day 11: in words.

cornwall had been looming in my mind for months. we were never quite sure if the route we plotted would be ok. whether it was too far given the hills. whether our legs would cope after 10 days of pain.

i had miles on standby with tents and spare kit, to meet us where we passed out, so we could finish the next morning, if needed, and when i could barely walk up the stairs without my muscles screaming in fatigue yesterday morning i was very prepared to use that option.

but at 7.20 in the morning, our earliest start yet, we headed out for what turned out to be, for both of us, the best day's riding of the trip, by far.

maybe it was because we'd removed our bar bags and were riding light.

maybe it was because the sun was shining.

maybe it was because the route we ended up using turned out to have lovely tarmac and no cars for many bits, and just the right amount of shade.

maybe it was my newfound ability to plod on up hills/recover while pushing.

maybe it was because we were a bit happier to bimble along, sitting back and enjoying the views.

maybe it was just because we knew that at some point today we would get to cycle over that last hill and into lands end.

whatever it was, it was a genuinely beautiful ride and as we arrived at lands end, to a beautiful sunset over the sea, we were glad we took the route that was 'downhill all the way'

saturday's data: 

92.3 miles, with 7,664ft of ascent, in 8h 22m 04s at an average speed of 11mph.

overall, and i can't even believe how perfectly it adds up, and depending on how accurate you believe strava to be, we have ridden 1000.0 miles. 1,609.3 kilometres

which leaves me with one more plug for justgiving.com/embatt, lets get that total up to £1609.3, a pound for each and every kilometre we've travelled from one end of the country to the other.

and now i'm going to go back to the world of pain that my body has now realised it's allowed to acknowledge.

day 11: done!

they say a picture says a thousand words...

but word will follow tomorrow.

for now we're happy, well fed and sleepy.

day 9 & 10: almost there!

firstly apologies to anyone who was concerned by the lack of post yesterday, it was a long hard day, and when we finished, we again had the joy of good company and exhaustion which kept me from posting.

yesterday started well with our friend clare joining us from hereford to bristol. a lovely ride down the wye valley was followed by crossing back into england...

a huge late lunch...

and a bit of grommit spotting:

it was tough to get psyched for the climb over mendips following that, and there may have been tears, stern words from emma and pushing bikes up very steep hills, but we got there! albeit under a beautiful sunset:

today was a great start, with dan and tom taking the lead all the way to exeter, meaning no navigation issues and less impact from the headwind. 

they left us in good spirits to catch a train home, while we headed up onto dartmoor. i got a bit better at plodding up hills over the course of the afternoon, which was nice, but all too quickly dartmoor started dartmoor-ing on us so, soaked and tired, at Princeton...

 

we made the call to head straight for home rather than taking the more scenic plym valley trail. so with the majority of gradients (though by no means all) in our favour we wizzed into plymouth.

which leaves us with one, very hilly, but hopefully quite scenic, day to go. which feels odd!

yesterday:

101.5 miles with 6,534ft of ascent in 7h 47m 56s at an average speed of 13.0mph

today:

100.9 miles with 6,191ft of ascent in 7h 43m 40s at an average speed of 13.1mph

day 8: bleugh

today was hard. the tiredness seemed to have added up and my legs just didn't want to work.

the small reward was the sun as we headed into leominster to our bed for the night:

that bed is where i'm headed now in te hopes that tomorrow won't be quite as tough.

if you'd like to sponser this ridiculous mission the link again is: justgiving.com/embatt

we've raised £1000 so far for latch, lets see if we can make it £1600...£1 for each km we're riding.

today's data: 

99.6 miles

3,410ft of ascent (lots less than it felt)

7h 01m 43s peddling time

14.2mph average speed (quicker than it felt!)

day 7: thank you a6!

we starte of today by throwing caution to the wind and heading in a different direction to our planned route. on the advice of people at the hostel we abandoned the long slog up a very fast a road to kendal and took NCN 68 into sedburgh instead.

the route started well with us cycling down the middle of the m6:

on a lovely little lane between the split carriage ways near tebay.

it then turned a little hillier than expected (we were told there'd be barely any climbing on this route, but that was by people that live in cumbria) and given that we'd set off with no breakfast, we were glad of an early stop in sedburgh.

