Famous last words

Day 9
Distance : 30, Cumulative : 273
Location : Lands End

The campsite we had set down in on night 8 was fairly basic with no shop or food facilities so we set off on day 9 on empty stomachs but we didnt let that bother us as we knew that if we pushed for just 30 miles we would reach Land's End by the end of the day. It didnt take long to pack up the tent and get back on the road.

As it tuns out the village we had stayed in the night before was extremely close to Hayle which had been our target the night before and we were soon through Hayle and heading from the north coast to Penzance on the south coast.

Shortly after hayle I raided my emergency stash of a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar for a healthy breakfast which I sat and ate sitting in the car park of a local church in St Erth whilst we watched photos being taken for a baptism.

Full of sugar in my system we pushed on once more.

After quite a lot of cycle lanes we turned a hilltop to see a coastline. We knew we had to ride beside the railway for a while and so were unsure where we were. A few minutes later and we came in sight of St Michael's Mount. The town we could see in the distance must be Penzance.

We found ourselves charged with renewed energy at the thought of being so close to the finish line headed in to Penzance. Our progress slowed somewhat as we aproached Penzance from beside the railway line as Steve's love of trains kicked in and there was a lot of slow cycling and pauses for photos. For a town of its size it was surprising how small the train station was.

I checked the NCN route map and after finding out we were still 18 miles from our destination I suggested we push on in order to make it by daylight. One thing we hadnt accounted for was being in Penzance on a sunday. Every single food shop was shut so we rode on a short distance up the coast to Newlyn where we managed to find a costcutter that was open and made do with a light lunch from there eaten watching the ships out at sea.

We left Newlyn and passed through Mousehole following the NCN route back inland before heading out to Land's End. This meant going from a village on the coast at sea level up some extremely steep village lanes for which we both got of and walked, there was just no way to ride up they were so steep.

What followed was just lots of fairly featureless country lanes but we werent too bothered as Land's End was now about 12 miles away and definately within reach.

As 5pm approached the lanes opened out to reveal the Land's End cliffs and the village of Sennen Cove nearby. We took the coast footpath and at last crossed the Land's End "finish line" at 5pm to be greeted by a rather gaudy tourist trap. However, walking around the side of these few tourist stores revealed the actual Land's End behind them.

I had been forewarned that the famous spot with the sign post stating you were at Land's End was run by a private family business and to have your photo taken with the sign was £5. However we had brought a compass and found the much more nondescript area of gravel just beside the sign was further west so Steve and I contented ourselves with photos taken at this spot instead.

After a quick drink and a few sweets from Steve's stash we set off once more to find a B&B for the night. It was at this point we discovered Sennen Cove had one booked out B&B and one booked out inn. We then climbed all the way back up the extremely steep hill from Sennen Cove and discussed what to do from here as it was now about 7 and we still had nowhere to sleep.

We tried an inn at the top of the cliffs declaring itself to be the last inn and found out that it didnt rent out rooms (thats just a pub to my mind). As we cycled along we saw a sign for a holiday park and decided we might as well get a spot there as we had the tent. Turns out their reception was only open for 1 hour at about 11am on sundays so we couldnt even book in. I was too tired to go on so we headed on in to the site to put the tent up anyway.

We found ourselves in the "wild camping" section stuck the tent up (so much for no more camping) and then found that the showers were only accesible with tokens from guess where, the locked reception. This presented a problem as it also meant no toilets. We then decided to walk back to the "inn" for dinner and also avail ourselves of their facilities.

After a meal and a couple of drinks we headed back to the tent and spent the night trying to sleep whilst a bit of a storm raged overhead. Thankfully the tent was up to the job and we remained warm and dry all night.

After this experience I had no interest in the original plan of staying a day in Sennen before heading home. I wanted to be off as soon as possible so we decided to head back to Mousehole or Newlyn in the morning and get a B&B there tomorrow and have fun wandering around the town.

