to our second lighthouse of the day. Again we were forced to don our rainwear as a second torrential shower hit the coast, this one featuring stingingly cold rain. On reaching the lighthouse we paused only briefly, cold now, and turned around for the return to John o'Groats. We cycled fairly slowly, savouring the moment, and soon enough we arrived at the famous signpost. "Back in ten minutes", it read! We stood there anyway and hugged, it was a special moment.

After taking refreshment in the coffee shop we returned to have our picture taken at the signpost, trying to look as though our teeth weren't chattering in the bitter cold. It's June, for goodness sake! We returned to the coffee shop for warmth, and after a few minutes the photographer, spotting a marginal improvement in the weather, kindly sought us out for a second, more successful attempt.

Before too long Alex from Great Glen Travel arrived, we loaded the tandem securely into his trailer and we set off for Inverness. On reaching Helmsdale we were re-tracing our route, albeit in the opposite direction, and there were many cyclists heading in a northerly direction, looking cold but determined.

We dropped the tandem off at Square Wheels Cycles in Strathpeffer - they are shipping it home for us. After that we continued to Inverness where, with Alex's kind assistance we bought rail tickets for tomorrow, and found accommodation for the night, alongside the River Ness.

So that's it, we've done it! It hasn't completely sunk in yet, but feels very good. In a week or so we'll post some general impressions, and some advice for others planning the same trip. After that we will draw a line under this blog, as we'll have said all we want to say...

....except perhaps about a future trip the length of France, already hatching in our long-term plans. It's warm in France...!

Day 19: Helmsdale to Thurso

2008-06-12T19:29:00.003+01:00

Distance: 54.51 miles
Time: 5 hours 10 minutes
Average speed: 10.5 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 1003.37 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 28.09 miles
Number of deer we've seen today, with antlers and everything: lots
Number of punctures: 1

If there was one day on this trip after which we needed a bit of luxury, it was yesterday, after slogging our way nearly 70 miles from Beauly into the wind. And if there was anywhere in Helmsdale better than the Bridge Hotel, we'd be astonished. What a fantastic place, a really lovely hotel, with beautifully decorated rooms, wonderful lounges and a great restaurant. It was admittedly a bit more expensive than we'd been used to, but since we'd walked in on spec at 5pm we got a generous discount. And it had a bath, which was wonderful for soaking tired muscles.

The restaurant had a really good menu, including lots of game and seafood from the surrounding hills and shores, and it was all beautifully presented and served. Our hostess, originally from Iran but a long-time resident in Scotland and very passionate about its wonderful resources and ingredients, told us that they had refurbished the hotel, upgrading it from a forty room hotel with just two bathrooms. The queues must have been quite something in the mornings!

After an excellent meal, we retired with a dram of Clynelish whisky each, from a local distillery we'd passed during the day. Gary hadn't been bothered about visiting that one, but it was a good dram, very light but enjoyable.

Breakfast the following morning was very convivial, taken around a big communal table with other guests of the hotel. What an interesting set of people, including a couple whose nineteenth-century ancestors had once owned the hotel, a lady whose grandmother had honeymooned there, and two very entertaining Belgian couples, one of whom owned the oldest antique shop in Bruges. In fact in the hunting lodge setting and surrounded by people with such tales to tell, we started to feel like characters in an Agatha Christie plot. Fortunately though there was no sign of Hercule Poirot, and at no point were we all summoned to the library by the police.

We'd successfully patched the inner tube with the split last night, and also discovered that the first inner tube to fail was punctured in pretty much the same spot, so we patched that too. That's usually an indication that there's still something sharp caught in the tyre, or a problem with the wheel rim. Although we'd checked carefully when putting in the most recent tube, we decided to take the opportunity to have the tyre off for a recheck in the calm sheltered courtyard of the hotel, but still found nothing significant. That successfully done, we left around 10am, with a generous donation for Macmillan from our hostess and very good memories of our stay.

It was cool but sunny as we left on the Forsinard road which would take us through the 'Flow Country', and it was so good to be riding through quiet countryside on a single-track road - so much of the Scottish leg of the trip so far had necessarily been on A-roads. Up ahead, though, after only a few miles, we saw sheets of rain heading in our direction, and we just managed to get our rain-jackets on before the shower hit us. The wind had got up too, and once again we found ourselves battling against a strong headwind. We knew that the day began with a long steady climb to 600 feet at Forsinard, which was 24 miles away, and with the fierce wind directly in our faces it was really hard graft. After about 12 miles there was an ominous rhythmic thumping from the back wheel - another puncture.

This was starting to get serious - we just couldn't understand why it kept happening, we were still well in excess of 40 miles from the nearest bike shop at Thurso, and those 40 miles were over some of the remotest and most uninhabited terrain we'd faced so far. It was also so cold in the wind and the rain, and there was nowhere in sight we could get to shelter to sort out the problem.

So with Scotland throwing everything it could at us, we levered the tyre off again by the side of the road, and found that the puncture was unrelated to the previous problem. This time the problem had been caused by some shredding of the inner wall of the tyre itself, which had obviously rubbed the inner tube and holed it. The tyre had done in excess of 1500 miles, almost 1000 of those fully laden on this trip alone, and had clearly had enough. But what to do?

Fortunately the Captain had posed just this question on a Cycle touring web forum before we left, and had been advised to carry "tyre boots" - strong smooth adhesive patches which can be stuck over the failed inner part of a tyre to allow you to make it to somewhere where you can get a replacement tyre. Some respondents said that they had continued for hundreds of miles with a boot in place. Fantastic advice, and we were glad we'd followed it as we dug out a boot, fixed it in place and reinflated the tyre.

It was still pretty worrying, though - would it hold until Thurso? With some anxiety, we pushed on in the wilderness, into the wind, and up the hill. If it sounds like we weren't having fun at this point, it's because we really weren't. We were barely averaging 9 mph into the wind, and there were still 12 miles to Forsinard, the end of the climb and the only place where we thought there was a chance we could get lunch.

Sometimes you just have to focus on keeping the legs moving and the wheels turning, and that's what we did, and sure enough the miles passed, we crested the climb, and Forsinard appeared, complete with a hotel from which food smells were emitting. We were offered soup and a sandwich, which were perfect for warming us up, and after just half an hour in the warm dining room we were feeling warm and a little more cheerful. The tyre seemed to be holding too.

After lunch we set off down towards the very northern coast of Scotland, where we would turn east towards Reay and Thurso (and the bike shop). It was cold, and we had to pedal hard even to descend into the wind, but that was probably a good thing as it kept us warm. We kept seeing signs for Thurso which showed it as being about 7 miles further than Gary thought it was, which was a little worrying. After 13 long miles we spotted the sea and reached the turn onto the Thurso road. Still 16 miles to Thurso according to the sign, and then also according to Gary too, once he'd come to his senses, which was annoying. It was turning out to be a 'just get through it' day.

The miles to Thurso gradually reduced, and there were things to see, including the faint outline of the Orkneys, and the site of the decommissioned Dounreay nuclear establishment. We also started to get lots of encouraging hoots and waves from passing motorists - although our shirts were covered by our rain jackets and so our destination wasn't being advertised, there can't be many other reasons than the 'End-to-End' to be on a fully laden bike around here. That was morale-lifting, and the sight of Thurso appearing at the end of a long easy glide, out of the wind now, lifted our spirits. We sailed through to the bike shop on our mega-list, the aptly-named "The Bike Shop", where they replaced the booted tyre, supplied a new inner tube, and pumped up both tyres to full pressure. What a relief. The shop owner told us he'd stay open for another ten minutes, just in case we found any more problems when we got back on the bike, and even recommended a B&B for us, which saved a lot of time.

So after a very long, very hot shower (each!), we are now restored to normality, and ready to face the final day tomorrow. From Thurso we will go to Dunnet Head, then on to Duncansby Head and John o'Groats itself. We'll have everything crossed though - fingers, toes, eyes...

Day 18: Beauly to Helmsdale

2008-06-11T19:17:00.003+01:00

Distance: 68.91 miles
Time: 5 hours 40 minutes
Average speed: 12.1 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 948.86 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 82.6 miles
Number of Firths crossed today: 3 (Beauly, Cromarty, Dornoch)
Number of punctures: 2

As predicted yesterday we ate in the Priory Restaurant, and enjoyed our meal, washed down with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. Red sandstone houses seemed to be prevalent in Beauly, a small, attractive place with a ruined priory we didn't quite have time to seek out! Our evenings seem to end earlier each day - all the fresh air and exercise we're getting means we flake out about 9.30 now.

We planned for an early start this morning for two reasons: firstly we knew we had nearly 70 miles to cycle today, and secondly we wanted to visit the bike shop in Dingwall to check our replacement spoke was tightened correctly. An early breakfast allowed us to be on the road by 8.30am.

It was obviously still rush-hour in the area, and the roads were busy on our way to Dingwall. A small boy, crossing a bridge near Beauly on his bike, called out "Wow" as he spotted us on our tandem - obviously we're a rare sight in these parts...

We were heading down a long straight road when we heard a distinctive "crump" behind us. A car directly behind our tandem had slowed down sensibly before attempting to pass us. The car behind that was obviously being driven by someone who wasn't paying attention, and had run into the back of the car behind us. It had all happened some way behind us, and as we hadn't actually seen the accident we decided to cycle on and leave them to sort it out for themselves.

We soon arrived in Dingwall and found Dryburgh Cycles. They were very helpful indeed and offered to "true" the rear wheel while we had a coffee in town. Sure enough, when we arrived back at the shop twenty minutes later the wheel was back on the bike and we were able to move on.

So move on we did, onto the A9, expecting a nice quiet road as there really isn't much of Scotland left north of here. We were wrong, the A9 was extremely busy, with many coaches and lorries. Worse still, we were cycling (once again) into a fierce headwind, and the going was tough. After Alness and the Dalmore distillery we turned off the main road with a sense of some relief towards Invergordon. A jack-up oil rig was anchored just offshore, a source of some nostalgia for the Captain, who used to work as a geologist on such rigs in the distant past. We were enjoying the quieter road, but knew that after ten miles or so we would have to return to the main road south of Tain.

The next ten or fifteen miles towards Dornoch were hard labour, cycling into the wind. Fortunately after Tain the level of traffic seemed to diminish, and a cycle lane of sorts was provided beside the road. Gary the Garmin tried his best to persuade us to take the road into the Glenmorangie distillery and, on a shorter journey we'd have been tempted to follow his advice for once, but time was moving on and therefore so did we. The approach to the bridge over Dornoch Firth was slow and painful, mainly because of the conditions. As we turned onto the bridge we spotted our first sign for John o'Groats, and duly stopped to take a picture. Fantastic, we thought! Two hundred yards later the Stoker reported a puncture in the rear tyre. It seemed to be a slow puncture, and we attempted to pump up the tyre to see if we could at least get across the bridge before fixing it. Sadly, this temporary remedy was unsuccessful - the puncture was not as slow as we had thought.

We stopped in a layby at the side of the bridge in the cold wind to sort out the repair. We've had plenty of practice at this, and we checked the tyre for sharp objects, but the problem seemed to be with the inner tube valve. No problem, we had two spares in the bag, so we replaced the inner tube, put the tyre back on and pumped it up. All was going well until the tube was almost inflated, when there was a sudden escape of all the air. Strange, we thought, (amongst other less printable thoughts) and removed the "new" tube to discover a small diagonal slit in it. We checked and re-checked the tyre for sharp objects but still found nothing, so had no choice but to fit our only remaining spare inner tube. Happily it inflated successfully. We have plenty of patches in our repair kit, so we will patch the slit in the tube before tomorrow, just in case.

We were cold by this time, had used up a good half-hour on the repair, and the time was approaching 1.30pm. The town of Dornoch was nearby, but would involve a diversion of some miles off-route, so we decided to take pot-luck and stop at the first road-side eatery we passed. Soon enough we found a restaurant attached to a petrol station, and were able to warm up and restore energy reserves. We still had nearly thirty miles to negotiate after lunch - we could have stopped short in either Golspie or Brora, but we felt strong enough, and were keen to ensure that we would have a shorter day tomorrow to Thurso. It was still, however, a long slog into the wind until we turned north east on the approach to Golspie and received some respite from the weather. The sun was also making periodic appearances from behind the clouds in the afternoon, and the day became more about enjoyment than endurance as we followed the coast through Golspie and Brora, before starting the final twelve miles to Helmsdale. There were great views of the coast and sea, including what looked like a couple of North Sea production platforms out to sea on the horizon. We kept ourselves going by measuring the remaining miles against rides at home: an Ilkley, just over a Grassington, a Burnsall...

After a long day then, we arrived in lovely Helmsdale and located a very pleasant room at the Bridge Hotel. All we know of Helmsdale is that it is the home town of Edwyn Collins, singer and former front-man of the band "Orange Juice". He suffered a serious stroke last year, and we recently saw a genuinely moving TV programme about his slow but successful road to recovery. We will report on anything else we discover about this very scenic town tomorrow, though observations may be limited to the quality of the restaurants!

Tomorrow our target is Thurso - we're heading directly north across the "Flow Country" on a very quiet road, before turning east and cycling past the former nuclear establishment at Dounreay. If all goes well that will leave about thirty-five miles remaining for our final day.

Day 17: Spean Bridge to Beauly

2008-06-10T19:10:00.004+01:00

Distance: 56.3 miles
Time: 4 hours 27 minutes
Average speed: 12.5 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 879.95 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 151.51 miles
Number of monsters spotted at Loch Ness: 0
Number of days we've been on the A82: 2.5
Number of times Gary still managed to get it wrong: at least 3

Spean Bridge was lovely - a small place, but with several very pleasant-looking B&Bs and a good choice of eating places. The restaurant at the Smiddy is famed throughout Lochaber, but we had chosen the less formal Old Station restaurant, and we weren't disappointed. It was a short menu, but all fresh locally-sourced food, beautifully cooked and presented. The new owners have only been in post for a month, but it's clearly going well already. The restaurant has a view of the platform at the station, and at 8:10, bang on time, the Caledonian Sleeper came through, picking up passengers for the night train to London.

After conking out at 9:45pm, possibly our earliest yet, we slept well and long, and came down to a great breakfast, including haggis, which Jonathan enjoyed very much. A couple from New Zealand chatted away to us, but we were very restrained and managed not to mention the Kiwis' recent defeat at the hands of the English cricket team.

Sue had done some washing for us, and had even spirited away our toxic shoes to the drying room for the night (which was definitely above and beyond the call of duty), as they were really wet after our soaking in Glencoe yesterday. Spean Lodge was a really good choice, Glen and Sue were so friendly and welcoming, and had some good tips for our evening in Beauly tonight.

We hit the road about 10am, straight over Thomas Telford's stone bridge over the River Spean, and paused briefly to visit the Commando memorial. It's a striking monument, marking the training of soldiers in this area during the Second World War, and is in a great position, high up and with a 360 degree panorama of all the surrounding hills.

