In the blazing hot summer of 2022 I cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise money for my charity, the Stroke Association, riding the 1063 miles solo and unsupported in 10 days. This is my personal video of that trip!
So here we are at the famous land end signpost they kindly put the stroke Association up in lights on the post beautiful day couldn’t want for anything better not too hot fairly calm got new bike ready to go probably the heaviest it’s ever been Laden and support team yay support
Team and so let’s get going on this thing oh here we go setting out of the car park at L end 1,43 mil to go day one from Len to liscard was the shortest day at 80 miles but it had the most climbing of all the days it involved a beautiful ride along
The coast at penans wonderful views of St Michael’s Mount before cutting across and I stopped at the National Trust Garden at trisic before catching the king Harry faery across the river fou and then uh past the Lost Gardens of helan through St ostel across the second
Ferry of the day the Broadneck Ferry and then on up into Lard so we’re just coming down now into Newland starting to see the Sea so we’ve got a Village Fair going on today So feeling great now just 20 or so miles in to this epic challenge but just to be good on the bike and uh doing what I know how to do it took so many weeks and months to plan for this trip didn’t really know how ambitious to be which was the best
Route and uh so much to think about so much to book so many bits and pieces to take knowing that you know if you’re a long way from your own toolbox you need to be a to fix the basic stuff wonderful to have Cath inene support I really valued
That uh but also it’s uh it’s good now to be here on my own on this Quiet Road just me and the bike everything running smoothly and uh yeah this is what it’s all about beautiful path bit of rest bite from the Sun as well such a glorious
Day well gin is telling me that this is the last Hill 14 out of 14 just as well because we’ve got less than a mile to go to the destination so end of day one beautiful sunny day really nice to be on the road at last having spent months in the
Planning the training in Devon I did the week before last really helped because there were a lot of Hills 6,900 ft of ascending um probably tomorrow will be a much tougher challenge with uh with a day of climbing in the legs already and uh the the day tomorrow looks similarly
Hilly traveling through Devon to get to Taunton so so far so good tonight uh uh Kathy and Mom Jean and and son John and wife Abby um uh took me out for dinner since they were based uh in Plymouth today um that was really nice really encouraging way to finish the
First day I’ve got a coffee stop with brother-in-law Matt on Tuesday but other than that uh I won’t be seeing any friends or relatives at all on this trip so that that’s probably going to get a bit harder so it was really nice to start this uh first day
Um with uh some family support so it’s uh 10 to 10 I’m going to knock off get as many hours of sleeping as I can hope to be out on the road again at 8:30 tomorrow day two took me from liscard in Cornwall over the border into de
And through to Taunton in Somerset distance of 88 Mi with about 6,400 ft of climbing so the route took me skirting the northern edge of dartmore uh a nice section of disused Railway called the granite way uh before gradually descending through crediton once known for its Woolen Mills um then on past colp
Wellington and into the city of taon coming in Via uh the river this is the bridge over the river Tamar which marks the border between Cornwall and Devon it’s coming down to Dart more going to be skirting kind of way around it the top of It and of course in Devon you can’t go down without immediately having to go up so this is the granite way a disused railway line that ran from lford to Oak Hampton I think uh and after all the hills from today it’s really nice to be cycling on the
Flat just running along the edge of dartmore on our [Applause] right glad I’m not climbing over the top so we’re just coming up to the lake Viaduct built in 1874 and uh let’s get some views over the top of it so I’m here in a village called yord which is in Devon near
Crediton um wasn’t planning to stop like this uh for lunch was just going to snatch a sandwich somewhere but I got into the middle of some Countryside without any Villages or shops it’s a Sunday as well and ran out of water so I thought okay well priority
Is to get some water and um the first place I came that um uh I could do that was this pub called the uh the duck at yord here we are there she is so I wandered into there um to uh ask them for some water everyone’s dressed in
Their Sunday finest it’s a kind of Cordon blur menu um but very generously I think the um the proprietor thought that most of the dishes on the menu are going to be a bit Beyond me uh particularly as a as a cyclist um so they kindly offered me a a
Pulled pork sausage roll and some fries that they could knock up for me which is just right so I thought okay water is here but also let’s stop for lunch and um I’ll sit outside where I’m not embarrassing the um cantel with my um cycling Lyra so um it’s all good something