Last night in a tent

Day 8
Distance : 28, Cumulative : 243
Location : Carnhell Green, http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=50.19143,-5.32949

Day 8 was spent mostly thinking about how far we had come & how close we were to the end.

The morning started with eggy bread. When I asked for sugar I got a funny look & was told that sounds like some wierd regional thing from the cook. Just as well I did'nt ask for maple syrup.

We soon left Goonhavern behind with me navigating with OS map.

About midmorning we were excited to catch our first glimpse of the Sea!

We stopped for lunch in a little village with a ruined church munching on hot pasties whilst I tried to make sense of the NCN map. We were about to go through the one small section for which I had no OS map.

I improvised a bit & we eventually found one of the NCN road signs. We then spent a while going by NCN alone.

As we neared Redruth Steve pointed out a couple of tin mine ruins. Once I knew what they were I started noticing them all over the place.

Once we had made it through Redruth we knew we were practically at Hayle so we started watching for campsite signs. Got lucky & found one right on the road we were taking.

Bedded down now & hope to make Land's End tomorrow evening where we aim to find a B&B for the night to rest.

Making good time

Day 7
Distance : 30, Cumulative : 215
Location : Goonhavern, http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=50.33993,-5.10683

Thank goodness for yet another 'virtually' uneventfull day.

Steve's front tyre was just starting to show the same signs as mine before it split so rather than take any chances we decided to detour into Bodmin & get a new tyre as we started so close.

We went via the Camel trail which is a disused rail line, mostly. There is a tiny shuttle service for tourists & Steve got some photos of a huge locomotive.

Once we had the new tyre fitted we pushed determined to stick to our original schedule. Stopping briefly for lunch at St Columb Major.

We then did a stretch of A3075 which was very busy before reaching a campsite at Goonhavern at about 6.

Getting excited now. Hope to camp at Hayle tomorrow & if all goes well should reach Land's End the day after.

A hard slog

Day 6
Distance : 37, Cumulative : 185
Location : Washaway, http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=50.48327,-4.76683

Day 6 was blissfully uneventfull. Today was a big day because if we pushed hard we could reach the B&B in Washaway that we planned on from the very start. This would put us back on the original schedule!

After putting the new tyre on my bike we started the day by joining the Tarka trail across a viaduct.

We then pushed on to a place called Week St Mary as it was the nearest civilisation in the hope of buying lunch stuff. The only shop in the village was the Post Office which was closed for lunch so I ate a mars bar & we pushed on.

After a lot more cycling we reached the climb up to Bodmin's Moors.

That was a strangely eerie experience. There was a mist over the moors with wild horses roaming free. It was tricky to see with moisture on my glasses but nice & straight & flat.

We continued to push hard, determined to reach our planned B&B. We did'nt know the time as it was hard to tell on the moors & we were'nt stopping to check phones.

Eventually we came to Camelford where I rang & checked our B&B booking.

We were told the nearest dinner to the B&B was a couple of hilly miles but if we grabbed something in Camelford there would be a cream tea waiting at the B&B for desert. That was incentive enough so we grabbed a chippy & pushed on.

We eventually made it at 6.30 just before dark but did'nt care as there was no need to put up a tent tonight.

Weve made it! Back on schedule for the first time in days.

Tomorrow we head for Goonhaven.

Another day, another catastrophe

Day 5
Distance : 24, Cumulative : 148
Location : Holsworthy, http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=50.80928,-4.35368

Day 5 started with more hills. The B3227 had been good to us yesterday so we stuck with it today.

Yesterday I had a flat whilst doing a short stretch of A361 and so was down to 1 spare inner tube. The next big town was Great Torrington so we planned to try & get a couple of spare inner tubes there.

We got to Great Torrington after a mass of steep hills & headed straight for the tourist information centre. They told us of a bike hire shop outside town down a very steep hill. The TI phoned the bike hire place for us & checked they sold parts.

Steve & I then grabbed lunch from a bakery & ate whilst walking to the bike hire store. We got about 5 minutes down the road & I decided to ring & make sure he had the right size tubes, which he did.