The road then took us down to Loch Lochy, which, judging by its name, must be the quintessence of loch-ness. Or maybe they just ran out of names here. It was very pretty, anyway, a long loch stretching north-westwards, marking out the Great Glen in a line with Loch Oich and Loch Ness to come. We caught and passed two Spanish cyclists weighed down with camping gear and wearing great flowing rain capes. They told us they were going to Inverness and back over four days.

Between Loch Lochy and Loch Oich we crossed the Caledonian Canal via the swing bridge at Laggan, and rode on up the Great Glen, with the water now to the right of us. At the top of Loch Oich we came across the second swing bridge, this second one at Bridge of Oich open though, to let a yacht and a large catamaran from Helsinki through. It was very efficiently done, and we were soon on our way, through a brief loch-less section up to Fort Augustus. There was an amazing flight of several locks on the canal at Fort Augustus, and we stopped briefly to watch the lock-keepers in action.

Leaving Fort Augustus we hit Loch Ness at last. Glen at Spean Lodge had advised us to be a little cautious on this stretch of road, as people can be a little distracted by monster-spotting as they drive along the loch! As we rode along, there was an ominous CRACK from the back of the tandem, and we decided to stop in the driveway of a cottage to check it out. Sure enough, a spoke in the back wheel had broken, not an uncommon event. Thankfully this was one incident we'd prepared for, and we were able to put in a new spoke from our spares collection. Not having done it before, though, we were a bit slow, and the time we spent on it put paid to our plan to lunch at Drumnadrochit, still about 12 miles away. Word soon spread amongst the local midge population, though, who came down in their droves to lunch on us. We'd stocked up on repellent in Carlisle, so we weren't too badly munched once we'd dug that out.

Once the tandem was all back together again, we rode on to Invermoriston, where we found a good little cafe, a hundred yards down the Kyle of Lochalsh road. Whilst we had lunch, Gary recalculated our route to Drumnadrochit, switching us from just 12 miles directly into Drumnadrochit on the A82 to a 126 mile route via Kyle of Lochalsh and various other places he fancied calling at. We were speechless!

Ignoring his pleas, and after a mildly comic search for Jonathan's missing glove involving several other guests in the cafe (one of whom spotted it as we left, attached to the underside of our top bag via its velcro fastening, much to our embarrassment), we headed out on the A82 along Loch Ness once more.

Loch Ness is huge, at least half a mile wide and very long, but we knew we were turning off about halfway along its length. The going was a little slower than our speedy ride along Loch Linnhe yesterday, much more up and down, but we made good time, and were soon passing the ruins of Urquhart Castle and turning for Drumnadrochit.

We knew that there was a tough climb beyond Drumnadrochit, the last time we would climb to 900 feet on our planned route. As we turned onto the Beauly road, the sign said 15% for three quarters of a mile, and it was every bit of that. It was the steepest hill we've been up for many days, and unremittingly steep too, climbing to 600 feet with barely a let-up in the gradient. We made it though, and the last 300 feet were at a much gentler gradient, taking us up to a wild, craggy plateau. We had several cheery waves from drivers up on the plateau, and thereafter enjoyed an almost unbroken glide down to Beauly.

Our rain jackets have been on and off all day today, but it's a sunny evening now, and we're settled in to a large room in a B&B near the centre. There are various options for dinner - Glen recommended the Priory, although we'll have to see what they think of our elegant zip-off trouser arrangements.

Tomorrow could be a long day - we plan to pop into the bike shop in Dingwall, right on route, to see if they can check the tension on our replaced spoke for us. Then we're aiming for either Golspie, Brora or at best Helmsdale, but a lot will depend on the going and the time. Helmsdale is nearly 70 miles from here, but would give us a shorter day through the Flow Country to Thurso the following day.

Thurso! We can't quite believe how far we've come. And how close to the end we're getting. The tension is building!

Day 16: Tyndrum to Spean Bridge

2008-06-09T21:09:00.005+01:00

Distance: 56.9 miles
Time: 4 hours 19 minutes
Average speed: 13.1 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 823.65 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 207.81 miles
Number of minutes for which we had a tail-wind: 5
Number of minutes we cycled without rainwear: 15

Yesterday evening was sunny with clear blue skies, and the evening sun bathed the hillsides around Tyndrum. The midges were out in battalions, and we spotted a family of four wearing matching full-head midge nets. Our B&B for the night was at Dalkell Cottages, it was very comfortable and set back from the busy main road. Tyndrum is a strange place, more of a railway halt and shopping stop than a genuine village. That said, the surrounding hills are magnificent and we enjoyed our evening.

"Afternoon rain" was the forecast for today. Well, all we have to say about that is that the afternoon must begin very early in Scotland. We set off at about 9am, arm-warmers already on. Within minutes we stopped to don our rainwear. The rain was fairly gentle, at least to begin with, and we climbed swiftly to the top of the first 1000 foot hill of the day. Parallel to the road we spotted a series of walkers on the West Highland Way, already starting to look somewhat bedraggled. After the climb came a long gentle descent towards Bridge of Orchy. The road was fairly busy, with quite a few coaches, but we were given plenty of room.

A word about wind (oh stop sniggering at the back Tomkins)! Conventional wisdom based on centuries of weather observations is that the prevailing wind in this country is a south-westerly. It is for this reason that most people choose to do this journey from South West to North East, because having the wind at your back as a cyclist is hugely helpful. Number of times we've encountered a south-westerly wind so far: 0. To be fair, on most days the wind has been relatively light, even when it has been blowing straight into our faces. Today, however, as we started the second 1000 foot hill of the day at Am Monadh Dubh the wind started to increase. From a northerly direction... The ascent itself was steady and relatively painless, and as we emerged onto Rannoch Moor the weather was still tolerable, even if the visibility was dreadful.

The appearance of Rannoch Moor has often been described as a moonscape. That would be accurate if the moon were wet and boggy. It's a curious landscape, certainly, boulder strewn and wind-blasted, we half expected an appearance from the weird sisters described in Macbeth. Cotton grass and gorse were growing everywhere, the former being a particularly reliable indicator of soggy ground. We reached the summit at 1142 feet and turned towards Glencoe, and directly into the wind and rain. We descended gently, and once past the incredibly remote Kings House Hotel we had to climb once more to 1000 feet. It was a painful process, not on account of the gradient, which once again was perfectly manageable. No, it was the sand-blasting we were receiving from the wind and rain which made the climb seem endless.

Eventually we dropped into the top of Glencoe. Glencoe is magnificent, we're told. We're unable to confirm this as we couldn't see very much, although occasionally the clouds lifted briefly to reveal a shapely crag or two. We passed the Glencoe ski-lift, indeed there was still some snow on the upper slopes of the surrounding hills. It must be a fairly bleak ski-destination, perhaps we'll stick to Cervinia.

There was a perverse pleasure to be had in fighting the elements - the wind was by now blowing straight up the valley, and though we were descending we had to pedal hard to maintain any momentum. We passed a couple of cyclists coming up the other way - at least they had the wind behind them, but they were as wet and wind-blown as we were. We stopped a couple of times to take photographs but didn't linger as there was no shelter. Eventually we spotted signs for the Glencoe Visitor Centre, and decided to stop for coffee and cake.

Glencoe Visitor Centre was busy, despite the weather. We sat, dripping gently, and drank coffee and tea. The chocolate caramel tray-bake looked calorific in the extreme, but we were sure we'd earned it. Soon we decided it was time to move on - we knew that after Ballachulish we would turn east and out of the wind. Passing Loch Leven to our right, and with increasingly beautiful vistas across Loch Linnhe to our left, we crossed the Ballachulish Bridge and cycled on towards Corran Narrows.

We're not sure what they put in the tray-bake, but we seemed to step up several gears at this point. By now it was approaching 1pm, and there were 13 miles to go before we would reach Fort William. We decided that if we pushed hard we could be there in time for lunch. With the wind no longer in our faces and the climbing now behind us we averaged more than 16mph en-route to Fort William, and thus arrived in plenty of time for lunch.

Knowing that we only had ten miles remaining to our destination at Spean Bridge we had a leisurely lunch at the Drover's Inn, overlooking Loch Linnhe. Once again we set a cracking pace, and were only slowed by the convoy system through the resurfacing works just a couple of miles before Spean Bridge. As we cycled in the convoy through the partially resurfaced road we hit a section of newly laid tarmac, and could feel the heat coming up off it in waves. We soon arrived at Spean Bridge, a quiet spot where we secured very pleasant accommodation for the night and booked ourselves into the Old Station Restaurant for our evening meal. It is still raining, though the forecast for tomorrow is better.

Tomorrow we continue along the Great Glen, and pass Loch Ness (we will report any sightings of Nessie) before turning North at Drumnadrochit, where we will encounter a steep 800 foot climb. We're heading for Beauly, about which we know nothing, but we're told it's a lovely place.

Day 15: Balloch to Tyndrum

2008-06-08T16:37:00.004+01:00

Distance: 39.35 miles
Time: 3 hours 24 minutes
Average speed: 11.5 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 766.75 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 264.71 miles
Number of afternoons off today: 1!
Number of different pronounciations of Tyndrum there seem to be: at least 2

At first last night we thought our B&B's location just outside the centre of Balloch was a disadvantage, but our host showed us a path we could take down through the grounds of Balloch Castle to the shores of Loch Lomond, and it was a lovely stroll in the evening sunshine. Balloch Castle was an odd place, an impressive grey stone building with crenellated turrets, but seemingly derelict and unused, with boarded up windows on the ground floor. The grounds and the lochside were full of people picnicking and enjoying the weather, and there were boats out on the water and midges in the air.

Clare came to Balloch once as a child when her uncle was married here, but didn't recognise it when we arrived yesterday. Apparently then it was just a hotel and a little wooden jetty sticking out into the water. Now there are several hotels and restaurants, lots of guest-houses, and a huge marina.

We had a curry for tea, less chaotic but not quite as good as the one in Okehampton, and took a taxi back up to our digs to save our legs. We were both quite tired, after two days of over 60 miles.

We'd always planned that today should be a shorter day, a sort of rest-day, but having had an enforced day off in Ambleside we felt fine to push on a little further than we'd originally planned. We spotted Tyndrum as a possible destination, just under 40 miles from Balloch, but thought we'd better check it was somewhere we could stay. The Tourist Information Centre found us a B&B in Tyndrum, and told us they'd still been working at 6:40 last night, but they had managed to find somewhere to stay for everybody, which was quite an achievement. They're supposed to close at 5:30!

We left Balloch on the A82, which follows Loch Lomond from Balloch right to the top at Ardlui and beyond. It's a busy road, and a little disappointing, in that you'd think there would be great views of the Loch, but there aren't. There was a good track beyond the white line at the left of the carriageway, so we stuck in that and everyone gave us plenty of room.

After about 10 miles there was a bend in the road, and we stopped to take some pictures. Clare crossed the road, stepped over the armco, and discovered she was on the West Loch Lomond cycleway, which had come right from Balloch, right next to the Loch! We'd seen no signs for it as we left Balloch, so we hadn't known it was there. Still, now we'd found it we were delighted to be off the main road, and enjoyed the little track away from the traffic and close to the water. At some points it became obvious that it had once been the main Loch Lomond road, as there were still cats-eyes on it. After 6 or 7 miles the cycleway ended, and we were back onto the A82, a little less busy now as some traffic had turned off, probably for Oban.

We stopped at the Bonnie Braes cafe (silly name, great views over the loch), where we provided a considerable talking point for a coach party who were just leaving. You do see lots of tandems around our way, but we do forget that they are seemingly much rarer in other parts of the country. We had our first portions of 'tray-bake' - in this case a biscuit base topped with toffee topped with chocolate, very wicked but delicious, and perfect for keeping the cyclist's energy levels up. It's a good excuse, anyway.

We continued on around the loch, marvelling at the number of motorbikes there were. Some were obviously touring, like us, laden with panniers, taking it steady and enjoying the scenery. Others, though, were obviously just out to test themselves against the road - not great for any of the other road users including us.

Loch Lomond is very long, with several bends and kinks, and the views out across the water changed constantly as we made our way around. After 24 miles we reached Ardlui at the top of the Loch, and headed on towards Crianlarich. We knew this would involve climbing, but we didn't know how high we would go before we reached Tyndrum. The climb was steady but pretty relentless, and by the time we reached Crianlarich were we up at over 600 feet.

We stopped in the station tea-room for a lunchtime sandwich, where we learned that Crianlarich, or A'Chrion Laraich, means 'the withered site', which doesn't do it justice really. The fells on either side were spectacular, and we'd seen lots of walkers on the West Highland Way, which, like us tomorrow, goes up to 1100 feet over Rannoch Moor and down through Glen Coe into Fort William. We'll be doing it on the A82, though, and in fact we're going to be on the A82 for days now, so perhaps even Gary can't mess that up. Or can he...?!

We arrived in Tyndrum just after lunchtime, so early in fact that our room was not quite ready, so we were forced to wander to the nearest bar and drink beer. After a leisurely pint we checked in, and, having lugged the Sunday papers all the way up today's climb, we can now lounge around and read them at our leisure. Tomorrow we plan to cycle to Spean Bridge, seven or eight miles beyond Fort William.

Day 14: Coylton to Balloch

2008-06-07T18:56:00.003+01:00

Distance: 63.41 miles
Time: 5 hours 25 minutes
Average speed: 11.5 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 727.40 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 292.60 miles
Number of men in kilts spotted today: 2
Number of annoyed blasts on the horn from the motorists of the busy Glasgow and Paisley roads: 0

Our choice of accommodation last night was spot on - Woodside Farmhouse at Coylton was peaceful, surrounded by green fields and run by Alastair and Wendy, who were very helpful indeed. Alastair even offered to run us to the local pub, The Coylton Arms, where we had a good meal. Before long, however, we were feeling weary and headed back for a good night's sleep.

This morning we awoke to blue skies, and after a good breakfast and a little routine maintenance for the bike we set off. The surroundings were gradually changing from mining country to farmland and, though the Ayrshire road surfaces were somewhat rough, we enjoyed the first few miles on quiet lanes. We paused briefly to watch a heron at a picturesque bridge, then continued through Tarbolton to Kilmaurs on a rolling B-road.

At Kilmaurs we spotted Walkers Cycle shop and, needing to replenish some supplies, decided to go in. Noticing the shirts the proprietor struck up conversation, and asked us our plans for getting over the Clyde. Mindful of the busy roads we thought we'd planned this bit carefully, but he advised us to scrap our plans, as we'd be cycling through a tunnel, where the cycle lane was always full of glass and the fumes were terrible. He suggested instead to head through Paisley to the Erskine Bridge, before taking a cycle path up to Loch Lomond. We decided to take the benefit of his local knowledge.