To so I’m uh I’m at the premier in in taon got in about six uh I was always a little bit concerned about this second day because it was one of the hilliest of all 10 um and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go
With uh without all the excit me of the the launch uh yesterday and the fresh legs um the ride kicked off with a almost immediately with a steep Ascent probably one of the longest and steepest Hills of uh of the ride so far uh and I was a little anxious about
Whether the legs would hold out but they did um and as we got towards halfway uh the hill started to ease and uh there were some sort of flatter sections um and then it was nice just coming into Taunton to get onto the sort of somerset
Levels um where uh things are much much flatter um wasn’t an easy day but um tomorrow holds the prospect it’s a it’s a longer ride but mainly flat um so that’s day Two so date three took me from taon to Gloucester 115 miles uh this was the flattest of all the 10 days um cross the somerset levels and then tracking up the seven estery uh it took me through some familiar rides around Clevon and Bristol uh where I used to live um through the
Not very picturesque area of Haven mouth I had to make an emergency stop at a bike shop in Thornbury to get a new chain um but the rest of the journey was and eventful up to Blaster so we’re tracing along a canal from taon heading towards Bridgewater don’t generally like riding under the gravel it’s a bit bumpy it’s slow but it’s peaceful and Scenic so I’m not complaining too much so this is the state of the national rle network uh not not super impressed with this
Uh I think we’re uh we’re running into difficulty here and uh I’m not sure that we can go much further so I’m getting stung to bits by Nettles looks like it’s not much further so question is can we make it through I’m hoping when we get to this
Bridge we might find a way out of this it’s so thick it’s holding the bike Back well thankfully we seem to have seem to have escaped from the ridiculous to the sublime uh more Cycle Way alongside the river this time there’s a heron on the bank there TOS on this side all very lovely and it’s another perfect day cycling does not get much better than this
So I’m at yatan station uh about 45 miles in um just stopping for a bit of carrot cake and coffee it’s been so much easier than yesterday um flat uh easy roads lots of uh disused railway lines and tracks so um going to grab some cake lunch stop after about 60 miles and
Then yeah on to Gloucester so we’ve reached uh clevedon uh on the um 7 estery uh this is one of the few areas where I’m on home turf um did a lot of cycling around here when first coming back from uh working overseas staying with my parents in
Bristol um so it’s nice for a few miles anyway to be on fromia roads so got our first little mechanical of the trip doesn’t I think it’s too serious cycling on so many uh gravel trails that I think the chains uh got full of Gunk and uh getting a bit of a
Tick where one of the lengths is not flexing when it goes through the deria so um just uh got the smallest thing of lube that I could pack you better go and see if it does the trick well ah struggling to get this free looks like
Maybe the chain somehow got bent at some point may have to take it to a bike shop at some point it will run reasonably well in the meantime just approaching glester now um so it’s just coming up to 7:00 in the evening probably an hour and a half later than
I’d have liked but um yeah the riding was great after the grueling Hills of the first two days this was uh such a luxury to be cycling almost completely on the flat but uh shortly after leaving Bristol I was uh just approaching a steep hill got slightly surprised by
Some traffic doing something I didn’t expected needed to change down suddenly because of the hill and um put too much pressure on the pedals during the gear change and bent one of the chain links so that it wasn’t flexing properly uh and uh I worked for a while
To see if I could sort of bend it back into shape get it operating smoothly but couldn’t so really then the advice is to change the chain and I realized if I waited till the following day there’d be some pressure some time pressure to try
And um get it sorted so I quickly looked to see what cycle shops might be around and thankfully quite close to the route in a little village called uh Thornbury there was a uh small bike shop Pete’s Cycles and uh I managed to get there about 10
Minutes before he closed he did have a 12-speed chain in stock so I was able to quickly buy that and then fit it once I got to Gloucester to the hotel so that’s good um uh cuz I think while it was still operating it was um it was complaining as it went through
The deria the the the bent link and I’m not sure how many miles I would have wanted to do on it um not sure it was doing the deria much good so um nice to have that fixed as a result got in a bit late um very nice little B&B very kind of