form there, once stocked up on tubular bandages for the knees, it was on to kirkby lonsdale then lancaster on the a roads.

this is where the a roads began to win me over.

a pretty cycle, if a little rougher than ideal at times, round the river lune, as opposed to going straight through lancaster, found me very ready for lunch. this idea however was not supported by the local pub we had spotted on the map for lunch, which had decided to close.

here, the a6 came to the rescue, taking us to somewhere happy to provide lovely big sandwiches. 

refuelled, but disillusioned by the small roads of the morning, and having added quite a few miles by straying from the plan, we decided that we'd risk the a6, possibly all the way to preston.

it was a fast road, but luckily much of the way provided cycle lanes meaning it could be fast for us too, without being too scary with cars.

we quickly got back on schedule as the a49 and then a573 obliged in much the same way. then, with an afternoon coffee to perk me up, it was smooth riding all the way to Warrington.

it kept striking me today how much more tricky it is to get the good photos while cycling, and just how big and open much of the scenery is, making it tricky to capture even if we do stop. so appologies that the pictures are lacking this year.

as my eyes are closing as I type I am going to publish now, sorry if it's not made much sense, I'm too tired to proof read! 

today's data:

102.4 miles travelled

3,294ft of ascent

7h 14m 23s peddling

14.3mph average speed (!)

day 6: half way!

today started off with us riding pretty close to motorways, on ncn 74. 

we had been led to believe that this was the most terrible cycle way known to road bikes, fortunately though, it was definately bearable.

unfortunately my knee suddenly decided that while 5 days of cycling were all good, a sixth is pushing it. but push it i did, all the way down the old a74 (now b7076).

our days have started to fall into a bit of a rhythm now. cycle, tea/coffee/cake stop, cycle, lunch stop, cycle, pub stop, cycle, bed. 

this morning the coffee stop came by way of a motorway services. we felt a little out of place as we put our feet up and enjoyed our costa.

we carried on through lockerbie to gretna green, where, after the obligatory tourist shots with wedding chapels...

we headed to an outlet mall for lunch...again, not the most natural environment for our bikes:

then it was into england (more sign photography) to pick up some lovely cycle routes again (ncn 7) all the way through carlisle to penrith.

in penrith we found another lovely pub (it's name escapes me) and had a nice rest before the final climbs of the day, that very much disagreed with my knee, into shap.

it was mostly a lovely day, with the sun shining, and nice fun b roads, that finds us half way through our planned route.

there have been many times that i'm amazed that i've made it this far. and i'm a little scared that my knee seems to think it's had enough, but i'll keep soldiering on because for most of the day i'm having a lot of fun riding.

today's data

96.2 miles

3,407ft of ascent

7h 00m 53s peddling time

13.7mph average speed

day 5: dr beeching...

i've often been heard joining the crowds in talking about the atrocities of dr beeching's line closures.

today i found myself strangely grateful for them. see, the thing is that trains like to run fairly straight and fairly flat, and this makes old lines perfect candidates when sustrans are looking to put nice new tarmac down for cyclists.

we started off (with about -10 seconds to spare) catching a ferry from dunnoon this morning:

and with the sun shining, set off around the coast to largs, with stunning views of aaron ever present on the now bizzarly flat horizon:

from ardrosan we picked up ncn 73 which took us, mostly on that beautiful smooth tarmac you're probably starting to get fed up of hearing about, on some of those old railway lines I mentioned, all the way to kilmarnock where I actually ate a full meal for lunch (something i've so far been to scared to do because it often makes me feel icky, it didn't make me feel icky today.)

from there it was undulating b roads most of the way to abington, scotland's highest village, apparently.

it was actually quite fun having regular changes in gradients to play on, though by the time we reached the slog that is ncn 74 i think i was certainly ready for old railway lines again. but at least the was a pretty/atmospheric sky...

today's data:

94.4 miles

5107ft (?) of ascent

7h 04m 10s peddling/ferry time

13.4mph (?) average speed - strava is having a moment but I think it was something like this...