We were aware that an 800 foot climb was awaiting us at some point today, though we were not sure exactly when! It materialised after Stewarton, and wasn't too bad - in fact we were up at about 500 feet before we realised we were on it. Near the top we again spotted a large bird of prey, as we stopped to take a picture of the "Welcome to Renfrewshire" sign. It was really close to where we had stopped, sitting on an implausibly flimsy branch staring at us, but sadly it flew off before we could get the camera out.

Over the summit of the climb we enjoyed a long descent towards Netherplace. We were enjoying it so much we failed to notice that Gary the Garmin had decided to re-calculate our route. He does this fairly frequently if he thinks we've missed a turning, or sometimes when he thinks we're enjoying ourselves too much. By the time we'd noticed we were a few miles off route. Bad, bad Gary.

A helpful cyclist spotted us huddled at the side of the road with our map, and gave us useful instructions for getting to the Erskine Bridge. We set off. It was a very busy road, with many roundabouts and sets of traffic lights. We felt safe though, and the motorists were very patient and gave us plenty of room. By now it was 1.30 so we stopped at a roadside pub for lunch. The staff were friendly and helpful, the food and drink very average - another corporate triumph for Whitbread, unfortunately (see entry for Taunton)!

We still had around ten miles to go to the Erskine Bridge on busy roads, a cause of some apprehension. We needn't have worried, again the motorists were considerate and before long we were cycling past Glasgow Airport and to the start of the Erskine Bridge. A cycle-lane was provided, keeping the traffic well away from us behind a metal barrier, and we were able to stop at the apex of the suspension bridge and enjoy spectacular views down the Clyde in both directions, particularly downstream.

After crossing the bridge it took us a little while to find the start of the cycle path. This was to take us all ten of our remaining miles to Balloch. Starting alongside the canal, it weaved its merry way through Old Kilpatrick and Dumbarton. The pleasure of riding on a traffic-free path was marred slightly by the quantities of broken glass strewn across parts of the cycle-way by helpful youths. Our tyres are made of stern stuff (well Kevlar, actually) and we suffered no punctures.

The cycle-way continued (and so did we) along the side of the River Leven. Our unintended detour earlier had added some miles to our route and we were tiring a little as we arrived at Balloch. As usual we headed for the Tourist Information Office, who helped us to find accommodation - a little way out of town, as a large wedding party has monopolised the B&B establishments in town. It's a lovely evening, though, and apparently we can walk via the Loch back into town for our evening meal.

It felt good to leave our last city and arrive at Loch Lomond, the start of a very scenic part of our journey. We're going to consult locally before deciding on our destination tomorrow, as there are few towns between here and Fort William. We may aim for Crianlarich, or possibly Tyndrum. Either way it will be a shorter day, but with some significant climbs.

Day 13: Dumfries to Coylton

2008-06-06T18:09:00.005+01:00

Distance: 59.55 miles
Time: 4 hours 52 minutes
Average speed: 11.6 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 663.99 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 356.01 miles
Number of Scottish counties we cycled in today: 2 (Dumfries and Galloway, Ayrshire)
Number of cattle grids successfully negotiated: 3

We had a lovely room last night, at a B&B just a little way out of the centre of Dumfries. A huge bed, an excellent shower, and more cushions than we knew what to do with. The owners had not long been in Dumfries, having previously farmed at Lockerbie, but the new wood-burning power station there had made them decide to move on. The power station had originally been designed to burn willow grown by local farmers, but with wheat and barley prices now sky-rocketing, it was apparently proving difficult to find people willing to grow willow instead.

We had an enjoyable meal at Bruno's, a short walk from the B&B, although it was quite a muggy evening and the restaurant was warm. Our poor waiter looked like he was melting. By the time we came out, the evening had cooled off a little, though, and we slept really well in the enormous bed.

We'd always been a little concerned about today, even during the planning stages, as our route would take us out of Dumfries via the Nith Valley, and there didn't look to be many options for places to stay without our having to do an enormous mileage. We'd settled on Dalmellington as our destination, but yesterday several people who asked about our route on into Scotland looked quite dubious at the idea of anyone staying there. The more furrowing of brows and sucking of teeth we saw, the more worried we became! So we decided to get an early start, to give ourselves as many options as possible, and at 9am we were out of the starting blocks and onto the bypass.

At Newbridge we switched onto the quieter roads, and started up the first of the day's three climbs. It was long and unrelenting, but not a tough gradient, and we ground our way up slowly, happy enough in the middle gear ring. After a drink at the top, and now sporting our arm-warmers in the cooler temperatures, we coasted down the other side, and along a flatter section to Moniaive and beyond. The second climb started as we rode through the first forest of the day, a natural forest with a canopy which cut out almost all of the sun and a lot of light, making it feel pretty cool. All we could hear was birdsong and the sound of our own breathing as we gradually gained height.

After the natural woodland we hit Auchenstroan Forest, a huge managed pine forest, with the road winding through sections of trees in various stages of maturity. In some places, where the trees had clearly been harvested in recent years, it looked as though the replanting was a more natural mixture of trees, but there were also great swathes of tiny pine trees. We eventually came through the area where the current logging is taking place, and it was a scene of some devastation, almost like the aftermath of a forest fire. The great piles of logs were striking, though, and the smell was lovely.

We 'topped out' at over 1000 feet, for the first time since the third day (between Wadebridge and Okehampton). After a break for biscuits, we started down, a glorious gentle descent which went on for several miles, and brought us out of the forest. We saw a bird of prey circling above at one point, with a wingspan which must have been several feet across, and crossed the Southern Upland Way, a long distance walking route.

We stopped for lunch at a tea-room in Carsphairn, wondering where all the pubs are in Scotland. There just don't seem to be rural pubs serving food in the little villages so far. Perhaps it's just this area. Fortified by toasted sandwiches, we headed out, and onto the third climb of the day. We hadn't lost all the height we'd gained on the second climb, so although we went up and over 1000 feet again, it wasn't a hard climb. As we went over the top, we had a lovely view of Loch Doon, and then crossed into Ayrshire.

It had been a day of climbing so far, which was a big contrast to the last several days. You might think that would be less enjoyable, but we reckoned that without the climbing, you just don't get the views, and of course you certainly don't get the lovely gliding descents. Yesterday, the scenery along the Solway Firth was beautiful, but without gaining any height all day, we didn't get any spectacular views of it, really.

We were also starting to think that all the people who cast doubt on our staying around here were wrong. The hills and lochs made a great panorama, and even though the forests were pretty much all man-made, the surroundings were lovely to look at. As we descended towards Dalmellington, though, on a truly dreadful road surface, we caught sight of the open-cast coal mine, and the very utilitarian housing, which presumably was built to house the mine-workers. We passed Dalmellington, planning just to carry on on tomorrow's route until we hit somewhere we liked the look of. It was only 2:30, so our early start had paid off. We rode on towards Drongan (at whose mention there had been an awful lot of brow-furrowing), and, looking over towards the coast at Ayr, were amazed to see the sea, and behind it what must have been the mountains of Arran.

Drongan was much like Dalmellington, and after a brief chat with a lady at the cemetery, we homed in on Coylton as a possibility. We already had a number for a farmhouse B&B in Coylton, and having phoned ahead, we turned off-route to find it.

It was a good decision. We're probably a couple of miles off-route, but it's a beautiful peaceful spot, and the room is lovely. We've also now developed a new technique of isolating our shoes in the wardrobe, which seems to be working well!

Tomorrow we have the exciting prospect of arriving at the foot of Loch Lomond (we're aiming for Balloch). This of course means that we first have to negotiate Glasgow and cross the River Clyde.

Day 12: Carlisle to Dumfries

2008-06-05T18:36:00.004+01:00

Distance: 45.52 miles
Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
Average speed: 14.0 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 604.44 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 415.56 miles
Number of international borders crossed: 1 (hurrah!)
Kind donation from the custodian of the TSB museum, Ruthwell: £5

We liked Carlisle: it is a handsome town with a fine red sandstone castle and cathedral, and some elegant terraces. We met Peggy (Jonathan's mum) last night for a good Italian meal and some convivial chat over a bottle of Barbera. A good time was had by all, and it will be the last time we are able to meet friends and family on this trip, so we really appreciated Peggy driving over to see us.

Once again we awoke to blue skies, and our host described to us the delights of Carlisle, the Solway Heritage Coast, the life of Robert Burns and the history of this part of the world. When he moved onto the iniquities of wind farms we made our excuses and left. Seriously though, we were well looked after, and the bacon sandwiches this morning were first-rate.

Before leaving Carlisle we paused to take pictures of the Cathedral and Castle. The original route we had planned was a circuitous one, designed to avoid A-roads, but the A7 looked quiet enough, and we set off towards Longtown at a cracking pace. Today was the only day in our itinerary which was almost completely flat - no hills above 100 feet, so we were able to maintain a good pace all day.

At Longtown we turned left towards Gretna, and four miles later we reached the Scottish Border. We had been polishing our appalling comedy Scottish accents in preparation, and now deployed them to good effect. Loud cries of "Ye'll have had yer tea" rang round the neighbourhood (apologies to our Scottish readers)! It was though, a good moment, it felt to us that we'd already travelled a long way and this was a major milestone. We didn't stop to celebrate for too long, as a look at the map reminded us that Scotland is a big country.

From Gretna we continued west towards Eastriggs, home of a major munitions factory during the First World War, set up as an emergency measure when the troops at the Somme began to run out of ammunition. A roadside sign advertised the "Devil's Porridge Museum", the porridge being a combination of TNT and cotton waste used to fill the ammunition shells. We rode on to Annan where, thirsty in the warm temperatures, we stopped for a tea break, but chose not to try the deep-fried pizza offered on the menu...

A few miles after Annan we reached Ruthwell, an interesting place. Here the small church contained a massive Anglo-Saxon cross, so tall it had to occupy a hole in the ground. The other side of the B721 had a museum marking the spot where in 1810, the Reverend Henry Duncan set up a bank to help his poorest parishioners save for times of hardship. This later became the Trustee Savings Bank, now Lloyds TSB. Finally, on the outskirts of the town was the Brow Well, a rather murky spring-fed well. Here the dying Robert Burns drank the water in an attempt to cure his illness, then immersed himself in the cold waters of the Solway Firth. This rather unsuccessful cure for rheumatic fever led to his death a few days later.

Culturally refreshed but seeking refreshment of a more tangible kind we moved on. A right turn at Bankend would have taken us swiftly to Dumfries, but we knew a small detour south would take us to Caerlaverock Castle. We have to confess that we were attracted initially by the castle's tea room, but what a place! A magnificent moat-encircled red sandstone castle, with a history of almost repelling English sieges (sorry again, Scottish readers). After taking refreshment at the excellent tea room (great scones!) we spent a good hour looking around in the sunshine. There was a huge and impressive trebuchet, and in the video room a very young-looking Tony Robinson told the story of the castle.

We were delighted, being fans of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" to find that this was the second castle in the neighbourhood. The first one was built on a swamp. Like "Swamp Castle" in the aforementioned film, it fell down and sank into the swamp... Well, what the sign actually said was that there "was evidence that the ground was damp and boggy, and the buildings gradually collapsed". That's good enough for us!

As we left, we had a good chat with a local couple, whose advice was to ensure we had plenty of midge-cream for the remainder of our journey. Fortunately we stocked up this morning, to protect ourselves against the fearsome Scottish midges. Or is it midgies? We'll let you know on that one.

Our journey continued around the peninsula and alongside the spectacular Nith Estuary, where we once again turned north towards Dumfries. Again we set a fast pace (by our standards) and soon arrived at the water-front Tourist Information office in Dumfries, where we secured accommodation for the night as a few raindrops started to fall.

Tomorrow's destination has yet to be decided - there's a fair amount of uphill to negotiate, so we may stop in Dalmellington or, if we're not too tired, we may push on towards Ayr.

Day 11: Ambleside to Carlisle

2008-06-04T17:49:00.003+01:00

Distance: 41.39 miles
Time: 3 hours 20 minutes
Average speed: 12.2 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 558.92 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 461.08 miles
Number of gates we had to open: 8
Number of Scottish bank notes received: 1

Once we knew the tandem was back in one piece and operational again last night we managed to relax, and we enjoyed dinner at Sheila's Cottage, and a very good bottle of Zinfandel, so the Captain's birthday hadn't gone entirely uncelebrated!

We knew we didn't have a long day today, so we hadn't planned an early start, but we woke before the alarm this morning, and summoned by delicious bacon smells, found ourselves in the breakfast room before 8:30. After breakfast and the usual paranoid check for anything we might have left behind, we bid goodbye to Marcel, the big black and white house cat at Thorneyfield, who looks you straight in the eye with a spooky air of extra-terrestrial intelligence. We had been very comfortable at this guest house, with the fluffiest towels we'd encountered since Land's End, and a genuinely warm welcome from the owners.

We left Ambleside on the Rydal road, with the early morning sun hidden now by slightly ominous clouds. As we passed Rydal Water it began to rain, but we were so glad just to be on the move again that it didn't seem to matter a bit, and we donned our rain jackets and carried on. Rydal Water soon gave way to Grasmere, and the brief shower stopped. We could see Helms Crag now, better known as the Lion and the Lamb, on the other side of the valley.

Also looming up ahead was our first serious climb for days, Dunmail Raise - a long steady grind up to 800 feet. We'd been up Dunmail Raise in January, but it was cold, wet and misty then, so it was not surprising that it seemed much easier today. We must be fitter than we were in January, and when all your energy can go into getting you up the hill, rather than also having to keep you warm, it makes a difference. We stopped at the top to take pictures, a great view back down towards Grasmere.

After the climb, it was a good coast down to the southern end of Thirlmere, and we really enjoyed a lovely quiet section around the western side of the lake. There's forestry and logging around Thirlmere, but no boats and very few people. Noisy jets there are, though, and we saw several hurtle past in the airspace above the lake, between the high fells on either side. It's always been a feature of the Lakes that the idyllic peace of the countryside can be shattered by the ear-splitting scream of a jet passing at high speed overhead. It happens in the Dales too, and if you see the jet first you can sometimes get your fingers in your ears in time, as the sound follows behind the aircraft.

As we rode up to the top of the lake, a huge skein of geese (is that right?) flew overhead in V formation, honking away to each other. We turned right across the top of the dam, and took the marked cycleway through to the Threlkeld road. At Threlkeld our route coincided for a while with the official Coast to Coast cycle route, and there was a marked CTC cycle path, which we followed, avoiding the busy A66. The route took us through lots of gates, each of which we had to stop and open, but it was worth it for the wonderful traffic free cycling, as we contoured around the foot of Blencathra. A second hooting formation of geese flew over, or perhaps it was the first lot again, having problems with their GPS.

After the last gate we stopped for a water break, and were caught up by three Coast-to-Coasters who were raising money for a domestic violence refuge in their home town of Bolton. They stopped and we chatted and exchanged road stories for a while, before they headed off, having much further to go today than we did.