Friendly chap he’s he’s uh offered to launder my cycling kit so I’m not having to wash it in the sink tonight um went out to the the glester keys they’ve sort of redeveloped the dockyard area and had a nice uh meal of pasta at ZZ uh picked up a bit more sunscreen
From Saints spre because I’m going through sunscreen like nothing and um what I’m finding is I’m getting an increasingly um impressive tan line where the the Jersey ends and where my arm is going Browner and Browner so sunscreen absolutely essential in this weather when you’re out in the sun uh for 9 10
Hours um so stock up in a bit more of that um tomorrow is a 120 M day um little bit hiler than today but not too bad so hopefully no more Mechanicals uh I’ll be careful with my gear changes um when swapping rings on the front and um hopefully everything will go relatively
Smoothly time for bed so day four from Gloucester to nwit in Chesire distance of about 123 miles initially leaving glaster rooting up to wer and then on to droit witch where I had a very nice coffee with brother-in-law Matt before heading on up through a series of towns that were once
Economically important but now are essentially commuted towns to sort of uh Birmingham in the West Midlands and then the terrain became more sort of agricultural in the second half of the ride uh before arriving into Nage just coming through the same hard whisper rather lovely section here along the I think it’s the stour and sharpness Canal towards stport very nice So we’ve reached the city of kidderminster and uh come to the city via the canals lots of old Industrial Revolution uh remains um beautiful way to come into the city away from the traffic had a slow start today feeling off color feeling a bit cold uh had a really good coffee stop
With brother-in-law Matt that cheered me up a bit that was in drit witch and then got a about 60 M to go about halfway feeling a little bit better now so hopefully should be a to manage the second half no problem we get into Nwit so end of day four gler to now which lots of little bumpy Hills uh but the sort that you can kind of stand on the pedals climb up and then Coast down the other side and um none of them particularly taxing um lots of interesting Industrial Revolution um
Canals Towers uh industrial Works disused um through places like Droid witch and kidderminster and stowport and places like that um arrived in fairly late 7:00 uh got into n which had some pizza before coming over to the BNB so uh yeah it’s going to be another long
Day tomorrow but um hopefully the legs are demonstrating that they’re okay just got to manage saddle saws and um knees and things like that and just sort of not push anything too hard so I’ll see you tomorrow so day five took me from nwit in cheser to sedra in the Yorkshire
Dales routing up initially through winsburg North witch before reaching the industrial heart land of cheser and Lancashire through Warrington Wigan Preston routing largely on Canal top pass and disused railway lines stopped for lunch at uh Preston at the marina there before then venturing on up the landscape gave way to The Rolling
Hills of of laner quite glad I wasn’t on on the m6 which was completely closed due to an accident and I skirted my way up alongside it for a while and then the scenery became more dramatic with sights of the cumbrian and uh Hills Hills of yard bals before
Arriving into the scenic town of SRA so just easing my way into day five uh yesterday’s stage that was the first 120 M this is the second um but uh feeling feeling good on the bike today uh another beautiful day I haven’t yet had a sort of sizable cloud in the
Sky in this is the fifth day of riding um I think what this is behind me is uh one of Britain’s last remaining salt [Applause] mines so just riding up the side of a big Cascade of locks up one of the canals been past about 6 or seven there’s quite a number going up behind me uh I don’t know how many in total but if you were navigating this it would be um probably a morning
Work to to work all the locks to get up or [Applause] Down so just stop for a bite of lunch uh at Preston um Preston Marina it’s uh 20 to3 I’ve still got 57 miles to go so it’ll be a fairly late finish just finding these um cycleways along Canal tow paths and shared use paths it’s just slowo so uh hopefully hit some more
Normal roads um in the next uh few miles and pick up a bit more speed so this is the Preston navigation uh a now way for oceangoing Vessels So we’re just starting to see the Lake District Hills ahead of Us been going through the Rolling Hills of Lancashire and this is the first proper view of uh of the Lake District coming up ahead we’re going to be skirting to the east of it to uh avoid too many Hills so we’re coming into the Yorkshire Dales some just beautiful little Villages and uh L Up In The Evening Sun just gorgeous well after 123 miles these last Hills are stinging a little bit but the view more than makes up for it I think we’re going to be rewarded
With something over the top of this hill Oh there’s a wall way Typical so that’s the village of sedra in the distance there just coming in about a mile to go such a beautiful evening and uh but I’d be glad to get in get some food tomorrow is a new day traveling up through there so day five done nwit to sedra had