After a 20 minute walk I popped in the store whilst Steve investigated an old railway station next door. I asked the chap for the tubes & upon looking he tells me he misread the box & he has the wrong size. We say no thanks & spend 30 minutes walking back up the hill to town, get on our bikes & head on to Holsworthy where we will try again.

More hills follow including many so steep we get off & push up them. Stop to fix a puncture in Steve's rear tire in a farmyard.

A while later on I notice a bumping coming from the bike & get off to check. It is then I notice a split in the tyre with the inner poking through.

I tried riding a bit further but there was a bad bumping & I did'nt want to risk a blow out whilst whizzing down hill so we pulled into the car park of a country club in the middle of nowhere.

The nearest town was Holsworthy & the map said they had a bike shop, now we just had to get there.

I tried phoning various people but all I got was answerphones. We were in big trouble.

At this point I noticed a chap stopped his landrover which was pulling a smaltbox trailer. Figuring I had nothing to lose I asked him if there was any way we could get a ride to Holsworthy to which he immediately said yes.

We dumped our stuff in his trailer & got a lift to town where we put our bikes back together & then found out about a B&B from the fish & chip shop.

The chap at the B&B then the only bloke ran a nearby bike shop who reopened at 7 just to help us.

I now have a new tyre & we have some serious catching up to do. Tomorrow could be about 38 miles to our next stop.

NCN routes suck

Day 4
Distance : 26, Cumulative : 124
Location : Umberleigh, http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=50.99852,-3.99208

Today was, after some serious problems, a good day. Moral was boosted last night after phoning parents & girlfriend from B&B.

We got up at 7, breakfast at 8 (starting a day on a good breakfast definately helps my moral) and taxi booked by our B&B landlady at 8.45.

Chris, the taxi driver took us into Tiverton to hunt down a new back wheel. We could'nt just replace spokes as the broken spokes had caused the wheel to warp.

First we tried a local bike store but a local hanging around said it was shut as the chap who runs it was "in 'ospital 'aving 'is leg orf'.

Then we tried a store that seemed to specialise in bmx's but the grandson was eyeing the store as his granddad was away today & could only say ''thats a big wheel I don't think I can help you".

Last hope was the Halfords might have a bike department. Turns out they had wheels & a workshop to move the gearing from the old wheel to the new. Apparently that Halfords store only opened a month ago so we were very fortunate.

Phoned Chris for a cab ride back to Bampton, fixed the bike, bought supplies and left by 11.30.

Stayed on the B3227 all day & ignored the NCN route & it was a much nicer ride. Fairly straight road in good condition & not too hilly. No poky little tractor highways.

Made good time & stopped for a proper lunch at Quince Honey Farm in South Molton. Then pushed on down the B3227 to a campsite at Umberleigh.

Although Umberleigh is tiny campers don't go hungry. A little burger van pulled up & started selling real fish & chips from its portable frier.

Steve had fun looking round the tiny train station. Just had lasagne dinner at local pub & now time for bed.

Back on the B3227 tomorrow towards Bridgerule.

I hate hills

Day 3
Distance : 10, Cumulative : 96.5
Location : Bampton, http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=50.99053,-3.48711

Day 3 started badly & got progressively worse. We set off on empty stomachs as there was nowhere to buy anything.

We were immediately confronted with nasty hills & they continued for the rest of the day.

At the top of one particular hill Steve stopped & pointed out his tyre was rubbing on the frame. When we got the tools out to have a look we noticed that 5 spokes had broken.

We decided to carefully move on to the nearest town of Bampton & decide what to do there.

The first pub we saw in Bampton was doing a hogroast in the garden. FOOD! We put our bikes in the pub car park and joined the locals for a hogroast.

Whilst eating we decided the nearest bike shop would be in Tiverton but that was several hours backtrack it was a bank holiday monday.

We would get a B&B for the night & in the morning get a taxis in to Taunton to buy a new wheel. Then a taxi back, fix the bike & set off afresh.

