update

I thought I had better add an update to the blog!  Having found it very difficult to keep up to date on lejog I decided to wait until we had finished the cycle to update the blog!  Bad move, now a couple of months have passed and I still have not been through all of the photos and updated the blog!  However, I am posting this to advise that I will finish this blog - winter is approaching and I can forsee more evenings in the house coming up as it gets darker and colder - so what better way to spend my time than to finally finish our lejog blog.

I will however add a photo in just to prove that we did make it to john o groats :)

day 8 - ashton in makerfield to levens

Quite something waking up thinking that by the end of the day we would be in the lake district! It was nice to get back into the countryside later on today. I think perhaps we were both feeling a bit more tired. Stopping after just an hour for some tea and scones!

Stopped in the pub above for some lunch - ended up going for the full lunch! Nice to have eaten so much before 2pm! The weather stayed fine for us - cycling into Lancaster was lovely, stopping for a break at a pub next to the canal. Then followed the canal along for a few miles! It was very relaxing - however, this feeling was not to stay with us! Arriving close to Levens we found ourselves on a very scary dual carridgeway, luckily we were only on it for a few minutes - not a mistake to be repeated!

day 7 - knockin to ashton in makerfield

Today started off very well, with a fantastic breakfast in the b&b and some sandwiches. What a nice place to stay! And very kindly they gave us a donation for the charities - thank you :)

So leaving Knockin we first stopped for a photo opportunity outside the knockin shop :) (to be uploaded later). Close to Knockin is the pretty town of Whittington:

Then we headed north leaving the countryside. We headed very close to Liverpool and crossed the mersey. Not before stopping for a cake and coffee at Costa in Frodsham. Where we met a very nice man - Alan, his partner and their adorable dog Ruby. After a chat with them - Alan conviced us that we must visit Liverpool at some point in the future.

Leaving Frodsham we headed for the Mersey crossing - this should have been a simple task but following the cycle route we ended up cycling round in circles and this all took a lot longer than what was really necessary. We made it eventually, and followed the sanky canal along towards warrington - not the prettiest of cycles, but easy! Our final destination - a premier inn!

day 6 - abbey dore to knockin (nr oswestry)

Day 6 - we followed the border up to knockin dipping in and out of England and Wales for most of the day. Was a fairly easy day - although as with many days we underestimated (or perhaps I should say I underestimated) how long the last 10 miles would take. Ended up arriving in Knockin just as it was getting dark! Leaving Abbey Dore after the rest day was a little more difficult, really felt like just staying and hanging out with Jess for another day! But once we got going it was fine. Once again pretty countryside, not too many hills! I'll update this post a little more once I have some more of the photos (jog my memory a bit!) Arriving in Knockin at the Old Forge B&B - we had a fantastic welcome and we were given a breakfast menu to fill out. This resulted in the following morning having one of the best breakfasts we have had on this trip!

day 5 - abbey dore rest day

Very nice to get up a little later. most days we had been getting into a bit of a routine, get up about 6.45 - showered, dressed and packed. breakfast at 7.30 - eat a cooked breakfast along with some cereal and yoghurt - then allow it to settle, and leave at about 8.15/8.30!
So the rest day was very welcome - I think we had breakfast at about 9am! Sitting outside with the sun shining onto the porch and then I left to cycle the short 13ish miles into Hereford, to do some washing and some tourist stuff. Richard decided to chill out at the B&B

we had a lovely stay at the Neville Arms in Abbey dore - Nick and his lovely dog jess were both very friendly and made us feel welcome!

A big thanks to richards girlfriend Anne Marie for helping to make Richards birthday extra special

day 4 - cheddar - abbey dore

This was a very special day - Richards Birthday!
..... and what a way to spend it, hard work but fantastic.
The start of day 4 was quite difficult, but certainly woke us up, we were faced with a huge hill out of Cheddar - I think very near the famous gorge! then down the other side and over to Bristol. We stopped at a very friendly pub in long cross, Bristol. The staff were lovely and very encouraging for our trip - they agreed to put some of our posters up and promote the cause!