At Mungrisdale we rejoined the road, but it was just a tiny ribbon of tarmac threading around the foothills of Blencathra, and the views were spectacular. On each side of the road the gorse was in full bloom, and in the sunshine now the yellow flowers were almost sunflower coloured. We'd planned to stop at the pub in Hesket Newmarket for lunch, as Calvin at Ghyllside Cycles had recommended it heartily for its beers, but when we arrived we found that it doesn't open at lunchtime during the week, unfortunately. We fortified ourselves with oat shortbread biscuits from Thorneyfield (strange combination, but very tasty), and pushed on to Sour Nook. The Inn there was open, and we had lunch, and a chat with a man rebuilding a motorhome in the grounds. He told us that a lady walking the End-to-End had come through a week before. Now that's serious! She was doing around 10 miles a day, and taking three months over the trip. Like us, she'd be well over half way now.

After lunch in the sun in the beer garden we set off for our last ten miles into Carlisle. Strange to think that Ambleside and Carlisle are so close, when one is in the heart of the Lakes, and the other sounds like it's nearly in Scotland. It was pretty much downhill all the way, with the Pennines just becoming visible on the horizon to the east. We located a B&B easily, mildly eccentric but perfectly good, and were quickly settled in for our evening routine.

This will be our last night in England - tomorrow we cross the border, and start the tartan leg of the trip. Hoots, etc!

An enforced day of leisure...

2008-06-03T21:28:00.006+01:00

Distance: 0 miles
Time: 0 hours 0 minutes
Average speed: 0 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 517.53 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 502.47 miles
Number of bike shops visited: 3

The excitement of reaching the half-way point fizzled rapidly away this morning. We spent a pleasant evening in Ambleside last night, but were worried about the nature of the problem with the tandem's freewheel hub, so had an early night so that we could be at the door of the bike shop when they opened.

Optimistically we had donned our cycling togs, but as soon as Calvin of Ghyllside Cycles pronounced the verdict we realised we would be going nowhere today. Contained in his verdict were the words "catastrophic failure of the free-wheel hub". Oh dear. He dismantled the hub, to find a broken spring and badly damaged pawls therein. It got worse. The hub is a rare tandem-specific one, for which he did not stock spares. Gamely he tried to find appropriate components in order to effect a temporary repair, while we visited another bike shop in Ambleside in search of the necessary parts. Neither venture was successful, and telephone calls to Kendal bike shops were similarly fruitless.

We were quite worried at this stage - our prospects for moving on were poor, so we checked back in to the B&B. Desperate for a solution we rang J.D. Cycles in Ilkley. After a tense hour or so they worked out a solution whereby they could lend us an entire spare wheel (with working hub, naturally)! All we had to do, of course, was take our old wheel to Ilkley so that they could replace the necessary bits...

We'd resolved not to travel by car on this trip, but these circumstances dictated a brief re-think of this policy. We grabbed a taxi to Kendal, and hired a car! It felt quite strange heading back into Yorkshire this prematurely. After an hour or so we arrived at J.D., and within quarter of an hour we were leaving the shop with a fully-functioning wheel. We wondered whether we would be spotted by anyone we know, and joked about starting rumours that we'd just been lying low rather than cycling up the country!

By 3.30 p.m. we were back in Kendal. The eye-watering cost of the taxi from Ambleside to Kendal persuaded us that, now that things were not quite so urgent, we should take the bus back. The car-hire people generously drove us to the bus station, and we headed back to Ambleside. Calvin and Pete at Ghyllside greeted us, and got straight to work fitting the wheel, and giving the tandem a thorough once-over. All is now well, and tomorrow we move on, thankfully.

What a way to spend the Captain's birthday! Still, we're restored to mobility and the weather forecast for tomorrow is better. So on to Carlisle we go. Grateful thanks are due to the good people at Ghyllside Cycles, Ambleside and J.D. Cycles, Ilkley. Onwards and Northwards!

Day 10: Bispham Green to Ambleside

2008-06-02T19:13:00.004+01:00

Distance: 71.78 miles
Time: 5 hours 25 minutes
Average speed: 13.2 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 517.53 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 502.47 miles
Number of times we were captured by police speed-guns today: 2
Number of convictions for speeding: 0

Halfway! We now have fewer miles to do than we've already done, which feels like a good milestone to pass.

We had a fantastically relaxing rest day at Phil and Claire's, chatting, reading the paper, and enjoying the feeling of legs not in motion (thanks, folks!). So it wasn't surprising that with fresh legs and a lovely flat route out of Bispham Green we covered a huge 15 miles in the first hour, with Phil alongside, under overcast skies. We managed to negotiate our way around Preston (more or less), passing our first police speed-gun, and three amused policemen, on the way. Phil stayed with us to Woodplumpton, where we stopped by the church to say goodbye. It was a good tip to pop into the churchyard, which is famous as the burial place of 'Old Meg', supposedly a local witch - a strange inhabitant to find in a graveyard, although she was apparently buried vertically, with her head downwards. A round stone marks the spot.

Alone now, we managed to maintain the pace we'd kept with Phil, and headed towards Lancaster, shadowing the M6 and the A6, and crossing over the Lancaster Canal numerous times. The riding was fast on the flat terrain, and we maintained an average speed of well over 14 m.p.h., past Lancaster, and right past the hospice where Jonathan's Dad was so well looked after, and which helped to provide the inspiration for this trip.

We had the briefest glimpse of the sea then, the first time we'd seen it since Cornwall, which seems like such a long time ago now. The miles were just flashing past, and at 1pm we were so nearly at 50 miles we decided to push on to clock up a new 'morning mileage' record.

We stopped eventually with the magic 50 miles on the clock, at the Wheatsheaf in Beetham. The lunch was very good, with Wainwright beer for the Captain, and a confirmation that we were now in Cumbria. The sun had come out now, and after lunch we managed to dodge the Daily Mail, who were interviewing people about the proposed closure of the village Post Office, and glided down to Milnthorpe, where a herd of deer were milling about by the river.

A short section on the dual carriageway took us officially into the Lake District National Park, and onto some lovely lanes, although here in the South Lakes the landscape is really more like the Dales. The drystone walls are of rounder grey granite stones, rather than the flat slate stones which are such a feature in some Lake District towns and villages. We heard curlews today too - a real sound of home, which made us feel we were getting properly 'up north' now.

We started to see fells appearing on the horizon as we got closer to Bowness, but we knew we didn't have to tackle any of them today, so we could enjoy the scenery! Our only significant climb of the day wound up through leafy lanes, and as we crested the ridge, we started to look out for the lake at Windermere. Passing Bowell Cottage (Clare: "Errgh, don't think we should stay there", Jonathan: "No, not Bowell, Bowfell...."), we caught just a glimpse of the water shimmering in the sun, but it wasn't until we hit the road next to the lake that we could really see the lake properly.

Windermere was absolutely heaving, but we had already decided to push on to Ambleside today. The bike is having some attention there tomorrow morning at Ghyllside Cycles, so it made sense to do the short run from Windermere today. As we left Windermere we went through our second police speed-trap. Pointing her gun as we passed, the policewoman cheerfully called '17!' after us as we coasted down towards Ambleside.

Ambleside was much quieter, and we popped briefly into the bike shop to see if it was any more convenient for them to look at the bike tonight. We've been experiencing some strange occasional free-wheeling behaviour, which sounds like it could be important to sort out sooner rather than later, so we'll see how that goes tomorrow.

We soon found a room in a guest-house close to the centre of Ambleside, a lovely light room with plenty of space. Sadly, though, we are now once again in the same room as our shoes - they were quite rightly banished to the shed with the tandem at Phil and Claire's!

Day 9: Chester to Bispham Green

2008-05-31T18:15:00.005+01:00

Distance: 47.12 miles
Time: 4 hours 05 minutes
Average speed: 11.4 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 445.75 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 574.25 miles
Number of bike shops visited: 1
Number of bike shops which had the part we needed: 1
Number of rest days after today: 1
Unsolicited donations from the good people at the Grosvenor Place Guest House: £10.00

After a fairly late arrival yesterday we settled into the Grosvenor Place Guest House, before heading out for dinner. We travelled the vast distance of 150 yards to a very pleasant tapas bar, where good food and beer/wine was had in moderate quantities, before we flaked out...

We awoke to a bright sunny day, definitely the warmest so far. After breakfast we pushed the tandem through the pedestrianised area of Chester towards The Edge Cycle Works, feeling slightly apprehensive that they might be unable to fix our transmission problem. We should not have worried, they did indeed have the new chain ring, and we left the tandem with them for an hour so that they could fit it.

That gave us time for a pleasant wander through the streets of Chester, and a coffee. The galleried rows of shops on Northgate Street were most impressive, and before long the hour was up and we returned to the bike shop. Fantastic - we were restored to a full range of 27 gears, to our immense relief. We're grateful to the guys at the bike shop, who despite being busy moving to new premises, found time to get us back on the road again.

By now it was already 11 a.m., a very late start, and getting very warm. We weaved our way onto the Frodsham road - an 'A' road all the way to Runcorn, but as it was next to a motorway, it was relatively quiet. We made good time, and before long were turning onto the streets of a suburban housing estate in Runcorn. No, this wasn't a mistake on the part of Gary the Garmin, it was part of our planned route intended to avoid the "Expressway" around Runcorn, which sounded to us like cycling purgatory. So avoid it we did, cycling circuitously around Runcorn, until we arrived at the Runcorn Bridge.

We'd been slightly dreading the bridge, but it was great! Good views in both directions, and some cheery encouragement was shouted from a passing white van ... Gary, having behaved well up to this point, threw in the towel and navigated us onto a fairly unpleasant route through Widnes, all major roads and industrial estates.

We soon stopped for lunch - not the greatest of pubs so it will remain unnamed. Suffice to say that we felt forced to keep a close eye on the tandem while eating in the beer garden, and soon set off on our way again. By now the temperature was really high, and we were drinking a lot of water. Continuing across the M62 and on to Rainhill we were getting a few strange noises from the bike, which was worrying - in particular a rhythmic creaking noise gave cause for concern. It remained with us as we climbed to Up Holland, dropped down to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and then climbed again up to Appley Bridge. On reaching the top we knew that the remaining two or three miles to our destination was downhill - a lovely, swooping descent to Bispham Green.

Here we're staying with Jonathan's (other) brother, Phil, and family. Phil knew exactly what was needed and his son John poured us large glasses of water as we set about giving the tandem a little tender loving care. Whilst cleaning the chain Jonathan found the reason for the strange creaking noise - a small piece of wire had become entangled in one of the chain links. Once removed, all was well again, thankfully. The tandem, now in pristine state (thanks, Phil!) has been consigned to the shed, where it will remain for a whole day, as we have a rest day planned for tomorrow.

So after a day at leisure tomorrow, we will be aiming for Windermere, the half-way point of our journey, on Monday. All being well, Wednesday will bring us to the Scottish border - then we'll really feel we're making progress.

Day 8: Ludlow to Chester

2008-05-30T20:08:00.004+01:00

Distance: 74.83 miles
Time: 6 hours 23 minutes (ouch!)
Average speed: 11.7 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 398.63 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 621.37 miles
Number of international (ish) borders we've crossed today: 2
Number of minutes spent in Wales: 38
Number of mechanical breakdowns: 1
Number of bike shops visited: 2
Number of bike shops which were any good: 1
Number of bike shops which had the part we needed:0

What a day! Mechanical problems, unscheduled trips into Shrewsbury, navigational errors... But more on that story later...

Ludlow was really lovely, and we enjoyed an early evening
walk around before dinner. The castle is very spectacular, surrounded by high walls and lime tree lined walks, and we had a great view of it from our apartment. Ludlow is very 'black and white', presumably Tudor, and reminded us a little of Stratford, but without all the American tourists.

We had dinner at a Thai restaurant, which was very good, and we decided we must now be in 'Archers' country - a man telling off his slightly over-excited son sounded exactly like Will. Or is it Ed? Can't remember which is which.

We slept well, and since the apartment was above a bakery, we were gently woken by wonderful smells of baking bread. We got away in good time to meet Steve, Ann and David in Church Stretton at 10, and we knew we had two climbs to get over first, one over 800 feet. Although they looked a little steep on the map, the lady at the Tourist Information Centre yesterday told us it was much gentler in the direction we were going, and she was right. It was lovely, winding up through little lanes, a gentle climb in intermittent sunshine, and we crested the first climb and glided down through the forest. A quick water break, and we started up the second climb - a little steeper, but fine, and we arrived in the station car park at Church Stretton and shared a bit of malt loaf with Steve, Ann and David, before off-loading our panniers to Ann for an 'alpine-style' day.

We headed off all together, and we made great progress along the lanes, enjoying the sunshine and the quiet roads. We spotted a black cat up ahead, and hoped (superstitiously!) that it would cross our path for luck. This has happened for the past two days, strangely, and today made a third. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, as we set off across the first of a series of roundabouts around Shrewsbury, the gear change from the small to the middle chain ring just wouldn't go in. All the usual pedalling backwards techniques didn't help, and suddenly it was obvious that the middle chain ring was seriously bent out of shape.

No problem, we thought, we've planned for just such a situation, and dug out our list of bike shops. Gary flawlessly navigated us 2 miles into Shrewsbury to the nearest shop, who were USELESS - no ideas, except to direct us to another shop. The second shop obviously knew what they were doing, but just didn't have a replacement ring. What to do? We knew we could ride in the big ring, but that neither the middle nor the small ring would go into or stay in gear. For the uninitiated, the small ring is the one you use for climbing, whereas the big ring is good for bowling along on flat terrain or downhill. We also knew that there weren't any significant hills between Shrewsbury and Chester, so we reckoned we could make it to Chester in the big ring all the way, and hopefully sort it all out there.

We pushed on to Ellesmere for lunch, slightly further than we would all have liked, but it was the first place with a pub! It was interesting that the accents of the locals in the Red Lion had suddenly switched - after so long with south-western voices it was quite a contrast to pick up an increasingly scouse twang. The man behind the bar told us we were nearly in Cheshire, and we set off after lunch with 49 miles on the clock, and around 24 miles to go.

We had given Ann all the details of the part we needed (with the help of Ruth at JD Cycles in Ilkley, who gave us the exact part number), and a list of bike shops in Chester, and she soon had the part located and reserved for us. We knew it was unlikely that we would get there by 5 to have it fitted tonight, but just knowing that it was set aside for us was so good.

We crossed briefly into Wales, where Gary went bananas, and so we made a couple of navigational errors, but managed to get back on track with the help of our backup paper maps. We were really disappointed to have to walk up a couple of short uphill-ish sections we would normally have cruised up with a full set of gears, but at least we were still on the road, and making good progress towards Chester. We were all getting pretty weary, but David passing his previous personal best mileage gave us a boost, followed shortly after by Clare passing her previous tandem mileage record.