We also amended the route to avoid Exmoor buying us some much needed time.

As I write this Steve is snoring in a comfortable warm bed. Early start in the morning so I better go to sleep too. Hopefully we'll have some luck tomorrow, I think were overdue.

Oh for a big dinner

Day 3 (starţ)
Distance : 46.5 , Cumulative : 86.5
Location : , http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=50.96822,-3.30877

Day 2 started well with an egg & bap. As we left Glastonbury it gave us a fair well rain storm. We took shelter under some trees & it toned down to a drizzle so we set off again.

Day 2 was the longest day so we were glad of lots of nice flat canal paths. Met a nice lady working one of the many canal locks and chatted for a bit. She suggested we take a break at a pub down the road but we had to push on.

More canals all the way into Taunton where we had to improvise a detour as road works obstructed the canal path.

Past Taunton & on to our planned campsite. Once we left the canal the hills started again.

We booked a table for 8.30 at a pub we passed in Langford Budville after we had set up camp but the hills between the campsite & the pub put us off.

Got to Gamlins campsite at 9pm. The nice lady owner had said instead paying we could put the camp fees towards our charities.

Nowhere to have dinner so we had some of Steve's sweet stash. I could really go a steak & kidney pudding with thick gravy.

Oh, this morning the tent was christened as I found a bird had poo'd on it.

Day 3 will be shortest but hilliest as we go into Exmoor...

What a way to start

Day 2 start
Distance day 1 : 40 Cumulative : 40
Location : Glastonbury, http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.15385,-2.72614

Well we made it to our first campsite on the outskirts of Glastonbury at 7.20 last night and boy what a day.

After missing our train at paddington I should have remembered the saying "it happens in 3s".

When Steve got on his bike at Bristol his tyre had lost pressure. Pumped it up & waited a bit & it went down again, slow puncture. Thats 2.

Whilst I changed the innertube we discovered my spare tubes were the wrong size. And thats 3.

I carried on replacing Steve's tube whilst he asked a couple of passing cyclists for directions to the nearest bike shop.

By the time the bike was fixed & I had spare tubes it was 12. A much later start than we had planned.

Even before getting out of Bristol we started encountering horrendous hills & thats how the day continued. The hills almost killed me and we had to get off and push our bikes up some of them. Steve gets the king of the mountains shirt as he fought his way up more of them than me. When we did get to the top there were good views, once your vision had cleared. We had a great view from the Mendips down on Glastonbury Tor.

All the hills really sapped our energy so by the end of the day 1 we were exhausted. I couldn't even eat the dinner we got from the local pub, I just needed sleep.

This morning I feel recharged & ready. Hopefully less hills today...

Made it to Bristol

Day 1
Distance : 4.5 , Cumulative : 4.5
Location : Bristol Temple Meads Train Station

....now to find our way out. Got the train to Waterloo ok. The ride through London was nice & quiet so early in the morning no tourists gumming up places like Horse Guards Parade.

Unfortunately there were loads of works going on in the parks & by Buckingham Palace. Looked like they were setting up for the Olympics hand over.

This and stopping for a couple of photos contrived to get us to Paddington at 8.36. Our train was 8.30!

Ended up having to pay £48 each for more tickets on the next train.

Still, not 'on the clock' for the rest of the trip.

Our route to Land's End

I used a website called http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ to plot our route and work out distances. Unfortunately it couldnt handle the whole route in one map so I have had to plot 2 maps to cover the whole route.

route part 1 (0-264 miles)

route part 2 (264-end)

Time for weight training

I weighed each of the bags that I would be taking to find out how much extra weight I would be taking and check that the 2 panniers were fairly evenly balanced.

Backpack - 9lbs
Left Pannier - 1stone 1lbs
Right Pannier - 1stone 1lbs
tent - 6lbs

Turns out the 2 panniers were nicely balanced but I hadnt realised just how heavy my load would be. I'm going to be carrying almost an extra 3.5stone!