A really nice day in nwit with a a family who uh let their house for BNB but uh the husband’s a recycling Enthusiast his wife um very much sort of making me feel at home washed my kit um and uh had breakfast in their kitchen
And yeah it just felt really nice to be a bit at home uh when on a trip like this so set off in good time feeling good on the bike um no real faf just sort of got got on with it and got some miles under my belt um arrived into sedra just
About 7:30 7:40 um had a very nice dinner in the restaurant of this place it’s called the dalesman so uh just about to knock off for the evening tomorrow’s stage saidu U Moffet in southern Scotland about 100 miles so that’s nice that it’s just couple of hours less on the bike
Than the hope is to to get in a little bit earlier tomorrow and um just have a little bit more time to chill before going to bed and repeating the thing all over again in the morning so that’s it for day five day six from sedra to Muffet distance of
100 miles initially quite a bit of climbing to get up to the Watershed between the Lake District and The oan Dales before beginning to descend towards pen R and then a beautiful uh descent down into carile where I had a very nice lunch in the grounds of the cathedral
Before then heading out across the border at Greta the famous sign and then the going was pretty flat just a gentle Hill up to the town of be before coming into Moret so I’m just starting out from sedra got to come around the uh howgill Fells climb up over the watered and then down into penrith so it’s been a bit of a slog from the off up these narrow uh uh winding roads but the reward is to have views like this and
Uh just wonderful Yorkshire Dale’s Countryside well we got this beautiful uh Yorkshire Dale’s landscape I guess you’ve got to put the m6 somewhere and the West Coast Mainline it’s just a shame it comes through this beautiful Valley I think that’s the river loon so uh I’m trying to ignore the
Traffic and just enjoy the rest of it So finally reached the Scottish border over there the old toll bar Greta green and uh yeah feels good although there’s an awful long way to go Scotland is a big country so end of day six SRA to mofet uh first 30 miles or so quite hilly as we threaded away between the
Yorkshire Dales and uh the Lake District um going through pen r carile and then into Scotland um had a really nice little coffee stop at a village called Asam and uh nice chat with u fellow cyclists and a couple of people out walking uh and then having gained all that
Altitude uh across the pass there a beautiful road down into carile about 10 mies of gen gental descending which meant you could just ride flat out really easy nice smooth Road beautiful and then uh the second half um 50 Mi or so from carile to muet uh quite flat uh gently rolling heels
Um and uh Moffet is this beautiful little bustling little Town lots of interesting shops down narrow streets a nice little river running down through past the side of it and uh very nice little BNB um had a really warm welcome from Mark and Dawn The Two Hosts the couple
Who who run the place cup of tea and some of their homemade millionaire shortbread to on arrival and um very accommodating to help me get an early start in the morning because tomorrow quite a tough day um this is uh routing up to Glasgow that’s not too bad um but then we get
Into the trxs and uh uh the scenic route uh to calender there there’s another route that goes up via Edinburgh through through more of an easterly um path uh through Central Scotland which is not felt to be particularly Scenic and some of the roads are a little bit busy so I’ve
Taken the hit of 44 extra miles and 900 M extra climbing in order to uh see the scenes on the scenic route uh which I’m really looking forward to so far I haven’t had a single Cloud uh provide a single minute’s worth of shade but the beauty of that is you know
The the uh Highlands of Scotland should be magnificent in this kind of weather so looking forward to that but the last 20 30 miles are going to be quite uh steep quite tough um so everything else is is kind of going okay get some nice calluses on the
Palms where they sort of sat uh there for hours on end absorbing all the vibration and jutting of British roads saddle saus managing it just by kind of alternating step stepping on the pedal standing up getting out of the saddle versus sitting down it’s I think it’s something probably any endurance cyclist
Has to cope with um knees yeah okay usally just remind me that the you know this is a bit much but uh not too bad nothing chronic so um so far things holding up the bike running well slightly worrying I’ve got a couple of spokes on the rear
Wheel but just sort of Creek slightly if I’m going up the really steep stuff the kind of 15 to 20% stuff but um hopefully the wheel isn’t going to collapse on me and um I think we’re in good shape so I’ll speak again from calendar assuming I can get
There day seven from Moffet to calendar distance of 118 miles setting out for Moffet on quiet roads why to climb up onto a plateau before a gradual descent down towards Glasgow approaching the city the the traffic buil up it was quite slow and frustrating going um but when I arrived