It was well after 5 when we met up with Ann on the outskirts of Chester, but we knew we had under 3 miles remaining. It had been really great to have Steve and David's company today, and it had really helped to get us through the long day. We collected the panniers, and headed into Chester, where we're now settled into a guest house opposite a tapas bar we might try later, if we can stay awake long enough!

The bike shop is expecting us at 9:30 tomorrow - fingers crossed for our repair!

Day 7: Newent to Ludlow

2008-05-29T18:23:00.005+01:00

Distance: 40.95 miles
Time: 3 hours 40 minutes
Average speed: 11.1 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 323.80 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 696.20 miles
Number of counties we've cycled in today: 4 (Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire)
Contributions from the good people of Newent: £22.00

We spent a pleasant evening at the George Hotel in Newent, watching Yorkshire score 34 runs in 4 overs against Lancashire, before rain sadly brought an end to proceedings. There was some or other international football match going on as well, but we didn't watch that :-) We were delighted to note, however, that the local news magazine programme was "Midlands Today", so we're definitely officially in the Midlands now!

On anxiously opening the curtains this morning we were relieved to see that the rain had ceased - it was still cloudy but the weatherman was predicting that we would see some sun today. The tandem was in a filthy state after our unscheduled forest excursion yesterday, but ten minutes with a hosepipe and soft brush saw it returned to presentability.

We were keen to get away early in order to meet Clive - our former boss, a valued early client when we set up on our own, and a good friend. We'd planned to meet at lunchtime in Tenbury Wells, and we set off in good time on quiet-ish roads towards Ledbury. Soon we passed the "Three Choirs" vineyard to our right, sadly even if the sun had been visible it would have been several hours short of the yard-arm, and we haven't yet had a wine rack fitted to the tandem, so we cycled on.

Soon we arrived at Ledbury, an attractive looking town which, like Newent, has an interesting tudor-style market hall elevated on wooden stilts above street level. We carried on towards the first of today's three main climbs, one of 400 feet and two of 600 feet. The climbing was relatively gentle, however, and the scenery growing progressively more beautiful as we headed towards Worcestershire. Soon we reached Bromyard, and as we paused for a drink at the side of the road we spotted a gentleman decorating the outside of his house. We asked him how far it was to Tenbury Wells. "Dunno", he replied in a strong local accent, "I don't think I've ever been there!" For the record, it's 11 miles!

We topped the final main climb of the day between Bromyard and Tenbury Wells before descending into the latter, trying to look nonchalant and cycle quickly in case Clive spotted us en-route to the Pembroke House pub, our designated lunchtime stop. In fact he pulled into the pub car-park just as we arrived. He took a couple of pictures of us with our trusty steed. "Great", we said thirstily, eyeing the beer garden. It was not (yet) to be, Clive had been spotted by a group of people engaged in some sort of reunion. Noting his evident prowess with a camera they asked him to take pictures of them, thrusting camera after camera into his hands as we watched, parched, from the beer garden! We understand his services are now available for weddings and bar-mitzvahs...

It was great to see him after what had been quite a while, and the conversation meandered pleasantly, assisted (in the case of the Captain) by some excellent local beer. We ate well (thanks CT!) and enjoyed the sun-bathed beer garden. All too soon it was time to leave, cycling as swiftly as we could manage while Clive videoed us from the bridge.

We left Tenbury Wells on Clee Hill. When we noted how steep it was we laughed as we gleefully turned left after a few yards ... onto another hill of equal steepness. Still, the afternoon's cycling was idyllic - rolling green pastures to either side of the road, and warm sunshine. Aware that we only had a few miles to go, we backed off, pedalling lazily, determined to enjoy the lovely conditions and fantastic views.

Even at a slow speed, though, we soon arrived at Ludlow, a very attractive town, where the Tourist Information office succeeded in finding us some accommodation right in the centre of town. Better still, we're staying in a self-catering apartment with several rooms. This means that we can establish a buffer zone between ourselves and our cycling shoes, a consideration becoming ever more important by the day!

Tomorrow we face the longest day of the whole trip: 72 miles, including two steep climbs at Wenlock Edge and Church Stretton. Steve and David (Jonathan's brother and nephew) plan to join us at Church Stretton for the rest of the day (looks like it should be mostly downhill), finishing at Chester.

Day 6: Bath to Newent

2008-05-28T18:32:00.005+01:00

Distance: 55.27 miles
Time: 5 hours 8 minutes
Average speed: 10.8 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 282.85 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 737.15 miles
Number of navigational errors in the first 5 miles: 427
Number of counties we've cycled in today: 3 (Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire)

We had a lovely evening with Emma and Rob, good food, good company, and a wonderfully efficient laundry service! Drink was taken, but in remarkably restrained quantities, with thoughts of big hills and early meetings today.

But what a performance getting out of Bath. We'd planned what we thought was a reasonably simple route out, including a short section on the canal towpath, but had to make sure we crossed the river at Batheaston. We missed a turn within only about a mile, then, when we found it, we agonised about whether to go down it, as it was marked "Unsuitable for motor vehicles", the rain was lashing down and it was a 25% descent. Several cars went down so we decided to give it a go, and it was fine.

We were soon onto the canal towpath, which is not our stoker's favourite. All you can see from the back is the hedge on one side, and canal water on the other - very scary. The towpath was really wet, with lots of puddles, and we had to walk for a hundred yards or so before the towpath opened out sufficiently to ride. We had to keep ducking under overhanging branches heavy with rainwater - if you missed one you got an unexpected shower of cold water down the back of the neck... We had a bit of trouble finding the point at which to leave the towpath, partly because Gary the Garmin is set up to follow roads and doesn't like towpaths very much, but we located the tollbridge eventually and rode across - bikes are free!

Then we made our big navigational error - turning off the B-road too early (twice, in fact), and heading up the day's big climb on completely the wrong road. Now we weren't really sure where we were, and it was still raining really hard. The Garmin's display shows a little dotted line which represents your route so far, and we could see we were roughly parallel with the road we should have been on, so we pushed on up the climb.

The road wound up through a forest, culminating in a really steep section joining another road, which almost had our dotted line meeting our original planned route. With no signs in either direction, we had to guess, and almost immediately our choice felt wrong. We'd been going for over an hour and a half by now, and had done barely 7 miles. When we turned and tried the other direction, though, it quickly took us to a more major road, our dotted line converged with the purple 'route' line, and suddenly morale lifted and we were back on track. We had also completed the big climb, and we amused ourselves for a while by making up implausible back stories for thè spooky secret 'prohibited area' behind barbed wire alongside the road.

Things really improved after that, we stayed high and flat and ate up some miles, and it even stopped raining. We started to pass through little Cotswold villages, with houses made of honey-coloured oolitic limestone (our geological correspondent explains), and we stopped briefly in the village of Sopworth to share an oat bar and drink some water.

We piled on towards Stroud, and enjoyed a long gently gliding descent for several miles, through Nailsworth and almost all the way to Stroud. Now we were making really good time, and managed to get to Stonehouse, north of the slightly complex navigation around Stroud, for lunch at the Woolpack.

We were just 9 miles short of Gloucester now, our original target for today, but it was only 2:30, and we both felt we had a few more miles in our legs, so we decided to push on, and do some of tomorrow's miles early. We have a lunch date tomorrow in Tenbury Wells with an old friend, so pushing on today also means we can spend more time tomorrow enjoying lunch and catching up!

Navigating around Gloucester was a little tricky, but we were soon heading out on the Newent road, and arrived in Newent village ready to stop and find somewhere to stay. The George looked the most likely, and once they'd assured us that the "Disco tonight" sign was just left over from the weekend it was a done deal.

So it'll be a shorter day tomorrow, barely 40 miles to Ludlow, and only around 10 of those left after lunch. That's good, as the following day will be a long one, over 70 miles, which is further than we've done in a day before.

Day 5: Taunton to Bath

2008-05-27T17:57:00.004+01:00

Distance: 49.45 miles
Time: 4 hours 22 minutes
Average speed: 11.3 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 227.58 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 792.42 miles
Number of times we ever want to visit Taunton again: 0
Unsolicited donations from the lovely people at the Slab Inn: £10

Not the most interesting of evenings in Taunton, sadly, as our neighbourhood consisted of the Premier Travel Inn and the accompanying "Chef and Brewer" pub. We ate there - it was as close to a factory as to a restaurant, we were surprised not to find Soylent Green on the menu. There then followed an intermittent night's sleep, as the traffic noise was considerable.

So all things considered we were glad to get away this morning, although we were only just leaving when we were overtaken by a white stretch limousine, the window of which wound down. An arm emerged, clutching an alco-pop bottle, and there was a chorus of cheers. All this before 10 a.m!

At last we popped out onto the Somerset Levels, like a cork from a champagne bottle, freed at last from the Devonian hills. Very flat, Somerset, and all the better for it. Gary the Garmin GPS mucked up our route out of Taunton, and we ended up cycling on A-roads for the first ten miles or so towards Othery. We didn't mind too much, as we were achieving an average speed as yet undreamt of on this trip, and the road took us past Barrow Mound, an interesting ruin on top of a small hill, visible from a long way off in this flat terrain. By-passing Glastonbury we took a series of minor roads through the peaty levels, with distant views of Glastonbury Tor. A fully laden tandem passed us going in the opposite direction - we were going too quickly to stop, sadly, perhaps they were doing John o'Groats to Lands End - if so they were nearing the end of their journey.

Near Henton we turned onto the Wookey road which was to bring us through a series of attractive villages to Wells, a most attractive city. Here we faced a dilemma - the delights of Wells were awaiting us but we'd made such good time that we fancied getting the climb to the top of the Mendips out of the way before lunch. So climb we did, rapidly gaining 800 feet from the sea-level Somerset flats. A local advised us to head to the Slab House Inn, near the summit of the climb, for our lunch, and very good it was too, washed down with a couple of glasses of something local. Strange name - the menu explained that during the time of the Black Death, farmers and traders would leave food, drink and other produce on a large slab outside the Inn for locals to come and collect. A friendly family at the neighbouring table donated a tenner on seeing our shirts - we're really glad we went to the trouble of having them printed now.

A long morning meant that we only had 18 miles remaining to Emma and Rob's house in Bath, the first major milestone in our journey. The steady descent from the top of the Mendips towards Radstock was easy and enjoyable. Near Clandown we spotted a jet-wash where some friendly Eastern Europeans helped us to restore the tandem to something approaching cleanliness, and refused to accept payment.

Finally we turned off onto lovely narrow lanes near Carlingcott, and tackled a couple of short but punishing climbs through Englishcombe to Bath. Here we intend to restore all our clothing to sweet-smelling loveliness before a relatively short day tomorrow to Gloucester. This will be our first day travelling due north. Progress!

Day 4: Okehampton to Taunton

2008-05-26T18:53:00.004+01:00

Distance: 53.44 miles
Time: 5 hours 10 minutes
Average speed: 10.3 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 178.13 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 841.87 miles
Number of county boundaries crossed: 1
Unsolicited donations from the lovely people of Bradninch: £15

We had a chaotic, but very good curry last night in Okehampton, having decided that the White Hart was just too noisy - for some reason it was full of blokes celebrating and/or mourning Leeds losing their football play-off final against Doncaster. They were obviously locals, judging by their accents, so quite why they would care so much either way was a bit of a mystery. So a curry it was, chaotic because they were busy and understaffed, but very good all the same, especially the butter chicken.

We didn't wake until the alarm at 8 again this morning, and after a quick breakfast and a little on-going tandem TLC we set out into the drizzle. There was a very strong headwind (grrrr), and an early leg-stretching hill to contend with, but the rain was not as bad as we'd feared, and we were soon into little green lanes. It seems to be a feature of the lanes around here that they are bordered by really high green hedges, at least 8 feet high, which gives you the feeling of cycling through a maze. It can really help to shelter you from the wind, though, which is good.

We'd heard and read many warnings about the hills around Crediton, and so we decided to gird our loins with a cup of coffee there before heading out. It also gave us a chance to dry out after the sudden two-minute torrential downpour which arrived as we coasted down into the village.

The hills didn't really live up to their fearsome reputations, and we enjoyed cycling through the green lanes, popping out every so often into little villages with thatched houses. We arrived in Bradninch at around 1:30, and the White Lion was still serving food, so we parked up and went in. What an amazing place. It was quite small, and there were six or seven locals in, chatting with the landlord. In some pubs like that you could expect to be treated very much as an outsider, but everyone was so friendly and interested in how we came to be passing through their village, and completely without any prompting we were given donations and helpful advice for the next part of our route. Really lovely people.

After Bradninch it was up a more fearsome hill, although still not as bad as we'd expected, through Cullompton and a good flat section, then over the M5 for the first time, and back into little lanes until we recrossed the M5, and rode into Somerset. It was raining quite hard now, and we decided to cut our losses and take the A38 into Taunton for speed, and since all the traffic would be on the M5. It was a good call - we sped into Taunton at a good clip, earlier than expected, and started looking for somewhere to stay.

Taunton - what an odd place. Maybe we didn't find the centre, it was difficult, as the place seems to be constructed almost entirely of roundabouts. Eventually we stopped to ask in a petrol station, where it seemed as if we were the first people ever to try to stay in Taunton! Very helpful people though, and we are now settled into a Premier Travel Inn - probably the first time they've stored a tandem in the laundry room...

So we survived Devon and Cornwall, and we are pretty much on the Somerset Levels now. Mmm - level - what a lovely word that is! We're heading for Bath tomorrow, with just the small matter of the Mendips between here and there.

Day 3: Wadebridge to Okehampton

2008-05-25T19:13:00.002+01:00

Distance: 51.18 miles
Time: 5 hours 5 minutes
Average speed: 10 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 124.69 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 895.31 miles
Number of county boundaries crossed: 1

"a lovely room at the Swan"... As we sat in the bar enjoying a pre-dinner drink, in rolled the live act for the evening, with roadies bringing in enough huge speakers to play for a festival, let alone a small inn. "Oh dear" we thought, or something similar, as we headed off to the Glasshouse for a pizza. The waitress at the Glasshouse directed us to the one square metre in Wadebridge with a mobile signal so we could check mail and upload yesterday's entry, and then we had a good meal before returning to the Swan. In the bar the Ded Heds (for it was they) were just about to start their first set, but we discovered we could barely hear their Nirvana-light sound from our second floor room, so that was all right.

We slept really well after the days exertions, and after a good breakfast and an interesting chat with a couple from Brisbane, we were ready for the off. The forecast for today had been rain, but clearing north later, and that's pretty much what we got, leaving in our rain jackets in a light drizzle.

Wadebridge is really well set up for cyclists, with lots of cycle lanes, and we headed out towards Okehampton in our own lane up the hill. Today's ride had looked quite daunting, starting with 1000 feet of climbing, but actually it was spread over 20 miles, so not too taxing, and with a few coasting downhill sections to rest the legs (and bums). There was just nobody around, no other cyclists facing the weather, and we spotted just one pair of soggy walkers .