After leaving Bristol we headed towards the severn bridge - fanstastic. great to be cycling into wales!

One of the first things we were faced with upon entering wales, was a tunnel with a car blasting out some tunes and some children smoking something they shouldnt be! I say children because they looked so very young - but I guess they must have been 17???

So then after getting a little high cycling through the tunnel, we went on to Chepstow for some lunch! We were supposed to be meeting up with Jeff, a lovely friend of mine that I used to work with when I lived in Newport. But sadly it didn't happen due to a mishap with telephone numbers - I guess we will just have to do lejog again!!

Chepstow is lovely, very pretty little town - will upload some more photos when I have the ones from Richards phone too!

Leaving Chepstow we headed towards monmouth - very pretty countryside, although quit a few climbs for us! We were increadibly lucky with the weather, a few spots of rain whilst cycling, but nothing to worry about - then we arrived in Monmouth and stopped for some food and the rain started lashing down, by the time we had finished eating - the sun came out! YAY!

Last stop of the day, the lovely Abbey Dore - we stayed next to a nice pub, Richard had a couple of pints - it was his birthday afterall! Next day is rest day too, so why not!

day 3 - okehampton to cheddar

It has been difficult keeping the blog up to date, most of the places that we have stayed have had very poor 3g coverage!  So, I am going to try to update a few days of lejog from Stirling (we are here for a bit of a rest before tackling the rest of the journey).

Okehampton - the youth hostel at Okemapton is at the top of quite a large hill, and we found it the hard way - whizzing down the hill only to realise we had to cycle back up to the top!  We met up with other fellow lejoggers - tom and tom at okehampton.  They are a bit more hardcore than us covering a whopping 90+ miles a day!  I've still to get the photos from Richards phone, so watch this space!

Day 3 - Okehampton to Cheddar.

Leaving Okehampton in the morning after yet another mammoth sized breakfast, this was an easier day.  We travelled through the rest of Devon and into Somerset, leaving the hills of Cornwall far behind.  Flat countryside and very pretty villages awaited us.

We cycled through Taunton and then took the canal for a short while - quite a relief to have a slow easy cycle! 

Our route is here : http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/76735258 - although my phone died perhaps about 25 miles before we reached cheddar - so we covered roughly around 85 miles that day!  Good thing it was quite flat!

Day 2, padstow to okehampton

Great day, a lot easier than yesterday, not so many hills and a shorter distance.  Started off with a short ferry (1/2 mile) from padstow to rock, took us a while to find it, a nice man that worked for the lifeboats told us that because the flag was down, the tide was too low so we had to go a bit further to a lovely wee beach.  From rock headed off for launceston, nice wee town, this was where my phone died.  Had some lunch in a nice wee cafe and the kind staff were impressed by our journey and gave us a couple of pound for the cause.  Now we are in okehampton, relaxing evening. Nice dinner and off to bed early.

Day 1

First day complete, lots of hills but very pretty and sunny the whole day.  Stopped at st ives, then later newquay for dinner, thinking that with only about 12 miles to our final destination we could relax and have a big meal, not realising that we had a good few very steep inclines to contend with.  Now time to rest for more of the same tomorrow ;)

The beginning

Trains

So that's the first journey complete, thanks virgin trains.  Now we wait at the not very pleasant Birmingham new street station for the next train to penzance compliments of cross country trains, thanks

Charity

YAY - we have now raised just over £1500.  It is fantastic to have so much support - the charities will use the money well!  Mental health is an issue that affects all of us, with statistics showing that 1 in 4 people will suffer with a mental health problem.  

If you haven't yet donated, its not too late : http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/lejog_2012 

Thanks to everyone for their support, it will keep us going when are legs are feeling too tired to peddle any more! 

count down

Finally the weather is improving - perhaps this is a taste of things to come - I hope so!!  went for a cycle up the reservoir yesterday - ended up covering 35 miles. http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/74501523   - got a takeaway chow mein on the way home, ate it very quickly and then realised that it wasn't enough, so went to Sainsburys for some dessert! 