Day 4: smooth tarmac is my absolute favourite

a really good day today, still loch-side for most of it (so, pretty flat!) 

it turns out that scotland is, mostly, very good at roads. nice, smooth, flattish, often newly tarmac-ed roads. 

i'm not sure if this is always the case, but it was for us today.

it also turns out that making a poor route choice and finding ourselves on a very non road-bike friendly 'short cut' to avoid a, not even that big, hill puts a very big smile on my face (though not on emma's)

the non bike friendly 'short cut' did afford some beautiful sights...

but it also disappeared into the sea, meaning we had to back track, and walk our bikes quite a long way up somebody's drive, in order to find nice smooth tarmac again.

rejoining the road i almost lost sign of em as she got her spin on to make up for the slow going on the trail, but managed to catch her up in time for a pit stop at a wonderful local pub (the clachan) in strachur. the regulars were very welcoming and a welcome relief from pit stopping in bus stops and lay-bys.

it was then on to the wonderful glimpses of loch eck for the last few miles, before being met for our stop tonight.

emma's extended family have been incredibly accommodating an are providing brilliant company that i'm currently neglecting so will get back to.

today's data:

72.7 miles 

4,669ft of ascent

5h 26m 38s peddling time

13.7mph average speed

day 3: tired

today i am very tired. indescribably tired. so i'm gonna keep it simple...today was:

speedy...

loch-y

waterfall-y

friendly

hilly!

lock-y (can you spot nessie?)

pretty

traffic-y

island-y

and finally, thankfully...

finished.

today's data:

102.2 miles

8334ft of ascent (apparently)

7h 44m 03s peddling time

13.2mph average speed

Day 2: avoiding the 'a' road

today started well, with an almost lie in. our 'small full english' breakfasts went down very well and our legs felt fresh as we set of at (just gone) nine, a luxury I fear we won't be able to afford from here on out.

we anticipated an early arrival in inverness with only 10 (ish) more miles to cover than the day before and less hills.

that was until we met the traffic on the a9 though.

we'd planned a few alternate routes to take in the sights and help to break up the day, and we rapidly found that once we'd left the a9, we didn't really want to get back on it.

our first stop was dunrobin castle, with the potential for a cafe. you had to pay to get into the castle first though and we couldn't even be bothered to find out how much it was, instead we just took some pictures with it as it was a very pretty castle. however they are on emma's camera so cannot be shared (bad blogger!)

next up was 'the coffee bothy' in golspie which was a very warm respite from the drizzle, and they made very tasty cake!

after golspie we took a little single lane coastal road past skelbo (i'm loving the place names up here) to dornoch where there was a pretty, though very isolated and slightly desolate, beach...

before briefly rejoining the now horribly busy a9 for a short while. 

then it was a detour through tain where we met three men who are heading as far as shropshire. we stopped here for a long chat during which my bike took a rather amusing tumble due to poor bike propping skill. i'm hoping that the helpful sixth former was genuinely wanting to help rather than just laugh at the silly cyclist.

from tain we didn't have much a9 to go before detouring through invergorden where we saw some oil rigs being worked on (built? refurbed?) it was an odd sight but an interesting one.

a few wrong turns found us back on track on the western side of the a9 where we decided that even if it did add quite a few miles, we'd stick with ncn1 through dingwall instead of doing any more battle with traffic.

it was the best decision we made all day, allowing us to climb to tore, above inverness, on well tarmaced bike path and very small, lightly used roads, affording us some great views at convenient rest spots on hills...

...and keeping us smiling to the end of what turned into quite a long day!

best bits: taking more rests (in case you hadn't got that from the post) and genuinely looking forward to more peddling tomorrow down the side of loch ness in the great glen :)

not so much looking forward to the additional 20 miles and 2 very large steep ascents compared to today's eventual 80 miles.

i must offer thanks today to everyone who waits patiently to overtake cyclists, rather than squeezing by with barely an inch to spare, and also to annie for putting us up and feeding us very well!

today's data:

79.8 miles

2,992 ft of ascent 

5h 52m 24s peddling

13.6 mph average speed

day 1: the training begins...

so it seems as if i finally may have bitten off more than i can chew...

