JOGLE and beyond

Photo Evidence

2006-05-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

2006-04-24T05:58:00.000-07:00

Day 10 Treyoran Bay to LANDS END

2006-04-24T05:54:00.000-07:00

Final day had come at last - it already felt like it was over because I was staying in the holiday cottage - but i relunctantly dragged myself out of bed earlier to start the last leg. Thankfully the weather was rotten - well i didnt want to fool myself that it had been any different during the rest of the ride.
As expected the last 2 days had been packed with undulating hills - its very true that in Devon and Cornwall you just go up and down and that if the wind gets up in can get tough - so once again i was chuffed that this was another planned short day. (the head cold was also making the snot count high - but atleast the tramp clothes had had their first wash in 10 days - a relief to all those who had shared a cafe or pub with me)
Mist began to rise over the last few miles and so it was impossible to see the sea! - I did see the welcoming committee and the bottles of champagne (and the engraved silver tankard was a fantastic touch - thanks Val/Tel)
And then it was finally over - by the end there was a huge sense of relief - cycling many days on your own is more of a mental challenge than physical - theres only so many times that you can get amused by village road signs (Did you know that there is a crossroads in Cornwall with Ventigimps to the left and Cocks to the right- maybe i was just getting delusional)
Big thanks to all those people who texted and phoned messages - sorry that the site hasnt been updated over the last couple of days - there is no mobile reception where we are staying in Cornwall and surprisingly very few towns actually have internet cafes - oh well)

Day 9 Oakehampton to Treyoran Bay

2006-04-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

Woke up to a phone call from the girls to say that they were on their way down. Met Amelie who clung onto me like a koala and Gaby who said "You stink of Piss" - I missed you too
Only had 55 miles to go to the cottage that we were staying in (North Cornwall) but a savage cold had begun to set in and these 55 miles flet like a 100. First glorious sunshine day of the entire tour - so plenty of bug chewing and sunburn. With just one break for my first cornish pasty in Camelford I was at the cottage for 2pm . Now this is the life - feet up with a local beer and no 5 hours cycling after lunch until the next B&B

Day 8 Little Sodbury to Oakehampton

2006-04-24T05:33:00.000-07:00

This was a beast of a day - 120 miles in total over some of the meanest ups and downs that the south west had to throw at me. Weather was glorious - especially riding past Glastonbury Tor (listening to some great folk tracks on my ipod courtesy of Tom)
in total that was 365 miles complete in the last three days which meant that the job was nearly done. Stayed in the Fountain Pub Oakehampton which meant that there was zero sleep

DAY 7 : Shrewsbury to Little Sudbury

2006-04-20T13:23:00.000-07:00

Last night there was a late candidate for best B&B on tour: Dlyndene, not only did Jane (Landlady) point me in the right direction of a great local pub to watch the Arsenal match but she also put me on my way with a pack lunch of sausage sandwiches.

The day was all about grinding out more miles. There was a strong head-wind and regular bouts of rain to compound a slow days ride. Spent lunch eating my sausage sandwiches under a tree in Ledbury whilst it rained proverbial cats and dogs.

Limped into Little Sudbury and spent over an hour trawling the area for B&B's. Luckily found one with a great pub serving some great local ales.

To my No1 fan, Karen, thanks for all the support. Would you be interested in my next adventure ?

DAY 6 : Kendal to Shrewsbury

2006-04-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

After some worldly advice from James T I decided to pull my finger out and go that extra yard to Shrewsbury. This meant a bum crunching 9 hours in the saddle with a very satisfactory 139miles under the belt. Looking forward to repeating this tomorrow and possibly ending up in the Bristol area.

Favourite spot was a beautiful little village called Preston Brockhurst near Whitchurch.

Facts for the day: 3 bananas, 2nd half of birthday chocolate cake, Kendal mint cake covered in chocolate, 3 chocolate sports bars, 10 bottles of Lucozde and now off to the pub to watch the Arsenal.

