Tomorrow (26 July 2006) I'm off with my mate Stevie Baby to cycle from Lands End to John O'Groats.

If I manage to find the time and technology I'll keep a log here of how it's going.

Maybe some pix too

I was inspired on Sunday after watching Floyd Landis winning his first Tour de France in Paris.

Yesterday was spent recovering from the overnight drive back home from France. In the afternoon I visited  the very excellent Mick Madgetts ( http://www.madgettscycles.co.uk/ )bike shop in Diss for some last minute bits - mainly for my son's new Bob Jackson bike that he has just finished building.

I bent to pressure from friends and bought my first helmet.

Right now I need to get on with all those little jobs left until the last minute...

Wed 26 July:

Today is very strange.  Steve arrived at about 7:00am. We started packing the last few odds and ends into the car.  That's when I noticed the first strange thing.  Our car has shrunk overnight.  Also the only stuff we are bringing is odds and ends.  But around 9 we set off with a song in our heart and no travel left in the suspension. (We means: Me, wife, sons x2 and Stevie Baby)

Mr Law is a very nice man, although he comes from Cornwall, and pays frequent visits there.  He advised me several weeks ago that in his experience, it's much better to get there by heading up the A14 to Lapland or some such place, then heading west from there.  He says the A12 and M25 are inevitably congested.
So here we are.  57.6 miles from home.  Been stationary for 3 hours due to a van full of chemicals.  Outside it is 36 degrees. Insided it is 36 degrees. But we are cool!
Good old mum magicked up some rolls, crisps and a nice cucumber and lettuce salad.
Playing with sat-nav and chatting to the other strandees. Also playing our favourite car game "Guess what Peter is listening on his MP3 player" - he drones along you see.
At least my plan to have no plan has been vindicated.
If u cn rd dis den my crazy plan to upload via mobile fone works!.

HaHa - it works!!!

Well it's now 7:19pm  and we're rattling along the M4 - about 10 miles east of Bristol. The English road network is creaking!  How do people who drive for a living put up with this?
We're  full of burgers and coffee and we are grinning and bearing it. We are growing more concerned that we are either a jinx or perhaps carrying a stowaway pyromaniac!  The big delay this morning was due to a chemical fire.  Sometime later we passed a burning lorry, and in the burger emporium three burley men were leaving in a hurry. The lead man called back to his chums "I've already called the fire brigade, but your cab's well alight!"
I've phoned ahead and booked us into a hotel in Saltash.

Either the weather forecast was wrong, or we have been lucky, but no sign of the predicted thunderstorms - only 23 big raindrops as we crawled past the M25/M1 junction.

Our daughter - supposedly old enough to be called a grown up - has just texted "are you nearly there yet?"  Isn't technology wonderful - I can (if a so choose, and I just might) amend our direct debit to her account from the comfort of our air conditioned Peugeot.
Now I know that technically this isn't a blog - but then again, isn't blog an abreviation of web-log?
This is a log.
You are on the web.
With me so far?
OK - the keen cyclists amongst you will know that the Lands End to John O'Groats route is affectionately known as "LeJoG"
Hence, in a blinding flash of inspiration, this site will henceforth be known as LeJoG Blog.

So, to the 216 peeps who have logged in - goodnight!

Thursday, 27 July 2006

 Lands End 16miles.  So this will be the last jotting for a couple of days.  Jenny will surgically remove the laptop from my hip.  I have a bizarre piece of kit in my pocket ‘notebook and pencil’ – I’ll let you know how I get on with it.

Last night the boys slept in Saltash Travelodge, pretending to be 4 Alan Partridges.  Jenny stayed with Marilyn, an old and dear friend in Plympton. Marilyn and John are Godparents to our 3 children, and we are their two sons’ Godparents.  We used to live and work in Evesham, but we now could hardly be further apart, and see less of each other than we’d like.  Their youngest son was there last night – I last saw him 11 years ago!

We have just left Penzance Tesco after a hearty breakfast and Steve and me have stocked up with fresh sandwiches for the day.

Weather: started off overcast with occasional drizzle.  Now much brighter.  Blue skies with wispy white cloud.

 So this is it.  No going back.