our cycling day started at duncansby head, the actually most north-easterly point, 2.5 miles out from john o'groats. not many people start here i think, but it just felt more right somehow. 

then we stopped, for quite a while, for the obligatory cheesy tourist photos taken by strangers that get their fingers in the pictures.

i felt a little like we were procrastinating by the time we'd been to two shops for postcards (it turns out we're postcard snobs), to sign a log book, to get a certificate printed that gets stamped both ends that we can give to LATCH to prove what we're doing, and got our postcards hand franked. but eventually we got under way.

the fist few (actually probably about 25) miles flew past, i was beginning to think this was doable, and we got some quite pretty views with sparkly water, though that probably doesn't come across in this photo unfortunately.

then the hills came. and i died. or felt like i was going to. two asthma-attacks-that-couldn't-be-because-i-don't-have-asthma (probably actually bugger-i-can't-do-this-attacks) later and i just about held it together to our first b&b, albeit a little dejected at what felt pretty tough for a 'half' day. i was cursing myself for the lack of training.

and then we saved our strava recordings and found out that we actually not only covered much more ascent than we thought but did it in pretty good time too. so i felt a bit better. still... lessons learned: rest more, eat lots more (while somehow magically avoiding feeling icky) and build a time machine to go back in time and not get so distracted that I forget to train.

luckily tomorrow is 'only' 70 miles, so we are easing in fairly gently...

today's data:

58.5 miles

3,536ft of ascent

3h 59m 54s moving

14.6 mph average speed (!)

it's adventure time again!

i've been quite on the blog with this years adventure, mainly due to laziness, but many of you will have heard plenty about it already.

the back story: 

october: i got myself a shiny new road bike on the cycle to work scheme, nothing too fancy, but much nicer than the hand me down i'd been riding. it occurred to me that it'd probably be good enough to do some serious riding on, lands end to john o'groats for instance. but that that would probably be a few years off.

april: talking to em about what we were gonna do this summer, she mentioned that her achillies tendons were still playing up. 

j: 'can you ride a bike though?'

e: 'the doctor says i can...'

j: 'get yourself a bike then, well do the end to end'

e: 'ok'

so em got a bike, and luckily loved it, and within a week we had a whole set of hostels and bnbs booked and i'd plotted a, it turned out, first draft of a route.

we've adjusted much of the initial plan as advice and research dictated, and maybe not done quite as much training as necessary. 

(well, em has done quite a bit, i on the other had got distracted by sailing, purchasing and learning to ride a motorcycle, weddings and dreams of one day starting some sort of floristry business)

so now we find ourself in a rented oversized fiat 500, with 2 bikes in the back, on a 700 odd mile road trip to john o'groats so that we can cycle just over 1000 miles down to the other end of the country.

the plan is to ride it over 10,and a long half, days. which should be a doddle, right?

as always if you fancy encouraging our impulsive and foolhardy natures, there's a justgiving page (http://www.justgiving.com/embatt) where you can show your support with many (or a few) pennies! alternatively support us with lots of words of encouragement/derision below...

pw day 14: thank you magical tea lady

the 15 miles from bellingham to byrness passed with relative ease.

oh wait. no, not quite.

we managed to make the first serious detour from the route, heading straight down of a hill (as shown in the trailblazer guide) rather than bearing left (as shown on maps).

we also had another incredibly frustrating bog hopping session before the final descent through the forest to byrness. if i never see another bog again it'll be too soon.

we also got swarmed by midges and rained on at our lunch stop. once again i was forced to dwell on how much the midges love me and how much i hate them.

then when we got to byrness the place that was proclaimed to serve drinks and light bites daily in the summer was closed.

luckily said place was run by a magical tea lady who welcomed us in regardless, made us tea and sat us in front of a warm fire, made us wonderful sandwiches (in fact, sandwiches like you'd make at home, it's amazing the perspective that >200 miles gives you on the simplest things) and then followed it all up with cake. i had a piece of a 'herman' cake. google it. very tasty.

well rested we headed off to chew green, an historic roman camp about 5 miles on from byrness to wild camp. this meant that the final 27 miler was reduced to 22. it also meant we just pitched in a pouring rain shower despite being teased (once again) with the beginnings of a second awesome sunset:

oh well, one day to go!