Day 5 : Moffat to Kendal

2006-04-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

The impossible dream came true - a full day with no rain - plenty of black cloud dodging but no actual pant soaking.
Spent a glorious morning cycling 45miles into Carlisle (an early contender for road of the week could be the B7076!) for my morning latte and blueberry muffin and then a tough 25 miles slogging up and down windy hills until Penrith for lunch. Plenty of unpleasant graoning and grunting going on here.
After lunch it went a little pear- shaped. The usual steak and ale pie had been replaced with a less substantial brie and avacado croissant (dont think that Lance would approve) and about five miles after Penrith i was knackered - half a chocolate birthday cake and banana helped the system but it was still slow-going all the way into Kendal where a mile to the B&B i suffered my first puncture.
Staying in the Hillside B&B which is the first internet friendly stop (so hot fave for best B&B on tour!) Total milage 91 (going down the A74 cut off some original miles and i didnt get arrested)
Loking forward to some vino and for some reason a fishermans pie would go down well
Highlight of Day: Speaking to Amelie on the phone and her asking me "Daddy are you using cream for your sore bum" - Yes Amelie all is well in the bum-bum world
Highlight 2 was entering England - sorry Darren but its good to be home
Cheers for all the messages (Tommy, Kumail, James E and T)

DAY 4 : Ardlui to Moffat

2006-04-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

Very uneventful day today. 107 miles spent in the rain again. First mechanical problems with the bike. A slight altercation with the Lanarkshire police and a near 30mile road closure disaster. Ok, well maybe it wasn't 107miles in the rain more like 96miles. There was a candidate for the world's worst road outside of Russia, the B7078 which parallels the M74. After 20miles of pot-hole hell I saw an exit sign to Abingdon and pretty quickly realised that I was on the M74. 8miles later and 50yards from the turn off I felt the presence of the local constabulary who after giving me some friendly advice about cycling 40miles per/hour on the hard shoulder and ignoring my pleas about my charity fund-raising they issued me with a £30 penalty fine. After slinking away it was another 25miles in the wet wind to Moffat. With about 3miles to go I found that the 10mile road that I had just come down was actually a closed road and I had to plead and beg for the construction company to be given a special passage through the construction site and then on my way to Moffat.

Facts for the day: great pub lunch in the Auld House (thanks Katie and Warren ps your house is still standing), the 2 pants rotational squad is suffering under the strain and no bananas today.

Day 3 : Invermoriston to Ardlui

2006-04-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

Lets start off by mentioning the highlights: the sausage with the full English breakfast at the Darroch View B&B and the steak & ale pie at the Kings House hotel.

Now let me tell you about the grim Scottish weather ! Day started off cold and windy and then became cold, wet and windy and then became bitterly cold and windy then became bitterly cold and verociously wet and gale force windy. After 40miles of very slow going I picked up the pace for 15miles as I hit Glencoe which was full of coffee shops, bistros and pubs. Because I was going so well, I decided to carry on for a few more miles before lunch. Unfortunately 2miles after leaving Glencoe I got the bonk. Problem was I was now at the beginning of the Glencoe causeway which was a 7 mile drag uphill and the heavens opened. After my steak & ale pie which perked me up I had the fortune of my dad turning up to carry me home for the final 35miles. This was a true blessing as all 35miles were in the lashing rain, more gale force winds and sub-zero temperatures. Winds were so strong that I had to break going downhill so as not to be blown off the mountain.

Facts for the day: 3 bananas, 1 satsuma, 1 chocolate shortbread, 1 hotcross bun, some very wet underwear and cycled 98miles.

DAY 2 : Berriedale to Invermoriston

2006-04-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

Set off at 7.45am after my first full breakfast of the week and immediately struggled up the beast of Berriedale Brae. Took me a good hour to get my breath back but thankfully the predicted westerly gails were light and forgiving.

Managed to get 35miles under my belt before the true winds kicked in and after 10miles of this I was almost crying into my Lucozade. Struggled on for 10miles more and a took a well-deserved lunch in grim Alness.

Two steak pies and a carrot cake later I was off and flew the next 30miles to Beauly. I was thinking that I should have made today's 120miles however, I was soon to eat my own words as the next 10miles were a complete nightmare. I battled at a pathetic 8miles per hour and if it wasn't for a good supply of bananas and chocolate bars, I would have thrown myself straight into Loch Ness.

Managed to pick up a bit of speed for the last 15miles and reached the B&B before the heavens truly opened.

Facts for the day: 105 miles, 3 bananas, 2 dead badgers, 2 light showers and 2 near breakdowns.

Looking forward to some miles with the wind tomorrow !!