Soon enough we crested 1000 feet and started the long descent into Launceston, where we had an excellent lunch, and received lots of encouragement from the locals at the White Horse. We had been congratulating ourselves on making such good time to Launceston, and after lunch we climbed back out and almost immediately crossed the county boundary into Devon. Devon wasn't going to welcome us quite as lightly as Cornwall had let us go, though, and threw a succession of sharp hills at us, culminating in a 'hill and a half' out of Bratton Clovelly. We were cycling in beautiful little green lanes in the sunshine now, though, with great views of the much lusher inland Devon hills. The hedgerows are different since we left Cornwall and the coast, too - there they were full of gorse, sedums and bluebells, here they are extraordinarily green, with lots of flowering cow-parsley.

At last Okehampton was in sight, and after a few last 'take that!' dips and climbs we arrived in the town centre and found the White Hart, which had been recommended by the Australian couple we talked to at breakfast. The man who checked us in reckoned we were completely mad, but put us in the special four-poster room as a treat. Haven't checked yet whether there's a band on tonight though...

Tomorrow we face a few more sharp climbs, we're told, on our way to Taunton. We're hoping that the dreadful weather forecast is wrong...

Day 2: St Ives to Wadebridge

2008-05-24T19:52:00.003+01:00

Distance: 53.51 miles
Time: 5 hours 5 minutes
Average speed: 10.3 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 73.51 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 946.49 miles
Number of cheery waves and supportive toots: 15 (approx)
Number of times Jonathan had to shout 'OI' at inconsiderate motorists: 2

St Ives was a pleasant surprise - elegant and well-kept, not at all the tacky sea-side resort we'd been expecting. We stayed at the St Eia Hotel, whose proprietor made a generous donation to the Macmillan fund. A pre-dinner drink in the evening sunshine at the harbour was quaffed hastily as we left to avoid the occupants of a neighbouring table, whose collective aim seemed to be to get steaming drunk in a new world record time, bizarrely with the elderly parents of one of them in tow. The elderly parents were NOT joining in the record attempt, we felt very sorry for them. We ate a good meal at the Ocean Grill before walking back around the harbour and up to the hotel.

After breakfast this morning we set off up the gentle hill out of St Ives, perhaps the only hill deserving of that description today! Unfortunately the wind was blowing in precisely the wrong direction, slowing us down all day. So much for the prevailing south-westerly... We cycled on main roads through Hayle, before turning off onto the coast road towards St Agnes. We soon encountered our first fellow 'End-to-Enders', two blokes cycling fully laden with camping equipment and multiple panniers, and looking somewhat less than cheerful, it would have to be said. One was wearing an 'Ardbeg' T-shirt, though sadly carrying none.

We encountered the first of several steep 'down-and-ups' at Gwithian, which set a pattern for the day. The decision to take the quieter coast road inevitably meant that we encountered a steep valley each time we crossed a river or stream. This meant a lovely glide down to a seaside village, admiring the golden sands on the beach and feeling envious of the people bathing in the sea, then noticing the road on the other side heading back up at a steep gradient. After thirty or so miles we headed up a particularly steep hill near Cubert and, feeling in need of food and refreshment, fortunately happened upon the Smuggler's Den pub, virtually at the top of the hill. Lunch was declared and enjoyed, with the exception that the chef seemed unable to distinguish between the terms 'char-grill' and 'nuke-in-microwave-until-tough'. Still, the beer was good, and soon we were refuelled and set off towards Newquay.

If St Ives was a pleasant surprise then Newquay was the opposite. The roads were filled with what one could only term 'clarksons' - petrol-heads and boy-racers in under-silenced chav-racers. We did our bit by setting off the speed warning screen coming down the hill at just over the 30mph limit, which made us grin! It was a relief to get through the town and turn off on the Padstow road. There then followed a series of steep valleys, sapping what energy we had left as we passed through Watergate Bay and Mawgan Porth. We were fairly tired by this point but knew that once we arrived at Padstow we could join the Camel Trail for six final gloriously flat miles to Wadebridge, our destination for the day.

There were lots of walkers and cyclists on the Camel Trail, and we stopped about halfway along for the last bottle of water, and to enjoy the view down the Camel estuary. We heard "Not far to go then!" in a familiar accent, and had a good chat with a couple from Wakefield who'd read our ultimate destination on our shirts. We arrived in Wadebridge at 4:30 to discover that the Tourist Information Centre shuts at 4 on a Saturday (of course, because there won't be any tourists on a Saturday...), but fortunately we'd come armed with some addresses of possible places to stay, so we were soon settled into a lovely room at the Swan Hotel.

Definitely a tough day, although we knew that the first few days would be hard - it is likely to remain hilly until we reach the Somerset Levels. Our target tomorrow is Okehampton, a slightly shorter day but with some substantial climbs.

Day 1: Penzance - Lands End - St Ives

2008-05-23T18:22:00.004+01:00

Distance: 30.03 miles
Time: 2 hours 38 minutes
Average speed: 11.4 m.p.h.
Distance from Lands End: 20 miles
Distance to John o'Groats: 1000 miles

After what seemed to be a very long train journey from Bath we arrived in Penzance at 1.15 feeling slightly nervous. It had been fairly cloudy on the way down but when we stepped out of the train we realised it was warmer than it looked.

We donned our cycle-wear (shirts kindly designed for us by Roger Pugh) and headed to the Cornwall Cycle Centre, where the tandem was waiting for us, freshly serviced and ready to go. As we walked up to the shop we were accosted by two men from a support team for another group of cyclists starting LEJoG today. "Ah", they said, "you must be the tandem". Spooky! With an exchange of "Good luck" and "See you on the road", we set off up the hill out of Penzance. We had ten miles to complete before the start of the journey 'proper', to Sennen and then Lands End. There were a few small hills to climb but the journey was swift and enjoyable; the tandem running very smoothly and the scenery getting progressively more impressive as we neared the end of the peninsula.

We'd been warned about Lands End, and indeed there was a general air of tackiness about the complex, which thankfully diminished after we cycled past a mocked-up Tardis (why?!) to the famous signpost. We had our picture taken, then set off back up the road, cheered off from the 'Start' line by a friendly group of hikers. A few friendly toots on car horns sent us on our way, and soon we turned left off the A30 onto the road to St Just. This was a lovely, rolling, scenic road, goats to the left, Belted Galloway (we think) cows to the right. The traffic was light and the hills relatively gentle - a perfect warm-up for the journey to follow. We passed a tin mine at Geevor, operating for the benefit of tourists, and lots of ruins with chimneys, which were presumably something to do with Cornish tin mining. Soon we passed Zennor (where D.H. Lawrence lived with Frieda von Richthofen for a while) and climbed the final hill of the day before a rapid descent into St Ives. We were just in time for the tourist information centre and found accommodation fairly easily.

So, a good start, warm weather and quiet roads - just what we needed. Tomorrow we travel via Padstow to Wadebridge.

Of PTT (pre-tandem tension) and other matters

2008-05-15T14:34:00.003+01:00

Only a week to go now until we catch the train down to the South West. We're both a little nervous but also very much looking forward to the challenge ahead. So this week we're not spending quite so much time on the tandem. Instead we're spending a great deal of time working out the absolute minimum quantity of items we absolutely must carry in our panniers. Style is being sacrificed to function, so glamorous evening wear is out. Some might say that's our usual style anyway, but that's neither here nor there.

The route is finalised, and if you have Google Earth you can click here to see it. If you don't have Google Earth, here goes:

Land's End, St Ives, Padstow, Wadebridge, Launceston, Okehampton, Crediton, Taunton, Wells, Radstock, Bath, Nailsworth, Gloucester, Ledbury, Bromyard, Tenbury Wells, Ludlow, Church Stretton, Shrewsbury, Ellesmere, Chester, Frodsham, Widnes, Whiston, Appley Bridge, Bispham Green, Eccleston, Preston, Garstang, Lancaster, Windermere, Grasmere, Keswick, Mungrisdale, Hesket Newmarket, Carlisle, Longtown, Gretna, Annan, Dumfries, Moniaive, Carsphairn, Dalmellington, Patna, Tarbolton, Stewarton, Barrhead, Glasgow, Balloch, Ardlui, Crianlarich, Tyndrum, Bridge of Orchy, Ballachulish, Fort William, Fort Augustus, Drumnadrochit, Muir of Ord, Dingwall, Tain, Dornoch, Brora, Helmsdale, Reay, Thurso, Dunnet Head, John o'Groats.

Sounds a long way when you put it like that! So this week we're watching the Giro d'Italia for inspiration, refining our packing list and covering the last few training miles before our tandem is shipped to Penzance. We'll be following on the train, and plan to start on May 23rd. Fortunately the weather has at last improved, and our recent outings have reminded us just how enjoyable cycling in the sunshine can be.

Finally, a big thank you to all those who have sponsored us at JustGiving. We're fast approaching our initial target, which is tremendously motivating. We will try to update this blog every evening during our trip, so watch this space...

Buttertubs or bust...

2008-04-27T17:09:00.003+01:00

Skyreholme-Buckden-Kidstones-Aysgarth-Buttertubs-Thwaite-Kirkby Stephen-Garsdale-Hawes-Oughtershaw-Kettlewell-Skyreholme. 99.1 miles.

Click here for a map of the route.

Only four weeks to go now until we set off, so this is possibly our last chance for a two-day training trip. So, intending to make it a good test of our training so far, we have planned a ride involving four major climbs - Kidstones Pass (1437ft), the Buttertubs Pass (1767ft), Birkdale Common (1738ft) and Fleet Moss (1966ft), with a night in Kirkby Stephen.

We reckoned on the 9th February that spring had sprung. A touch optimistic maybe. Or perhaps the @~&%*!@ headwind that greets us today is unseasonal. Or maybe our slow speed is caused by the fact we are carrying the panniers, with everything we need for the overnight stay, and a copy of the Guardian. The weekend Guardian is VERY heavy.

Despite these handicaps we head off for Kettlewell and then Buckden, feeling strong and trying to ignore the head-wind blasting down the valley. It's a relief to turn right at Buckden away from the wind, even if it is the start of the first major climb, Kidstones pass. Actually we've done this one several times now, and it isn't too bad, not very steep, and there are a few waterfalls to see. Today we even manage to keep going past the pub and the tea-room, and head straight up the climb. We're a bit early for coffee in the pub in any case, as we've left home in good time in order to get two of the day's three climbs in before stopping for lunch. We stop at the top for an energy bar, and see several identically-clothed people milling about on the top, including one lying in a hollow on a mat, reading a book. When we see the dog in a day-glo jacket, we reckon this must be the fell rescue association on a training exercise, but they are too far away to ask.

The glorious compensation for the tough climb is the glide down Bishopdale. The view is magnificent, the gradient consistently downhill and the roads are quiet. Carrying the panniers gives us even more momentum than usual on downhill stretches, and we get several 'free' hills, where we actually coast up-hill at speed, grinning stupidly.

As we turn into Wensleydale, making Thwaite for lunch is looking promising. Of course, on turning west we're now facing the wind again, and the steady climb up Wensleydale, through Aysgarth, Carperby and Askrigg, seems to take forever. We ran out of steam a little on the way back from an Italian lesson last week, and after a bit of research we decided it might be hydration-related. So, now conscious of the need to keep our electrolytes up (!), we've filled our bidons today with noxious goo, a commercial preparation consisting largely of sugar and salt, with a none-too-delicious tropical flavour. While this does the trick in nutritional terms, the flavour is cloying and unpleasant, and not at all refreshing. For this reason, and for this reason only, we will have to drink plenty of beer at lunchtime to get rid of the nasty taste. Anyway, lunch is still a climb away, and we set off from Simonstone up the Buttertubs pass. A couple of cyclists are coming down the pass, wearing their 'summit faces' - an expression it's impossible not to wear as you descend past cyclists coming up the other way, knowing that you've done your climbing, and theirs is yet to come. It's hopefully more sympathetic than smug!

The pass is initially steep, with one very steep section of at least 17%, where it takes all our power to get up the incline. After that, though, the gradient slackens off, and provides an opportunity to enjoy the fine view of Great Shunner Fell to the left. We've acquired a cycle-friendly GPS now, and Clare calls off the altitude with some enthusiasm as we reach the top. We stop at the Buttertubs for just a quick look, we've seen them many times before, then it's a short steep descent to Thwaite where, with grateful buttocks (can we say that?) we dismount at the Kearton tea shop, which just happens to be licensed.

An hour later we're re-fortified for the final climb of the day, and it's a good job we are, as it has started to rain and the cloud is lowering over Birkdale Common. Swaledale, even in inclement weather, is one of the loveliest places in the National Park, sadly the scenery becomes rather more bleak once we climb past Keld and the turn-off to the Tan Hill Inn (the highest pub in England, but sadly not on our itinerary today). We should be able to see Nine Standards Rigg off to our right, but the weather has closed in and we're getting pretty wet. We get up to around 1500ft fairly quickly, then we seem to be weaving along a plateau for ages, not really able to make out where the road goes in the mist, and hoping against hope that it's not really going to be 1700ft. A moment of horror at one point, as we spot what we think is our road, winding steeply up again from a point a good 400ft below us. Losing hard-won altitude only to have to earn it again is dispiriting, but fortunately as we get closer it becomes obvious it's just a farm track, and we stay high. At last, we reach 1700 feet and the summit at Lamps Moss. The roads are damp and slippery now, so our descent to Nateby is cautious, then we turn right to Kirkby Stephen, our destination for the night.

It has been a tough day but we both feel tremendously satisfied that we've managed to trundle the tandem over all those big hills.

We stay at the Jolly Farmer in Kirkby Stephen, where we stayed previously when attempting the Coast to Coast walk. A hot bath soothes the aching muscles and revives us, then we pop down to the lounge for tea and scones. The lounge is, strangely, occupied by cow-girls, amongst others. There's some kind of party happening in the wild streets of Kirkby Stephen, and for the rest of the evening we spot cow-girls everywhere. For us, though, it's chinese food (do cow-girls have to eat baked beans?) and then an early night, for tomorrow we face our biggest climb.

Cycling down Bishopdale

A glance out of the window in the morning tells us all we need to know, it's raining, though thankfully the wind seems to have dropped. The guest house is full of hikers on early-season Coast to Coast treks,we generously fail to mention how boggy it is likely to be on Nine Standards Rigg, their next destination. After an excellent breakfast, and a short interval to allow for digestion, we hop back on the tandem. Or maybe we don't quite so much hop, as gingerly ease ourselves onto the saddles. We set off for Nateby, and then head straight up the upper Eden valley, following part of the Cumbria Cycle Way. It's an enjoyable section, despite the weather, and a steady climb to about 1200 feet before we descend to join Wensleydale.