In town they I discovered that the world’s largest bagpiping Festival was in full swing and uh stopped for a while to listen to this amazing sound of many many different bag piping bands all practicing and getting ready for their performances then in the center of Glasgow at Scot for some delicious uh
Greek street food before taking a nice uh cycling route on disused railway lines up to the base of Lo Lomond uh at banck before heading Northeast uh with beautiful be out over the the Hillside and the lock and onto Abaco where I stopped a little te- shop that is just
About to close and then a really steep CL time up into the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park alongside L benica beautiful conditions but quite a tough finish to the right and when I got there I stayed at the amazing dreadn Hotel Tartan carpets antlers all over the walls a real experience which I [Applause]
Loved [Applause] Oh Climbing up out of ABA foil through this uh beautiful Forest Boys it’s uh definitely the the toughest climb of the whole ride so far and uh still got 87 M of ascent to Gain last five miles or so we’ve left AB foil and taking the national cycle Network Route 7 which is through this uh Big Forest and uh past this lock here and um quite bumpy quite steep so we’re tiptoeing around don’t want to break a spoke or anything like that um but at
The same time it’s gorgeous and uh just enjoying the the scenery lots of um people people set up their tents campsites along the shore of uh the lock which looks really kind of idyllic I got their campfires going um so I’ve got to keep plowing on five
Miles on this terrain is going to be still a little bit of time to go but um there we are dinner will taste all the better for it when we get to calendar day eight from calendar to carbridge in the ks a distance of 128 miles this was
One of the more demanding stages of the ride but by now I felt strength beginning to come to my legs as we went from day to day and it wasn’t too big a problem early mist and Cloud gave way to a stunning day with amazing views particularly over Lo
To the Monro behind this was probably the most scenic of all the days of the ride when certainly helping with that and then it was fairly easy going on to abeli I had lunch in pit lockery uh getting a handmade sandwich at a little bakery that I enjoyed in the park
Chatting with other people who took an interest in what I was doing and then began the long long steady log up to uh the pass of Draka which was the highest point in the whole of the ride this is actually the second highest Road in Scotland then there was a a steady
Descent through the towns of kussi and abore before arriving into carridge in Phili so just setting off from calendar and we have this mysterious um weather phenomenon uh appeared we have cloud and Mist on the Hills the uh 7 Days of uninterrupted sun has come to an end and um we’ll see what the Scottish weather can do for us uh
Now I’ve still put sunscreen on cuz I think it might be sunny later but uh the weather for the next for the final 3 days of the challenge looks a bit mixed so that’s good because I’ve been lugging a great ton of wet weather gear around
In my pack and it would be nice to use it but um hopefully not in too serious a way so this is a long one 124 miles the pass of Draka which is a big climb so it’s probably going to be the longest day of the challenge and uh just
Got to remember that and not try to be too ambitious um and just get through it here we go so we’re up in the clouds on a forest trail bit of a climb to get to this flat bit this flat bits rather nice and uh quite chilly I’ve had to
Put scarf on gay and base layer still debating whether the arm warmers are one step too far but uh I can sense the sun is just behind this Cloud so I I think it’s going to burn off later in the day I think this vuck would look quite
Impressive if we weren’t up in the clouds just see the sun burning the cloud away we’re going to get some great views [Applause] [Applause] soon this is a wonderful path [Applause] Like a roller coast St some pesky tree roots now we Railway Bridge Railway dating back to 1865 crossing the river Tay well this is the most beautiful Road just sweeping through the forest amazing views through the gaps in the Trees just wonderful it’s nice smooth Surface po roads were like this cycl to Jonah groos would be a [Applause] dream so we’re climbing our way up to the pass of Draka it’s a narrow pass this is the A9 on the right of us and the mainline Railway is just down on the left and there’s a river so there all four things are sharing this tight Gap um to get through the
Fells so we’ve reached the pass of raaka the highest point on the L end Jon gr’s ride it’s the boundary between central Scotland and uh the highlands uh up here are the is the ks National Park and uh this way to aymore and uh carbridge where I’m going
