The cycle continues.....

I cant really continue using John'O to Lands End blog for my cycle training as that story is now complete :-)

I have created another blog for my continuing...and future adventures ;-)

You can follow me here..... http://johns-cycle-diary.blogspot.com/ if you dare!

JOGLE the day after

Got up, still no aches and pains......(Still don't understand how I can not be hurting anywhere?)

Cleaned and oiled the bikes, removed the rest of the travelling stuff from the mobile shed - formerly known as a car.

I am actually wondering if I could get away with going for a cycle ride today????Or will wifey kill me?

Now I must thank lots of people for there support and extreamly kind donations...
---In no order at all--
Thank you Wifey for fixing everything and being there to support us....You had the tuff job all we had to do was look at the scenary.

Jim it was great for us that you could join us and you did set the tempo and ethos for the rest of the trip.

Dave without you I wouldn't have chosen some of the fantastic routes and your support and encouragement has helped more than you can imagine.

Nathan it was your idea...and thank you I would never have thought about doing something so mad...(Although I may have had to use my MP3 player if you were with us any longer :-)

Joy you are a really good friend and you allowed me to experience ALL of the scenary, without you it would have been very tuff.(And I am sure I would have burnt myself out)

Everybody that has helped us, gave us comments to read along the way...Thank You....

Now all I need to do is plan the next challenge........

If anybody is interested we..

Replaced 3 tyres.
Fell off a total of 4 times.....me once and Joy 3 times.....I was the one that actually leaked red stuff though!
Replaced 1 set of Brake blocks
(Refitted bike chain countless numbers of times.....Joy!)

It was interesting that as we were nearing the end people thought we were just starting! We were still bouncing fit and had no ill effects.....A guy finished JOGLE about an hour after us and he was hobbling along and looked haggard......

I am now bored!!!!!!!! and we only finished yesterday!

I will busy myself by doing a few more stats......what am I gonna call this blog now?????What am I gonna post in it???????

Any suggestions for the next challenge welcome :-)........

JOGLE Day 11 - Saint Breock to Lands End

The expectations were for very bad weather, forecast was 20 mph southerly winds and rain :-(

The morning however, was completely unexpected, warm, sunny and the forecast had changed we were in for a dry sunny day!

I had been wanting to go for a swim ever since John'O Groats...and finally my chance had come...

Although the water was a tadge colder than I expected!

I did eventually brave it in, mainly because Joy jumped straight in.....but then again she is Scottish and used to the cold...

We returned to the B&B after the swim and had another fab cooked breakfast, I can recommend the Pengilley B&B most highly. Joy was happy as another guest commented on her sun tan!!!!

We had to load the bikes onto the car and return to our pickup point from the night before.....

I had planned a nice scenic route to Land's End but we had both decided we just wanted to get there so had no real idea exactly what distance we had to go....

We continued on the A39 until we reached Blackwater then we opted to go onto the rather faster but busier A30...

We stopped for a Philp's 'Famous Pasty' at Hayle then continued on ....The signs indicating Land's End showed a continual count down in milage...

When we got to Penzance we detoured to Marizion and to the sea front to have a look at St Michael's Mount.


The ride from Penzance was really quite nice although my emotions were very mixed, pleased that we were about to achieve but upset that it was all coming to an end....

We eventually crossed the Finish line at Land's End at 14:44 on 10/06/2009 after completing 950 miles...

We were both grinning from ear to ear.......and took lots of photo's....




We celebrated our completion with another cream tea/coke then loaded the bikes on the car and started the drive home at 5pm

After stopping for food on the way home we made it back to Wiltshire at 11:30pm......I was more worn out and tired by the drive home than I was by the cycling there!.....Thanks Joy for driving the last leg..........

The Cycle computer had the days ride as... 57.08 miles in 4 hours 27 mins

The GPS track can be found here...

JOGLE Day 10 - Sampford Peverell to Saint Breock

We had another large breakfast in the B&B before setting off, Nathan cycled with us for a few 100 feet before turning off and heading south.

Joy and myself continued over and down, and up, and down the rolling and sometimes steep hills of Devon.

During the morning the threatening clouds dispersed and we spent the majority of the day in nice warm sun :-)

We stopped for lunch at a nice riverside pub in Hatherleigh.

At mid afternoon we crossed over from Devon into our final county Cornwall.


We set about Twittering as soon as we got to the sign.

We continued cycling towards Bude on the A3072, and we saw our first glimpse of the sea since Powfoot.