Perhaps its residents wouldn't agree, but Wensleydale isn't the prettiest of the Dales. It's so wide, it seems a little featureless, certainly lacking the charm of Wharfedale and Littondale. Cracking cheese, though, obviously, not least at the 'Wallace and Gromit'-heavy Wensleydale Creamery, and we grab the chance for a caffe latte. We're a little nervous today, as we've got to tackle Fleet Moss, a fairly notorious climb, so it's a good opportunity for a rest and a slice of chocolate fudge cake. It's a busy spot, and we have to squeeze past the coach parties to get back to the tandem. We set off up Sleddale, and within a mile or so we can see what we've been nervous about - the climb is steady and we're going well, but we can see that it ends in a very steep 25% section just before the summit.

Oh, the ignominy. We run out of power, yards before the top of the first really steep section. Only a few more yards and we would have reached a flatter 'shelf', but we just can't make it. It's a blow to our pride, as we don't like stopping, and the hill is so steep that we can't get going again - the front wheel of the tandem is lifting, even when we angle across the slope of the road. We're forced to push the tandem for twenty yards before we can get going again. We manage the second steep section without stopping, thankfully, and thereafter the gradient diminishes, although there's a further 200 feet of climbing to the summit at over 1950 feet.

Slightly disappointed, but glad to have got it over with, we cycle down into Langstrothdale. The scenery here is wonderful, where the infant Wharfe has carved amazing patterns into the bedrock, and we pass Oughtershaw, Beckermonds and Yockenthwaite before returning to familiar roads at Hubberholme. Back in Wharfedale the weather has improved, although the roads are still very wet. We're quite tired now, and ready for a lunch stop, so the Fox and Hounds at Starbotton is a welcome sight. Very welcome, in fact, as Jonathan quickly spots that the beer is Timothy Taylor's Landlord, a particular favourite. It possesses qualities which seem to fortify his tired limbs (magic beer!) and we set off strongly for home on familiar lanes, away from the traffic until Grassington. We're soon home and, postponing the bike-cleaning for another day, indulge in the familiar weekend pleasures of a well-earned hot bath and the Sunday papers.

Apart from the slight disappointment of having to stop on Fleet Moss it has been a good trip and a rigorous workout. Nothing on the Land's End to John o'Groats route comes close to the amount of climbing we've done in each of these two days. We know, because we checked as soon as we arrived home!

The North Wind Doth Blow....

2008-04-06T17:55:00.004+01:00

...and we shall have snow!

Skyreholme-Hebden-Cray-Hebden-Skyreholme

Click here for a map of the route.

Blithely ignoring the forecasts of sleet showers (and worse) we set off with Simon and Dianne for Cray. Or at least we eventually set off, after Simon assists in sorting out various transmission-related tandem problems. On waking up this morning the hills were white, but the roads clear, so in optimistic mood we head for Hartlington and then up the hill towards Hebden, where the chain promptly breaks. No problem, of course, as we're cycling with Simon, who is also known as Bicycle Repair Man (as in "Thank God you're here, Bicycle Repair Man"). This minor mishap doesn't hold us up for long, and we head up to Grassington and the road through Grass Wood. We've been plagued by head-winds recently, and today is no exception, but we make reasonable headway to Conistone, Kettlewell, Buckden and then up the hill to Cray.

Cray is a small hamlet on the road up to Kidstones, and we never normally stop there as it is less than halfway up the hill over to Bishopdale. Today, though, it is our lunchtime destination, and, leaving the tandems in the helpfully supplied racks, we head into the White Lion. No sooner have we grabbed our first round of Timothy Taylor's Landlord and Copper Dragon than the snow starts to fall outside. It continues to snow while we eat our lunch, and we decide that further alcoholic fortification is required before the return journey. Eventually we can't put it off any longer, and head outside, to see the view shown above. The first mile or two is steadily downhill, and Simon and Dianne hit 40mph down the hill - we're cycling a little more cautiously as the snow is getting in our eyes!

The wind is behind us now, and we head back through Kettlewell to Conistone. Just before we arrive in Conistone we overtake a group of walkers. Shortly afterwards, they overtake us as we stop to repair a puncture on Simon and Dianne's tandem. They claim to have lapped us, but it doesn't count!

Thereafter it is a steady trip back to Skyreholme, faster than our outward journey because of the tail-wind. We're a little damp but it has been a great day out. Since October we've now cycled nearly 1500 miles on the tandem, we're aiming for 100 miles a week now in the seven weeks remaining before we set off for Land's End.

Is it spring yet? More tales of headwinds.

2008-03-28T17:08:00.000Z

Middlethorpe-Tadcaster-Collingham-Harewood-Otley-Ilkley-Skyreholme. 50 miles.

Click here for a map of the route.

It was an excellent stay at Middlethorpe Hall, very cycle-friendly with locked storage for the bike and not even a hair turned at our lycra-clad arrival. Our courtyard room was lovely, and we had an excellent meal in the dining room. It's a William III house, once turned into a night-club but now restored to its former glory. It's quite close to the A64 (and to York Racecourse), but we couldn't hear any road noise from our room or from the dining room.

We decided to come back on a different route, partly for variety, and partly to avoid having to come up the hill from Pateley Bridge, to be honest. It started on quiet flat roads, with a nasty headwind and a little rain, but we remembered to shout 'Bum rest' at each other every so often (see yesterday....). We were soon at Tadcaster, where we joined the main Wetherby Road. Not a good choice - like so many A-roads it was very busy, which is fine if cars give you enough room, but there are always one or two who get closer than you'd like. Our planned LEJOG route avoids A-roads as far as possible, and the Wetherby Road reminded us why. The first rolling hills started to appear before we got to Boston Spa (humming Kaiser Chiefs' 'High Royds' to ourselves), and then it was a long steady climb up past East Keswick and down the other side to Harewood. It seemed to take ages to get to Otley, not helped by indecisive road signs (13 miles, no 10 miles, no 12....), but the sky had brightened considerably and a lunch stop at Ikley was now in sight.

It's a lovely quiet rolling ride from Otley to Ikley through Weston and Askwith, following the River Wharfe as we had done pretty much since leaving York. We'd made good time, and braved the Easter holiday hoardes at Pizza Express for lunch. After a quick provisioning stop at Tesco (and a chat with a lady who remembered her parents riding tandems for years and was delighted to see that it was still popular), we rode past the golf club, down through Nesfield and on to Bolton Abbey. After a slight knee-twang at East Keswick, the power from the stoker at the back was a little diminished, but we made it up through the Strid and on home.

On this trip, we'd hardly felt the weight of the panniers, although we were only carrying overnight gear, and we'd made very good time. Perhaps it's not so bad after all, this flat terrain. Not much of it on the Land's End to John o'Groats route though...!

Very flat, the Vale of York...

2008-03-27T17:07:00.000Z

Skyreholme-Pateley Bridge-Knaresborough-Middlethorpe. 46 miles.

Click here for a map of the route.

A two day trip this time, practising navigating and carrying the weight of gear in the panniers, and a good excuse for a night away. We'd booked ourselves into Middlethorpe Hall just outside York for the night, just over 45 miles. It's a tough start in that direction, straight up almost immediately to Stump Cross and Greenhow on a long steady climb to around 1300 feet. We knew that once we'd done that, though, any serious climbing was over for the day. The hill down to Pateley Bridge is pretty steep (and there are temporary traffic lights half-way down at the moment, which might catch you unawares), and it's always difficult negotiating parked cars and pedestrians straying into the road as you ride up the high street. After Pateley Bridge it was a little up and down to Knaresborough, and we thought of stopping for lunch, since we were about to head into little back roads with no guarantee of somewhere to eat. It was only 12:45, though, so we decided to push on, heading for Little Ribston. Four fast miles later and we were there, but no pub. Another three miles on to Cowthorpe, no pub there either.

Finally, at Tockwith, a pub! It had been such a fast ten miles, though, that it was only 1:30, and we marvelled at how you can eat up the distance on such flat terrain. We had lunch at the Speckled Ox, a very friendly welcome and good food, then headed on past a couple of fields full of very free range pigs and frisky piglets. The last ten miles to Middlethorpe Hall were lovely, all on tiny quiet back roads through farmed land, past the incredibly picturesque open prison at Askham Richard and the agricultural college at Askham Bryan, and all completely flat.

The trouble with completely flat terrain like the Vale of York, though, is that you don't get a chance to rest your bum. Solo cyclists often rise out of the saddle to pedal for a while (known as 'honking'!), and this gives the bum a rest, reducing the possibility of saddle-soreness. Most couples don't tend to honk on a tandem, because unless you're very experienced it's difficult - you both have to stand up, and you have to do it at the same time, otherwise it's quite possible that you're going to fall off. We haven't even tried it - too scary yet. We can do standing up to rest the bum, though, and usually this is done after you've crested a rise, while you're coasting down the other side. When the terrain is completely flat, though, the tendency is just to keep pedalling, until you suddenly realise you can't feel your buttocks, and then when you do stand up it's like putting very cold hands into hot water and feeling them come back to life.

Romantic stuff this tandem-riding...

Una bella giornata!

2008-03-18T17:04:00.000Z

Skyreholme-Halton Gill-Horton-in-Ribblesdale-Halton Gill-Skyreholme 59 miles.

Click here for a map of the route.

An early start today, to ride to Horton-in-Ribblesdale for an Italian lesson. We've been going for years, and at sixty miles for the round-trip it's now a good training ride for LEJOG, around the distance we are aiming to ride each day. With a few cheery waves from neighbours seeing their kids onto the school bus (okay, so not that early really), we were off. We followed the same route as our weekend ride ten days ago, up the valley towards Kettlewell, but turning off to Litton. This time we made the corner up over the cattlegrid in the right gear, and the sheep were clearly impressed.

It's a nice run up Littondale, you feel you're making good progress even though it's a gentle climb all the while. There's a village every couple of miles to mark the way, but it's almost impossible to keep your eyes off that hill rising ominously up out of Halton Gill. It's not fantastically steep, but it's one of those hills that fools you into thinking you're nearly there, then reveals another summit, and another, and another, until you finally get to the top at nearly 1500ft. The views are incredible, though, and as you get higher and further along the valley, Pen-y-ghent appears. It's said to resemble a big sleeping lion, and if the cloud layer is not too low that's a good description. It's part of the Yorkshire Three Peaks walk, so there are pretty much always people up there.

At the Malham turn-off this time we continued on towards Stainforth, gliding down at a good speed, then braving the quarry lorries on the main road towards Horton-in-Ribblesdale. They were all pretty good, giving us a wide berth, but the slipstream behind them can be a little wild. In Horton-in-Ribblesdale we passed the cafe where Three Peak-ers have breakfast and register their walk, and then it was on to our Italian teacher's house, and three hours of conversation, exercises and tenses, and a delicious lunch to set us on our way.

We were much faster on the way home, and really enjoyed the section from Halton Gill to where the road joins the Kettlewell route. It's imperceptibly downhill, very flattering. We stopped at the Queen's Arms in Litton, thinking to have a coffee and get out of the saddle for a bit, and although it was ages after they'd actually closed and he was on his way out, the new landlord kindly made us a pot of coffee. The rest of the ride passed in a blur - all familiar roads, but it was encouraging that we got home in great time and feeling strong. We'd done sixty miles and two climbs of over a thousand feet, probably equivalent to a harder day on LEJOG. The training must be starting to pay off.

A sudden loss of power...

2008-03-08T17:00:00.000Z

Skyreholme-Halton Gill-Malham-Hetton-Skyreholme 46 miles

Click here for a map of the route.

Time to try the big hill over from Halton Gill to Malham. It's nearly a thousand feet of climbing, gently at first, but the last five hundred feet rise in about four miles, taking you up to some great views along the valley. It was raining slightly as we headed up through Burnsall, Threshfield, past the big caravan site at Long Ashes, and down towards the Tennants Arms at Kilnsey. That's the pub made famous by the Calendar Girls first calendar launch. At the turn-off for Litton where we 'wimped out' last time, we turned towards Halton Gill, forgetting quite how sharp the turn was, and in completely the wrong gear to get up over the cattlegrid. Despite the display of flailing incompetence we managed to stay on, make the corner and find a better gear. Good job there were only sheep to witness it.

There was still a light drizzle, and a bit of a headwind, but we made good progress up the valley until the heavens opened and the hail started. Even quite small beads of ice are really painful when they are fired at high speed at your face. It's not too bad for the stoker on the back who can shelter behind the captain, but if you're on the front it's difficult even to raise a hand to shield yourself. Passing the Queen's Arms at Litton we contemplated stopping for a coffee in the hope that the weather would pass, but even as we were dismounting the hail just stopped suddenly, and the sun came out. No excuse for coffee, then, and we couldn't put the hill off any longer.

It's a long-ish climb but not so steep, and there's plenty to look at as you wind slowly up. The moor in the middle section was teeming with plovers, and other birds we couldn't identify. The Pennine Way crosses the road at one point, but there were no hardy walkers in evidence. It was still quite windy over the top, so we couldn't quite coast on the downhill section towards the Malham turn-off. There was a steep drop-off on the Malham road, but we were out of the wind at last, which made the brief 20% uphill section the other side a bit easier. Then it was four miles of fairly undemanding road, with bits of limestone pavement starting to appear on either side, then the long sweeping road down past great views of Malham Cove, and finally into the village. We just made the pub in time for lunch - lucky we didn't stop in Litton.

It was after lunch it all went wrong - suddenly no power from the captain, and it was a slow trip home through Winterburn, Hetton, past the quarry and on through Burnsall. What was the problem? Bidons (water bottles in cyclist-ese) caked in road muck, and other nasty substances, and four days to recover from a stomach upset. We thought we'd been careful, but obviously not careful enough. We've ordered new bottles now, with covered mouthpieces.

The joys of wind(!)

2008-03-01T16:57:00.000Z

Skyreholme-Kettlewell-Buckden-Linton-Skyreholme. 25 miles

It's been incredibly windy, and at 9pm yesterday the power went off and didn't come back. We decided to bring our weekend ride forward, in the hope that the power would be back by the time we got home, but looking out of the back window the conifers opposite were nearly bent double... We fooled ourselves that it was just a bit breezy, but as we set off it was clear that the severe 'head-breeze' was going to cause problems. We'd intended to go up Littondale to Halton Gill, over the top and back via Malham, but as we struggled up the valley towards the Litton turn-off we were barely able to maintain an average speed of 10mph. As we passed through various villages with no power there was a chorus of burglar alarms, supposedly warning their clearly absent owners that the power was off. As if they wouldn't have noticed, were they there... Must be really annoying for all the neighbours who are at home.

We pushed on, feeling we needed the training miles, but it was horribly confidence-sapping - why are we so weak and slow today? It's easy to underestimate the power of a headwind, but you feel you ought to be able to do better, somehow. A solo cyclist passed us at some speed, cheerily yelling 'This wind's not very helpful!' whilst seeming completely unaffected by it. And he was wearing shorts.