jin x

137.5 miles down...

pw day 13: now this is more like it!

the steep ups and downs of last night's and this morning's (are those apostrophes correct?) wall walking were much more up my street.

i don't think it's just the familiarity with the fond memories of the coast path either.

i've said, more than once so far i think, that i'm finding this a bit more of a struggle. i think it's starting to really sink in why that is.

every day of last year's walk brought a massive variety. terrains, views, places. there were very few days that seemed like hard work because it was always changing. even the gradients of the hills.

this walk seems to be made up of many mindless slogs. 5 miles up a hill. 7 miles down one. 4 miles on forestry track. 6 miles through bogs.

far too much head down, staring at the feet to make sure they find firm ground, not being able to take in views due to afford mentioned feet watching or being in cloud for my liking.

i can certainly see why it has a reputation for being the toughest and most miserable of the national trails.

still, 2 more days and it'll be over.

jin x

217.5

pw day 12: the ~200 miles so far...justified.

this photo in no way does the sunset over hadrians wall justice.

the sunset did, however, do the nearly 200 miles walked so far justice.

it had me in raptures.

well worth the extra few miles we added on from greenhead to pitch wild in a visitor centre carpark. (complete with toilet facilities, win!)

other notable events of the day included following the official route, rather than the often used south tyne trail which follows the flat path of a disused railway line.

the official route included this section:

can you spot the path? no? we weren't sure we could either.

jin x

199.5 miles down...

pw day 11: mother nature is a tease...

so it turns out that some combination of ibruprofen, a knee support, and it's being a gradual ascent meant that my knee behaved itself today.

what didn't behave itself was the weather. we woke early and got packed up and then the rain started. it didn't really stop so packing down tents we set off into the cloud that was enveloping cross fell. from it's summit you can see both coasts. except in the cloud. in the cloud you see this...

every now and then mother nature would tease us by revealing a snippet of blue sky and giving us shadows!

then it would rain a bit more.

we did get a little sun in the end though. 21 miles later as we headed into alston to pitch up.

jin x

180.5 miles down...

pw day 10: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

today was great for many reasons:

it was also rubbish though because we were waking into a ridiculous headwind all day.

also, one of the ligaments in the back of my knee has started playing up. i thought it'd snapped at one point, but the fact that it made the same pain a few minutes later suggested i was ok in the grand scheme of things. it just made me cry a little. turns out i'm not so great at dealing with pain.

the upside is it only seems really bad on the uphills. the downside is we have 1100m of ascent tomorrow to get onto cross fell. oh well.

jin x

159.5 miles down...

pw day 9: not a lot to say...

today was alright by me, no so much by emma. turns out she's not a fan of agricultural tracks, and that's what we had all round the bowes loop detour that i insisted on taking. when em doesn't like a path she doesn't say much.

i'm writing this on day 10 because i couldn't find the energy to say much yesterday after our 22.5 miles. to be honest, i'm struggling tonight. this walk is hard. very hard.

on the plus side we have wayfarer friends who we're camping with now, and will be waking with at times too. I like making walking friends.

i'll leave you with one of the sources of emma's frustration with agricultural tracks:

because sheep can climb stiles?

(we also had a bull do its feet stomping thing at us. not fun.)

jin x

141 miles down...

pw day 8: picking up the pace

em and i are definately getting into our stride now, we had a speedy walk over great shunner fell in the cloud and pouring rain this morning. spirits weren't dampened, despite every part of us being soaked through.

we stopped for a few hours to dry out in thwaite, hoping for cloud to clear enough for us to see the foretold paradise of swaledale.

we were in luck and after a quick chat with four other pennine walkers, two that left friday, two that left saturday(!), we set off for tan hill in great conditions for an afternoon walk:

pictures just don't do it justice.

a short time later and the highest pub in the country, tan hill inn, popped into view:

(it's there in the distance, and felt much pleasanter than it looked in the photo.)

we'll hopefully be chatting with the other wayfarers when they get in so i'm posting early so as not to be rude.

i'll leave you with my favourite picture of today, the moody light over hardraw as we set off. I really love clouds!

jin x

118.5 miles down...