SOLO BACKPACKING ADVENTURE: John O’Groats Scotland to Land’s End England Days 9 & 10

JOGLE LEJOG SCOTLAND UK STIRLING PITLOCHERY

Good morning. This is day nine and I’m riding out of Pit Locker. Had a nice drop in there at a bike shop. Had a little breakfast. I’m um it’s actually not day nine. This is my first time trying to do a voiceover. I realized that I didn’t make a video first thing in the morning. And so this is this is it. We’ll see how it goes. I uh had lovely country to ride through today as you can see in the video. And um I do kind of catch up on things at the end of the day, so I won’t go into too much detail. I will apologize though because I have spots on my lens and I didn’t realize it for a couple of days. So um sorry about that. Um, good morning. Sometimes when you’re camping and um out on the road, it’s hard to keep everything clean and polished. All right. Well, I’ll turn on some music for the last little bit of this and then um the rest will be from the current day. [Music] [Music] [Music] It’s the end of the day, day nine, and I had a good riding day today. It was um a lot of bike paths and some roads, but the roads were not heavily traveled. Um actually no gravel, no dirt, all all paved. But um so I’m trying to get from Blair Ethel to Sterling. So I should arrive in Sterling tomorrow. And um so yeah, I made it uh over 47 miles I think it is. That to me look um yeah 47 and a3 miles. So, which may be one of my longest days on this trip thus far. And um so yeah, I left um Ronnie and Angie this morning after they fixed me some bacon rolls and some hot tea for breakfast. And then went to Pit Locker and there’s a bike shop there. And so I was able to go to the bike shop and get some small purs fork of my bike. And this will help me distribute the weight a little bit better. So here, let me show you. Uh there you go. Or lead 4 L. I was having a little bit of an issue with the front wheel uh front part of the bike wobbling, possibly because all of my weight was too high. So, I’m going to put my stove and fuel canister and some peanut butter canister of peanut butter in one side and my other daily food in the other side. and it it already just made a big difference in how well the bike descends downhill at speed. Um so yeah, I found a spot here because going into Sterling, I’m I’m kind of near a lot of um homes and farms and stuff, but there was a natural gas control valve here and it had some nice grass around it. So, I stopped here a little earlier than I have been stopping. It was about 5 5:30, but the further I went, the closer I was going to get into more populated areas. And so, I just decided I would wait and do that in the morning. And I’m going to be meeting with a friend that’s on a tour when I get to Sterling. So, I’ll do a short day and stay there for the night in a hotel and enjoy visiting with my friend and then um so that’ll be day 10. Day 11 is a rest day and I’m going to take the train with my bicycle into Glasgow to get my bike tuned up. I’ve got a uh I guess both of the gear shifter cables are are have stretched a little bit and so it’s not shifting as nicely as it was when I first got it. And I’ve got one pedal that’s got a noise that it’s making every rotation, which is really frustrating. So, uh so yeah, I’m going to take the bike into Glasco, spend the night. Hopefully they’ll be able to work work out all the kinks and then um I’ll take the train back to Sterling and then start riding again. So I’ll connect my I normally say connect my footsteps when I’m hiking. So I’m not sure exactly what to say with cycling. I will connect my pedal steps or my wheel tracks. I don’t I don’t know. Anyway, I’ll start riding again back in Sterling at the train station the next day. So, uh, so that’s the plan. And hopefully I don’t get run off from this spot that I’m camping in. I’m kind of tucked back in behind some trees. So, I’m I’m hoping that I’ll uh not be seen and I’ll get a good night’s sleep. All right, I’ll see you tomorrow. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Welcome to day 10. I stopped for breakfast about a mile into my route today in a town called Okawar and um sat on the front steps of an old church and talked to a number of locals. It was lovely to visit. Little bit more traffic than I like. I think I’m here during the rush hour. Um, so I’m looking forward to getting outside of town. Got about 18 miles into Sterling, so it’ll be another short day. Um, looking forward to seeing the castle and shopping a bit. So, there’s a bike shop here that I was thinking about stopping out, but I don’t think they’re open yet. They open. Oh, no. It says they are. All right. Signing out. [Music] Woohoo! [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]