At the turn-off for Litton, we would have been turning directly into the wind for at least five miles before the big hill, so we decided to postpone that climb for another day, and head on into Kettlewell and on to Buckden. After a reviving cup of tea at the Buck we turned for home, with the idea of lunch at the Fountaine at Linton. What a difference - with the wind behind us now we were suddenly invincible, bowling along in the gears on the big ring with our average speed rocketing upwards and confidence restored. Sailing back towards Linton there seemed to be lights on everywhere, and arriving at the pub they told us their power had come back on at midnight. After an excellent lunch ('Yorkshire' hot-pot!), we headed home, but as we got closer it was obvious there still wasn't any electricity. The only power was at the Craven Arms at Appletreewick, where a generator was chugging quietly.

No hot water at home for a bath, of course, so the only option was laboriously heating pans of water on the camping stove. And naturally, literally minutes after completing this tedious process, back came the power...

Spring has sprung, a little early...

2008-02-09T17:17:00.002Z

Skyreholme-Buckden-Bishopdale-Coverdale-Kettlewell-Skyreholme. 57 miles.

Click here for a map of the route.

At last, a dry, clear, sunny day... It has been a frustrating couple of weeks since the end of our 5-day "training ride", and the tandem had been restored (more or less) to cleanliness. So, to celebrate, a trip over into Wensleydale and back. As always, the first part of the ride is on familiar ground, the rolling hills through Appletreewick, Burnsall and Kilnsey towards Kettlewell, where the traffic virtually disappears. The quiet, narrow lane alongside the Wharfe brings us to Starbotton and Buckden where we have a quick halt for coffee, timed perfectly as within thirty seconds of stopping a phalanx of about thirty 'proper' cyclists heads past us up to Kidstones. You can tell they are serious cyclists, as they are chattering away loudly between themselves, whilst going at some pace uphill... The Buck Inn at Buckden (much improved recently under new ownership) provides coffee, tea and conversation, then we head up the first serious climb of the day, past Cray and up Kidstones Pass into Bishopdale.

It is so unusual (in our recent experience) to be cycling in dry weather that we can hardly believe our luck, and the initial climb is soon over, followed by an initially steep descent into Bishopdale. There then follows mile after mile of idyllic valley cycling, listening to the birds singing. The last time we cycled down here was between Christmas and New Year, when all of Bishopdale seemed to be under water. Today it is drier, although pools of water still lie in the adjacent fields. We arrive at West Burton and continue through towards Swinithwaite. There's an intriguing track from West Burton round to Melmerby, but we're not brave enough to try it as the O.S map indicates an unmetalled surface... Fine views of Castle Bolton guide us toward the main valley road, which is busy but not too bad. We contemplate turning right at West Witton, but the road is called "Witton Steeps"...

Just before Wensley we turn off onto the Yorkshire Dales Cycleway towards Coverdale. Jonathan did the Cycleway on his solo bike with some friends last summer, but claims to have suppressed the memory of the hill which greets us when we turn off the main road. It's a fair climb, but lunch is calling, and then there's the prospect of a more severe climb back over into Wharfedale. We eventually arrive at the Foresters Arms in Carlton, where a couple of pints of Daleside Blonde and and excellent light lunch provide fortification for the 23 remaining miles. Excellent service, too.

Inevitably we start somewhat slowly in the afternoon, but the initial stages of the climb up Coverdale are relatively gentle, through to Horsehouse and beyond. Then we cross over to the other side of the valley and the steeper section begins. By now there's a head-wind to contend with, and a short, sharp climb takes us up from the valley floor, before a much longer steep section brings us wearily to the watershed between the Wharfe and Ure. We rest briefly at the top, watching two remote-controlled aircraft wheeling around the upper slopes of Great Whernside in the clear blue sky. Then it's down to Park Rash, where two downhill sections of 25% gradient await us. By the time we get to the really steep corners the wheel rims and disc brake are worryingly hot to the touch, so we chicken out and walk for a couple of hundred yards. The descent to Kettlewell thereafter is relaxing and scenic, though.

From Kettlewell to home is a very familiar journey, on a little-frequented lane via Conistone to Grassington. The first spring lambs are tottering around in the fields between Kettlewell and Conistone, and although everything is still that 'winter' green colour rather than the lush green it will become in the summer, it really feels like spring has arrived today. At Conistone we stop for a drink of water, and are greeted by the ever-present dog who seems to be determined to welcome every visitor to this lovely hamlet. We continue down the valley to Grass Wood, where there alway seems to be a head-wind no matter which way the wind is blowing! The last six miles from Grassington to Skyreholme are a little hilly, but we know by now the exact amount of effort required to climb each hill, so it's not long before we're climbing up past the Craven Arms and New Inn into Appletreewick, then pedalling the last uphill half-mile to Skyreholme. We're quite weary as we arrive home, but it has been a gloriously sunny day, perfect for tandeming.

Winter Training Day 5 - Aldbrough St John to Skyreholme

2008-01-21T16:38:00.001Z

Aldbrough St John-Richmond-Masham-Kirby Malzeard-Pateley Bridge-Skyreholme. 44 miles.

Click here for a map of the route

Possibly our most miserable day’s cycling ever... It was raining hard as we left Aldbrough, and we had a gentle warm-up through Melsonby and up to the A66 before gliding down Gilling Bank and slogging through the first floods of the day up to Richmond. Snow started as we reached the outskirts of Richmond, and our already sodden feet started to get cold too. We cycled through Catterick (past the Gaza Barracks - can that really be right?) and on through the rain. As we slogged up one hill, a passenger in a white van was moved to wind down his window and shout "You’re mad, you are", which seemed pretty accurate, even to us.

The roads became progressively wetter, as all the accumulated rain of the last few days ran off the fields. At Masham we stopped for a coffee in a pub (too wet to notice which one), and adjusted all the brakes, which had once again worn down considerably in the wet conditions. We decided to try to push on for Pateley Bridge before lunch, and cycled on towards Kirkby Malzeard and up onto the moor. At one flood cars were turning back, but we decided we had no choice but to cycle through, and of course we were very wet already. Cycling through water doesn’t half slow you down, though, and watching the ‘bow wave’ from the stoker’s position was a little scary. With Jonathan shouting "Whatever you do, don’t stop pedalling!" we made it through without incident, but were thoroughly saturated from the knees down.

The road up over the moor is probably lovely on a clear day, but it seemed interminable in the rain, and by now a head-wind was also contributing to our misery. After what seemed like weeks we reached the top of the descent into Pateley Bridge. At 20% in places and very wet, it was far too steep to enjoy and we took it very slowly. We arrived at the Crown in Pateley Bridge to find a roaring fire (in front of which we arranged our gently steaming socks) and the incredulous locals marvelled at our foolhardiness. After an hour in the warm, and a good lunch, we were ready to tackle our final climb, the hill out of Pateley Bridge to Greenhow. We’ve driven up this hill so many times and knew it would be hard, with several sections at 16%, but we tackled it slowly and ground our way to the top, to be greeted by a freezing headwind. We passed Stump Cross Caverns (always very spectacular when it’s been raining, but the vision of a hot bath at home was drawing us on), and finally took the turn down and into Skyreholme and home.

So. The shiny new Landescape tandem was looking somewhat less than shiny now, but we’d made it, everything had held up well and our Ortlieb panniers had proved to be utterly waterproof in the most testing of conditions. We’re now planning for Land’s End to John O’Groats - surely it couldn’t be as wet as that in June. Could it?

Winter Training Day 4 - Hexham to Aldbrough St John

2008-01-20T16:37:00.001Z

Hexham-Blanchland-Stanhope-Barnard Castle-Aldbrough St John. 52 miles.

Click here for a map of the route.

A long hard climb out of Hexham started the day, through Slaley and up through a forest section where we heard our first cry of "She’s not pedalling on the back". It had taken over three days before someone shouted this, surely a record?! We climbed on to Blanchard, where the short 20% descent was too steep to coast freely. We picked up the pace in an enjoyable section alongside the Derwent reservoir, gaining a lot of height on a very gentle gradient with no great effort, and then turned south towards Edmundbyers. Six miles of slow climbing later we’d made it to the top at 1500ft. The descent into Stanhope was only slightly marred by the view of the long hill up the other side.
Our slow climbing meant it was already lunchtime, so we stopped in Stanhope for toasties, and a good tip from the landlord for avoiding the impassable Stanhope Ford without going miles out of our way. We set off up the climb, 17% at the bottom, but soon giving way to zig-zags at a more sustainable gradient. We suppressed smiles (alright, grimaces) as we passed an RAC van helping a lady whose car had given up on the hill. It was very bleak, we climbed past a well-hidden open-cast coal mine and as we reached the first summit the wind started to get up. There was a mile of descent after the first summit, but we could see the road going up again and disappearing over the ridge. After two more miles of climbing we made it over the top at 1700ft, and really enjoyed the long descent into Teesdale. It seemed to be downhill almost all the way to Barnard Castle, then easy cycling to Winston and finally to Aldbrough St John, where Jonathan’s sister put us up for the night.

Winter Training Day 3 - Armathwaite to Hexham

2008-01-19T16:36:00.001Z

Armathwaite-Castle Carrock-Brampton-Greenhead-Once Brewed-Wall-Hexham. 46 miles.

Click here for a map of the route.

The forecast had been for a clear day, and it was fantastic to be cycling in dry weather after the previous two days. We headed out of Armathwaite towards Castle Carrock and Brampton, enjoying the gently rolling roads and happy to be able see the scenery for a change. The buildings were different again from the Lakes, often a lovely rose-coloured limestone, and all the more attractive for being bathed in sunlight. Well, a bit of sunlight - after two days of rain we were ridiculously happy to be casting any kind of shadow. At Brampton we had a little trouble finding the road out towards Lanercost Priory, but a very helpful local man out with his dog walked with us though an alleyway which led directly to the road. The road to the Priory was quiet and pretty undemanding, and we made good time up to the first sighting of the ruins of Hadrian’s Wall. The road runs right alongside the Wall until Birdoswald, then you see the Wall continue ahead, dead straight of course, whilst you peel off left on the road.

After a long descent into Greenhead, greeting the cyclists coming up the other way, it was our turn to climb, a 14% section out of Greenhead and then a steady climb up on the Roman road. We headed for the pub at Once Brewed, with the Wall up on the ridge to our left, and a surprising number of walkers visible on the skyline. As you would expect, the Roman road is completely straight, so of course you can see exactly what pleasure or pain is coming your way. After lunch at the pub (the Twice Brewed, where lots of walkers stop on the Pennine Way), we were back on the road, and after only two bends in about fifteen miles we coasted down into Walwick and over the Tyne into Chollerford. We had planned to head up Brunton Bank to avoid the A-road, but when we got there it seemed silly to climb again when the A-road through Wall was quiet and flat. The (presumably SusTrans) cycle path alongside the A69 took us into Hexham, and the tourist information centre sorted out a room for us at Queensgate House. The owner told us she had been a tandem rider for forty years with her late husband, wearing out three tandems over the years! Pizza at the Quattro Mori restaurant rounded off a good day - no rain, and no need for the cycle lights today.

Winter Training Day 2 - Windermere to Armathwaite

2008-01-18T16:35:00.001Z

Windermere-Ambleside-Keswick-Bassenthwaite-Caldwell-Hesket Newmarket-Armathwaite. 56 miles.

Click here for a map of the route.

We started with four miles to Ambleside alongside the lake, then a visit to ‘Ghyllside’ bike shop to sort out the brakes. After such a wet first day we needed new blocks all round, but a bigger problem was the disc brake, which was not effective at all. The pads were now almost down to the metal - we really should have checked them before we left home, but we suspected that the wet conditions were at least partly to blame. The shop specialised in tandems, so we swapped stories with the owner whilst he sorted everything out, and we were soon on our way past Rydal Water and Grasmere. It was a long but steady climb up Dunmail Raise towards Thirlmere, and in better weather it would have been lovely to take the more scenic road around the west side of the lake. Feeling damp and a little behind schedule though, we pushed on on the A591 to Keswick.

After Keswick we seemed to pick up the pace somehow, and soon found we were only two miles from Bassenthwaite, where we stopped for lunch at the Sun Inn. The landlady put us on the right road out of the village (with a warning that it was a bit hilly), and we really enjoyed an hour of dry weather, cycling through the forest on a tiny quiet track. There were some short steep sections in the climb to Caldbeck, but nothing seemed so bad after a good lunch and a warm in the pub. After a few miles largely free-wheeling along we descended into Hesket Newmarket, then up the other side through Sowerby Row and Ivegill on quiet back lanes, and we were soon passing under the M6 again. The wind had got up steadily, and the high-tension wires between the pylons were really howling as we passed underneath. A gentle climb with the wind at our backs took us to the A6, then we glided down into Armathwaite in the gloom. Henry gave us a great reception at the Duke’s Head, stored the tandem and helped us hang all our wet clothing in the boiler room. The dinner at the Duke’s Head was also great, and we would heartily recommend this place for touring cyclists, a lovely room and excellent value for money.

Winter Training Day 1 - Skyreholme to Windermere

2008-01-17T16:32:00.001Z

Skyreholme-Airton-Settle-Eldroth-Ingleton-Kirkby Lonsdale-Kendal-Windermere. 62 miles.

Click here for a map of the route

We’re lucky enough to live in Skyreholme in the Yorkshire Dales, so we have some lovely rides right from the door, and we set off along a familiar route towards Grassington, Hetton and Airton. It was a good warm-up on roads we know well, although we could feel the additional weight of the panniers and our Christmas over-indulgences. At Airton we headed off towards Settle, and the drizzle turned to sleet as we battled over the moor, so we abandoned a proposed visit to Scaleber Force on the way. After a steep descent into Settle, we warmed up in the Naked Man Café, then crossed the A65 and took the back roads through Eldroth to Clapham. From Clapham it was a steady climb to the top, then a lovely glide down into Ingleton, where we had lunch at the Wheatsheaf, and they didn’t mind us drying our socks on the radiators while we ate.

After Ingleton there seemed to be no choice other than the busy A65 to get us to Kirkby Lonsdale, but it was horrible – raining hard now, and heavy lorries thundering past. The sheep in the fields beside the road were completely unfazed by the lorries, but took off in fright as we went past. After what seemed like an age we were off the main road and heading for Kendal. It was a long six-mile haul to Old Hutton, mainly climbing, and with very little downhill as a reward. Eventually we crossed under the M6 and found ourselves suddenly in Lakeland landscapes, the slate walls of the church at Old Hutton very different to all the Dales dry-stone walls we’d cycled past. We made an unintended detour in Kendal that had us slogging up the A591 dual carriageway for a couple of miles to the Crook turn-off, then it was very up and down to Bowness, and a last mile and a half up to Windermere. We’d been slow, and arrived in the dark, but a warm welcome at the Westbury B&B on Broad Street and a long hot bath were both much appreciated.