Tuesday, 01 August 2006

Hello chums. Interweb access in B&B accommodation is a market waiting to be tapped!  None.  Nowhere. Tonight we are just south of Penrith after a very difficult day – mainly due to the driving and relentless rain from about 11a.m right until we called a halt at about 5:40pm.  We had spent the afternoon climbing out of Kendal to Shap on the A6.  It’s a 15 mile stretch of exposed road with the Lakes to the West and the Peaks to the right.  The summit is 1400ft.  We were soaked with rain and sweat going up, and chilled on the descent.

We pulled into the first B&B we came upon, just glad to get out of the weather.

I phoned Jen and she was just starting to pitch the tent for her and the boys a few miles north of Penrith, and in similar conditions.  She needed little convincing to come here and join us for the night.I will write a full account of all our exploits when we eventually finish – but right now I just want sleep!

Tuesday, 08 August 2006

Sorry for the radio silence dear readers.  Scotland is a marvellous and enchanting place – but the black magic art of making mobile phones work in their lumpy landscape seems to have eluded our canny skirt wearing cousins.  Mind you given the choice between being able to make a mobile phone network and making whiskey  - well I know what I would choose.

 Right now Jenny is piloting the trusty Peugeot southward along the A9 towards Perth. Yes we did get to John O’Groats, but more of that later.

We’re heading for Sheffield to relive our student days by crashing on my daughter’s  floor.  She’s out tonight at Wolverhampton, watching her beloved Ipswich Town. She expects to get in around midnight.  We’ll join her around 1.

We’ve just got back into the car after a chip shop stop and loo break in Pitlochry – where they make Bells whiskey.  Its 7:29pm and Edinburgh is 56 miles away.

We left John O’Groats at 2pm.

We spent last night in the best camp site of the whole adventure – in Dunnet on the N Scottish coast. Our tents were about 200m from the rolling N Atlantic breakers.  The site was meticulously maintained.  The washing facilities were second to none.  No silly slot machines to work the showers or hair driers. Hot hot water and ample room for all the visitors.

We got up about 7:30 and had a fairly light breakfast before the major task of packing all into the car for the journey home.  Everyone mucked in and made light work of it – and the dry and breezy conditions meant the tents were packed dry.  Before the ‘off’ we all dipped our toes in the freezing sea, ignoring the warning signs advising that radioactive material from nearby Dounreay reactor had been found in the sand.

Then Steve & I set off to complete the last 15 miles, and Jenny and the boys went ahead in the car.  The last few miles were easy, though the thoughts Steve and I shared were a real mixed bag of elation that we had ‘done it’ and sadness that it would soon be over, and reality would soon close in.

At John O’Groats we met the others, wrote a paragraph or two in the register of ‘LeJoGers’, bought a few souvenirs and took a few photos.  We set off for Sarah in Sheffield around 2.00pm.

 

Now I’m starting to feel a bit drowsy, and I’ve to take my turn driving south of Edinburgh. So, dear friends, you’ll have to wait a few more days to hear of our many Scottish exploits.  And there were many!  One of us celebrated a birthday in grand style.  One made a rude gesture southwards at the border.  One of us had a very interesting time with a 70 year old man who had made himself totally self sufficient in energy using wind, solar and hydro the most bleak of landscapes – so stay tuned for the full stories, and maybe some photos – unless they are ALL too rude!

Wednesday, 09 August 2006

Did I say TRUSTY Peugeot?  En route last night we seemed to either go over an invisible bump or pothole, or splat an invisible rabbit.  A loud bump at 60 mph.  We thought no more of it, but this morning I thought I’d have a wee look under the wheel arch.  The front nearside spring was broken!  If we’d stopped when we heard the noise, we’d have been scared to go another inch!  As it happened, we drove about 200 miles at normal ‘A’ road speeds.  We think we’ve used up our luck this week and are glad we didn’t have to make any emergency stops or sudden swerves.

I sought out a little independent garage and the proprietor, in blue oily overalls has done a good job convincing me he will have it done by 5pm tonight.  In his office is a photo of himself graduating from Cambridge!

We’ve spent the day having a guided tour of Sheffield courtesy of Sarah, the trams and the buses.  Lunch was a MacDonalds burger!

Have a look at the photos, uploaded via Sarah’s broadband connection. (Click 'Pix' at top left of this page).