To be sleeping tonight still have 3 hours or so so probably an 8:00 finish bit of a slug to get up to this point but hoping for a nice lengthy descent down the other side so let’s Go day nine from carbridge to crask in souland distance of about 98 mil start of the day not feeling particularly well but had a lovely long descent down into iness so quite easy riding and I did stop in in vaness for uh coffee and cake
In the hope that that would help me to feel a bit better on the bike um then had a rather scary ride mixing it with the traffic on the cassic bridge because the cycle Lane was closed uh but then onto quieter roads up past dingwall with beautiful views over
The chromy bir and then as I approached alness uh the skies looked more and more menacing and eventually the heavens opened With An Almighty thunder and lightning storm I was rather higher up than I wanted to be feeling rather exposed so I hurried down uh to try to
Escape the worst of the lightning and then limp to leg another coffee stop um before struggling into the crask in just before they were about to serve dinner [Applause] [Applause] well that wasn’t a lot of fun just close the foot path without any kind of Diversion anyway we’re done it day 10 from cras to J and groos distance of about 85 miles quite an easy day in the saddle which was great because it allowed me to really enjoy The Bleak beautiful empty Countryside of Southern land and uh reflect on the joy of doing
This challenge really unfortunately when I got to the North Coast there was a thick Sea Mist which meant that I wasn’t really able to enjoy the rugged beauty of uh the northern Coastline have to come back and do it another time on clearer day but finally when getting to the uh
Famous sign poost at JN a gr was a question celebrating with other joggers who were also finishing and taking photographs for each other so we’re just setting out from the crask Inn final day of this slog challenge uh not feeling 100% bit of an upset stomach but um certainly good
Enough to do this day and uh yeah 82 mil or so to Jonah GRS and then 20 mil back to tho um the midges are biting so I’m going to get on my [Applause] way this is an a road would you believe it this is a beautiful
Road from Al mahara up to Betty Hill along the side of this lock beautiful Meandering Road well this uh Northern Scottish coastline is supposed to be very ruggedly beautiful but uh sadly not seeing much of it due to the Sea Mist hoping we might get some breezes
That blow it away but for now I could be cycling anywhere so got just over 10 miles to go to get to Jon o groes and uh just reflecting on what that’s starting to feel like um in a sense you you focus on each day at a time and
Uh you know how you’re doing against the bigger goal is a little bit obscured by the just making sure you get each day done get to the destination avoid any mechanical or health or other issues and uh yeah I’m glad I’ve done this um I think there’s no doubt that
Taking a little more time would just give you the freedom to visit a few more sites that you pass along the way maybe just linger in uh at lunch stops and coffee stops without having to think of the clock all the time maybe arrive a bit earlier in the
Evening and get a bit more sleep um I didn’t really have that luxury still glad that I did it so has this ride this challenge changed my life um it’s certainly a challenge I didn’t know whether I would be able to do and if there was it
Wasn’t until I tried it that I would find the answer answer to that I was stretched at times but I’ve also had a great deal of enjoyment of the scenery the riding in places I’ve never been to probably 95% of this route I’ve never or on roads I’ve never
Traveled so that’s been a privilege British Countryside is so diverse and wonderful I met some lovely people in uh the bnbs where I’ve been staying that’s been really good and I’ve had plenty of time to just reflect um I think one of the the things that has surprised me has been just
How uh enthusiastic persistant generous the support of people who’ve been following the blogs and uh WhatsApp and all the rest of it um some beautiful beautiful messages of encouragement and support and uh I just I’ve been really inspired by that and and also having experience having
Been on the receiving end of that I want to try and do more of that for other to others so that’s something I’m coming away with I want to be a greater encouragement to others in whatever quests or challenges or difficulties they’re going through um yeah it’s been time to think
About the bigger questions of life and that’s been that’s been rewarding and fruitful I would say so so yes this this challenge has changed my life it’s going to be a bit strange not following the same old routine every day you have a meticulous routine that gets you through the
Day uh tomorrow it’s going to be different so that’s going to be a bit of a transition that be interesting so there we are really uh something which at one level is just practical physical set up [Applause] plan a set of one day rides to get to a destination but inevitably it becomes
More of a an emotional and spiritual Quest as well as as it should be so that’s me signing off [Applause]
1 Comment
Going to do a lejog nxt year, could you post a link your route, thank you and greatly vid