Just after Bude on the A39 we stopped for a wonderful cream tea in 'The Whalesborough Tea Room' at Marhamchurch.

We did spend a bit longer drinking cream tea- in my case and cream coke - in Joy's case than we intended. The people who run the tea room were fantastic and donated £20 to our charity :-) A rather nice customer also came over and chatted and donated a further £10...Thank you to both of you.

The planned camp site stop had been altered to a B&B in Newquay, an extra 10 miles on the day :-( It also started to precipitate as we were nearing St Columb Major so we decided to call for a pickup (The first in the whole trip! but the cream tea was definately worth it :-)

Even Newquay wasn't so bad at the end of the day!


The cycle computer had the days ride as 89.78 miles in 7 hours 24.

The GPS plot can be found here...

JOGLE Day 9 - Chippenham to Sampford Peverell

I cooked breakfast this morning then we set of out of Chippenham towards Bradford on Avon along the quiet country roads.

Nathan appeared to have recovered from his remarkable ride yesterday.

From Bradford on Avon we headed out towards Rode then on to the horrendous A361 to Shepton Mallet.

Along the way we stopped for a nice cup of tea :-)

Just past Shepton Mallet we stopped for lunch..

After Shepton we headed uphill to Glastonbury, then down hill to Pilton and across the Somerset Levels.

Just before we reached Taunton it started to rain so Joy and myself doned our water proofs...Nathan didnt have any so continued on.....

We fortunately missed a concealed right turn of a dual carriageway and had a photo opportunity at a Welcome to Devon sign :-)

We have made the decision to stay in B&B's for the rest of the trip :-) although a tadge more expensive, the thought of camping in a cold swamp is not appealing....

We reached tonight's accommodation at 7:15 ish, got showered changed then pigged out in the pub we are staying at...

Joy again struggled to eat all of her food.....

The cycle computer had the days ride as 86.49 miles in 6 hours 52 min

The GPS plot can be found here... and here... (Found out stopping a course stopped the trace:-( so had to restart it after we sorted out where we were going!)

Only 2 more days to go :-( and we will be in Cornwall tommorow....

JOGLE Day 8 - Leominster to Chippenham

Had an absolutely fab nights' sleep :-) and a lovely cooked breakfast.

My phone had dried out over night, but the touch screen no longer works :-( but at least all of our clothes had dried out.

There was a slight rain when we set off, but nothing to major.

We headed to Hereford then to Monmouth, Joy and myself were putting on and taking off water proofs as it rained and the sun came out.

There had been a large amount of rain and some of the roads had flooded.

We had lunch in Monmouth :-) then headed to Chepstow, and a massive climb!

I stopped to take some photies of the surrounding countryside.

When we left Chepstow we had a Welcome to Wales photo.....There wasn't one when we left Herefordshire.

From Chepstow we headed across the Severn Bridge and down hill to Chippenham and home..
---That's a Lie.....it was up steep hills and then downhill to home.

The most upsetting part of today is as we crossed over the North/South divide known locally as the M4 it started to rain again...

The cycle computer had today's ride as 80.99 miles in 6 hours 40 mins (Active time)

The GPS track can be found here...

Thanks Dave for riding with us for a couple of days...It allowed for different conversations :-)

I will try and update the blog from tommorow until the end of the ride but I definately will not be able to upload GPS tracks or Piccies until I get back home :-(

JOGLE Day 7 - Wrenbury to Leominster

Dave and Karen joined us last night and we had a lovely meal in the Cotton Arms, and we won the local quiz night :-)

We woke up in the morning and it was raining, wifey and Joy tried to buy some cycle over shoes in the local bike shop but it looked highly unlikely that they would stock them so I loaned mine to Joy.


We headed out across country to Whitchurch, the roads were very pleasant even though it was raining.

By the time we got to Shrewsbury we were all soaked, the ride to Church Stretton and lunch was long, drawn out and painful.

We had lunch at the Kings Arms in Church Stretton, we dripped all over the floor then set of on our soggy way towards Leominster.

Wifey had managed to find us a supperb B&B instead of camping :-) we could not have found a more perfect place. The Copper Hall in Leominster....we had a shared living room and two bedrooms.

The cycle computer had the ride as 66.33 miles in 5 hours 21 mins

The GPS track can be found here... and here...

I charged the gps up at lunchtime and it stopped tracking :-( hence theres 2...

JOGLE DAY 6 -Kendal to Wrenbury

I was definitely not looking forward to today's ride.