Today is going to be my last day of cycling!  Got up early this morning and went for a pre-work cycle in the Glorious sunshine with Rich!  http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/74858786

Tomorrow will be hectic last minute shopping and then Friday packing!  Can't believe its actually here and we are going to be going on Saturday!

Our route

The long awaited route - nothing like leaving it all to the last minute :)

The milage is approx and will probably be more - I've no doubt we will take some wrong turns

• 29th July - Lands End - Padstow (68 miles)
• 30th July - Padstow (cheeky wee 1 mile ferry accross the river camel) - Okehampton (67 miles)
• 31st July - Okehampton - Cheddar (85 miles)
• 1st August(Richards Birthday) - cheddar - abbey dore(nr Hereford)  (71 miles)
• 2nd August (rest day)
• 3rd August - Abbey Dore - Oswestry (80 miles)
• 4th August - Oswestry - Ashton-inMakerfield (wigan) (62 miles)
• 5th August - Ashton-in-Makerfield - Levens ( 69m miles)
• 6th August - levens - Longtown(yay back in scotland - near gretna) ( 65miles)
• 7th August - Longtown - New Lanark (73miles)
• 8th August - New Lanark - Stirling (45 miles) - shorter run and staying at home for a night :) - using this and next short day instead of rest day! 
• 9th August - Stirling - Perth (32 miles)
• 10th August - Perth - Newtonmore (70 miles)
• 11th August - Newtonmore - Rosemarkie(65 miles)
• 12th August - Rosemarkie - Dunbeath (81 miles)
• 13th August - Dunbeath - John O'Groats(Yippeee) - then back to Wick (55 miles)

Total miles 990



View Land End to John O Groats in a larger map

catch up

Well - I haven't been great at keeping this blog up to date - so now I'm just going to have to blab about the last few days in one post! 

So last Tuesday - I went on a nice cycle up the reservoir again - this was to be my last cycle for a few days whilst my bike was getting fixed!  It was very strange driving to work, I actually felt very tired - I think the exercise keeps me alert!

Last Tuesdays cycle : http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/72408048

So I took my bike in to get a service, new cassette and various other little bits and bobs - ended up with a total spend of just under £140 - but could have been more, velocity 44 in Stirling gave me £30 off as a contribution towards my trip!  Thanks :) So, I picked up my bike on Friday - and feeling desperate to get out, I went on the round the fourth route on Saturday - Stirling - Alloa - Kincardine - Forth Road Bridge - Linlithgow (stopped at Linlithgow for lunch at my mums, then Rich came through on his bike and we cycled back to Stirling together!  Total mileage about 65ish - endomondo died a couple of miles from home!

I'm going to do a whole new post for Sunday - ended up finally getting all the bookings done so we can add our route - HURRAH!

not much action

Not been a lot of action in the blog of late! That is probably a fairly true representation of how much cycling has been happening.  Well, yesterday was pretty horrendous weather - rain, rain and more rain.  Many roads in Stirling have been flooded!  So, my bike went into the repair shop for some last minute TLC before the trip!  This results in a couple days rest for me :)

On another note it would appear that the weather is changing : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18868494 - I really hope so, it would be nice after all the rain to have 2 weeks of sunshine and warm feet!

Photo credit: chelle from morguefile.com

non cycling weekend!

Saturday didn't manage to get any cycling done! I ended up dog sitting - so rather than cycling we went hill walking - starting at logi kirk and then off up into the Ochils! Was lovely, Domino enjoyed it, but decided not to go through the fenced off area with the sheep, Domino seemed to be rather partial to the waste the sheep had left everywhere!

Sunday - had great cycling intentions - drove through to mums, with cycling gear on - and bike strapped to the back of the car.  Loaned the car to Richard, so plan was to cycle back to Stirling!  Just about to leave mums - and the rain started.  So, had a cup of tea and a biscuit and got the train home. 

 So - tonight!  I have to cycle, but lucky me it is actually sunny out there!

mmmmm - food!

Went on the reservoir route again - so much better when it is dry!  Covered 31 miles total yesterday and then got home and ate lots! 