DAY 1 : John O'Groats to Berriedale

2006-04-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

Thankfully the train broke down twice which meant that Scotrail put on a minibus and I managed to slip the driver £10 to take me all the way to John O'Groats.

Had my photo taken under the John O'Groats sign and the man in the hut said that I was the first cyclist this year (having experienced the weather, I can see why !).

Set off at 2pm and 3 windy hours later reached the Llama farm at Berriedale where I was really looked after by Brian and Mary.

Last Day before the Ibuprofen Tour begins

2006-04-13T01:53:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the BBC's 5 days weather forecast for Easter!!! http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=2365 - 24 miles per hour head wind - in the Rain!!!! - whose idea was this anyway

Im off thursday night on the Cale sleeper train oop to Inverness and then on Thomas that Tank all the merry way until a place called Thurso

Then I have to cycle 20 miles to the start!!!!!!!!!
Then its quick photo time at John O Groats and off against the wind in the rain for roughly 50 miles to my first B&B

Gaby will be feeding the web blog meter with regular updates and photos so please come back and look at the site over the next 2 weeks

Thanks again for all your looks of doubt and little envy x

Show me the Route

2006-04-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here is the intended route - westerly winds, chains, tubes and lack of pubs could force this to change at any momemt

DAY 1 FRI 14TH 46 miles
John O’Groats
Wick 18
Lybster 31
Berriedale

DAY 2 SAT 15TH 101 miles
Berriedale
Helmsdale
Brora
Golspie
Tain
Invergordon
Dingwall
Beauly
Invermorriston 147

Day 3 SUN 16th 99 miles
Invermorriston
Fort Augustus
Invergarry
Spean Bridge
Fort William
Corran
Glencoe
Bridge of Orchy
Tyndrum
Crianlarich
Ardlui 245

Day 4 MON 17th 104 miles
Ardlui
Tarbet
Luss
Dumbarton
Clyde Cycle
Route across
Glasgow
(Hamilton) 319
Larkhall
Happendon
Abington
Crawford 349

Day 5 Tues 18th 99 miles
Crawford
Moffat
Lockerbie 380
Kirtlebridge
Gretna
Longtown
Carlisle
Calthwaite
Penrith
Shap
Orton 442
Tebay

Day 6 Wed 19th 117 miles
Tebay
Carnforth
Lancaster
Preston
Wigan
Prescot
Widnes
Runcorn (Bridge)
Frodsham
Tarporley
Whitchurch

Day 7 Thurs 20th 105 miles
Whitchurch
Wem
Shrewsbury
Church Stretton
Ludlow
Bromyard
Ledbury
Newent

Day 8 Fri 21st 109 miles
Newent
Gloucester
Whitminster
Woodford
Alveston
Bristol
(Henleaze)
Easton in
Gordano
Clevedon
Yatton
Congresbury
East Brent
Bridgwater
Taunton

Day9 SAT 22nd 105 miles
Taunton
Wellington
Appledore
Cullompton
Silverton
Crediton
Colebrooke
Bow
Okehampton
Padstow

DAY 10 SUN 23rd 70 miles
Padstow
Lands End
Pub

Welcome to JOGLE

2006-03-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my John O'Groats to Land's End cyclefest of thoughts.
There will be a brave attempt to get a daily posting during the dates of
April 14th in John O'Groats and all the way down (hopefully)
to Lands End on Sunday 23rd

There maybe even some pics if we can grapple with the latest technology.

If I had done any serious training there may have been some updates here about that and If i intended on taking more than one spare pair of pants I might have listed my kit - but im not.

Fundraiser: I am raising some serious cash for the following charity:
Sri Lanka Rebuild was formed in March, 2005 to raise funds for tsunami victims in the village of Peraliya where the Queen Of The Seas Colombo-Galle Express train was derailed by the second wave. More than 2,000 people were killed in the village. From April 2005, the organisation helped set up the Community Tsunami Warning Centre
(www.communitytsunamiwarning.com) in nearby Telwatta which has expanded to become a disaster management centre and ambulance service - the only free one in Sri Lanka - protecting more than 10,000 people. CTEC also performs a valuable role in reassuring the fragile psyche of the local population following the disaster. The centre is expanding rapidly and currently employs 10 people.
So please email me if you would like to hand over some money to charity

I will be adding the occassional post here before the 14th so keep em peeled

muchas gracias David