It was the longest and through major northern towns/cities.

We stopped at 21 miles for the official half way point photo's in the rather fantastically named 'Slyne With-Hest'.


It was then a swift ride into the City of Lancaster, it was also a very pleasant surprise as the city is very cycle friendly, I started to think my expectations for the day may be wrong.

Then we got to Preston..and it rained..and my expectations unfortunately were proved correct, so many dual carriage ways and junctions and large volumes of high speed traffic.

From there it just got worst...Wigan was horrible and Warrington was worse.

Joy did fantastically well, she did take a tumble again today in Preston, we were avoiding the traffic by cycling on the pavement and she over balanced.

The ride to the campsite was very long and drawn out...

The cycle computer had the ride as 110.02 miles in something like 11 hours elapsed time..

The GPS track can be found here...

JOGLE Day 5 - Powfoot to Kendal

The day started of very easily and very flat! The temperature was much cooler than it has been and it was slightly overcast.

We very rapidly came to the English border, I am very sad to be leaving Scotland behind, the scenery was amazing and all of the people we have met have been very nice and friendly (The English can learn a lot from them)

We navigated our way through Carlisle traffic reasonably successfully, diverting onto the cycleways and up through the pedestrian high street. We did however get told of by a local woman as apparently it was 'NO Cycling', Jim took all of the flak for us ;-)

We bid a sad farewell to Jim at Carlisle railway station and headed back on to the A6 to Penrith where we had a KFC for lunch. (I was famished)

After a fine lunch in the sun we headed over the very over rated Shap Fell. (It is a 1400 ft climb but very long and drawn out)

The descent from the top down into Kendal was a different story however :-) It was worth the boring ride to the top.

The cycle computer had the ride as 65.72 miles in 5 hours 8 min A smashing short day :-) But sad to leave Jim.

When we got to the campsite wifey noticed a blister on Joy's rear tyre and they went into Evans in Kendal to buy two replacements (front and rear)

We had a really good afternoon ride, we are now riding as a team, Joy is powering up the hills. Watch out Nathan I hope you have been training!

JOGLE Day 4 - Johnstone to Powfoot

The day started of very well with a full tummy of lovely breakfast prepared by Joys mother :-)

We climbed out of Johnstone across the Gleniffer Braes along some very potted and steep country roads.

We then turned onto a closed and freshly resurfaced road, it was fantastic!

We made it to the first planned photo shoot of the day very promptly at about 10:45... Moscow!

Eventualy we turned onto the A76,,It was initialy terrible very busy!

We arrived in New Cumnock for lunch and I decided to throw myself down the road :-(Unlike Joy I did leak red stuff and did require lots of sympathy!

On the plus side my left knee had started to ache and after the tumble the ache stopped:-)

After New Cumnock the A76 appeared to calm down alot , it also appeared to be downhill to Dumfries.

We had a mid afternoon tea break at Thornhill.

We negotiated rush hour traffic through Dumfries without to much issue...

It was then a reasonably quick ride to the general visinity of the campsite at Powfoot...then a 5 mile ride in circles to actually find the site.

Today started of in the rolling hills of the Braes and ended up in the verry flat lowlands.

The cycle computer had the ride as 96.13 miles in 7 hours 36 mins.

GPS track and photo's to be uploaded tommorow when I have more time

JOGLE Day 3 - Glencoe to Johnstone

Wow Glencoe campsite was fantastic (Apart from the midges)

We all got up and had breakfast early.

We did have an official Glencoe leaving photshoot before we left :-)

Then we set off on what we expected to be a very tough climb up through the mountain pass.

The views on the way up were aboslutely stunning...

It was realy good at the top of each climb to see the nice long descent stretching out ahead.
The roads were the best we have cycled down yet...

We did the final descent from Glencoe and stopped for Lunch at the rather pleasant sounding Falls of Falloch, unfortunately they were NOT nice!

We cycled on down to Loch Lomond and cooled off IN the loch.


From Loch Lomond it was a rather pleasant ride around the A814, we met wifey again at Helensburg for a drink stop, then It was on to the rather hellish Elskin Bridge, it does have a cycle lane - but it is covered in Glass and debris.

We eventually arrived at Joy's parent's house at just before 6.

We were fed and watered very well :-) now I am stuffed :-)

I cleaned Joys cycle chain off, as she appears to cover herself in oil every time she rides...

The cycle computer had todays ride as 95.68 miles in 6 hours 43 mins (Active time)

The GPS plot can be found here...