Food eaten yesterday :
Breakfast : muesli, strawberries, banana, orange juice, coffee
Mid morning snack : Croissant
Lunch : Beans on Toast
Afternoon snack : yoghurt, sesame bar
Pre-cycle (5.30pm) : scone
Mid-cycle: 1 1/2 natural bars (fruit and oats and stuff)
Dinner: some kind of microwave meal - reasonably healthy (for a microwave meal) 500 cals - then a yoghurt for dessert and an apple

Estimated calories eaten : 2600


According to Endomonodo (http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/71035504) I burned 1463 claories - so I could still eat more than what I ate yesterday! 

dry?

well - it would appear that the rain has finally stopped :)  Hopefully when we are completing LEJOG we don't end up like the guy pictured above!!!

We did go out for a cycle on Tuesday up to the reservoir.  Covered 31 miles in total and when I got home, my feet were soaking! So much for waterproof overshoes.  I really do need to invest in a new front mudguard, ended up with a very mud speckled face - great look!

Anyway the rain seems to have stopped,so going to hopefully enjoy tonights cycle and return home with dry warm feet!

Interesting article in Guardian on cycling in the rain : http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/jun/12/cycling-in-the-rain

So this post is really a test - I've changed the blog so that it now includes a facebook send button.  With any luck after writing this and clicking send, I can send to the facebook group - thus only updating in one place - Fantastic!

Sunday cycle

Cycled to Glasgow yesterday.  Went over to carronbridge, over Tak-Ma-Doon Road (great name for a road) then followed the canal into Glasgow.  Met up with friends for lunch and then cycled back.  Round trip of 58 miles! Following link shows the route:   http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/69804059

Covering 58  miles I burned approx 2500 Calories, so when we are doing LE-JOG we will be covering around 70+ miles a day which means we will be burning about 3000 calories a day, so that means we will need to eat at least a whopping 4000 calories a day! Bring on the cakes and pies!!!

Great evening cycle

Finally we had some nice weather!  Went up CarronValley and then met up with Rich and went off to Dunblane and then Doune for dinner!

TRAINS!

Managed to cover 47 miles yesterday after work!  My bro, cycled to Stirling first so he covered 67 miles - so close enough to what we will be covering on the trip!

Some ACE news.  Virgin trains & Cross Country trains have very kindly agreed to provide us with tickets for our journey from Glasgow to Penzance!  Thanks so very much to both train companies! 

We have done a lot of planning for this trip, but we still have so much to do! We had hoped that the train companies Virgin & Cross Country trains may help with our tickets - but we are currently still waiting to hear from cross country trains.  Virgin had agreed to help - IF - cross country trains helped! So fingers crossed we get something soon! The price keeps going up, and to be honest - if they were going to say no, it would have been best at the beginnning - the cheapert fare was £80 from Glasgow to Penzance.  Now the fare is more than double that!  So, if they now say no, it is a bit of a disaster financially!

Contacted Cross Country trains through their facebook page, and they told me to contact customer relations!  A bit annoying, I have already contacted customer relations!  I really very much hope that they can help us and do get back to us!

Just about to head out in the rain round the resovoir - JOY!

Introduction!

Hello, and welcome to our blog!  Well - I decided that we should have something external.  The facebook group is great, but not everyone goes onto facebook so I've started this blog!  (http://www.facebook.com/groups/end2end2012)

I am not going to copy everything from the group - but I will try to keep both updated.

because this is the first post, I guess for those of you that do not know what this is all about.......

My brother and I - in our wisdom - have decided to embark on a little adventure.  We are going to cycle from Lands End to John O Groats starting on July 29th! We are going to cover roughly 70 miles a day for about 2 weeks.  WHY???????  Well, we want to raise awareness (&money) around mental health issues.  We have family members suffering and have experienced the stigma that they have to face, the more people talk about it, and understand it - the easier it will be for the 1 in 4 sufferers in the UK.  We are raising money for 2 charities and if you want to donate you can do so here : http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/lejog_2012