Lets hope my bike can handle the weight of a fat chuffer plus all his gear.

Were gonna need a bigger bike

Over the last couple of days Steve and I have been gathering together all the bits we were going to take with us. This included me buying some extra spares like a spare bike chain and spare brake cables. So I could keep track of it all I was laying it all out. Last night I had everything I was going to take, The sheer volume of "stuff" was intimidating.

I slowly started planning the packing. One thought I had come up with was that I wanted to make sure everything I needed when we arrived at a campsite for the night was in one pannier and anything else was in the other. This meant things like sleeping bag, sleeping mat, fresh clothes and wash kit all in one pannier. This way in the worst conditions I would only have to worry about getting that one pannier into the tent and I could stay in there in the dry. Also anything I would need quick access to throughout the day would go in my backpack. After some packing and repacking I had my backpack and 2 panniers loaded up.

Journal format

After a little thinking I have decided it would be nice for people to have some accurate details of our trip instead of just my drivlings. So I shall try and make sure each posting has a few bits of useful info :

Day x
Distance travelled : x, Cumulative Distance : x
Current location : Place Name, google maps link to exact longitude and latitude

And then all my meanderings along with any input from Steve.

Last minute planning

Steve and I continued to cycle the route we had plotted at the weekend for several more weeks and in the meantime I have also been doing what planning I can gathering maps, writing down extra directions and booking a few campsites. We have also decided to spoil ourselves and on the 6th day after hopefully covering 215 miles we are booked in to a b&b on a farm for the night. A real bed with a real pillow, luxury.

Amongst my planning I found that my sat nav is able to report my longitude and latitude. I then found out that using google maps you can specify a longitude and latitude rather than a postcode or road name. Having a look at the link that is created when you search for a longitude and latitude with some friends we were able to understand what we needed to write to create a weblink that would take someone to google maps and straight to a longitude and latitude. For example I can write a link for people to follow and send them straight to Land's End.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=50.065514,-5.698471

Attitudes

Whilst chatting to people about the whole charity cycle trek I was surprised to have come across 2 responses more common than any other. The first is people that immediately respond with something along the lines of "you'll never make that, you'll kill yourself" and the other is "that doesnt seem very difficult to me". It took a little while to realise I had to ignore these sorts of statements or I'd be in such a negative state of mind I'd never even set off. I even had one chap tell me it was far to easy and he would only sponsor Steve and I if we carried a heavy weight with us of about 250kg. It became clear at this point that peoples ideas of measurements such as weights and mileages can be a little hazy at times.

However to balance this out there have been a lot of people that are supportive and sponsored me for the trek and to all of those people thank you very much.

A Good cause

I cant recall who suggested it or when but I had been chatting to a few people about the idea of the bike ride and someone suggested that since I was taking this difficult challenge and as it would be really hard work I could actually make it an event to raise money for charity.

This immediately made sense to me and I started thinking about it. Fortunately Steve has been involved in various fundraising events before and so had a bit more knowledge about it than I did. He told me of a website where you can create a page with some details of your fundraising attempt and they will host the page and handle all the financial admin for you.

I took a look and after some reading decided it was what I needed as it took all the hassle out of my hands. I chose to try and raise some money for the National Society for Epilepsy as my sister has had the condition since she was 11 and the NSE have been a great help supporting the whole family. As well as this they are involved in research of new treatments.

I created my page and started sending out a few emails spreading the word of my event and seeing if anyone would sponsor me.

Steve wanted a charity that he was involved in more directly and so created another page to try and raise some sponsorship for Tearfund who offer Christian aid around the world. Steve had been involved previously with trying to raise money to relieve the food crisis in East Africa so felt this was the cause he would support.

Above and beyond

I dont remember too much from that second attempt at the route except knuckling down and pushing for the new distance trying not to get too distracted by all the nice scenery and boats floating along the river.

I do however remember at one point taking a turning and stopping to study the map only to have someone else cycling follow us. You could tell immediately from his accent that he was an Antipodean who was fairly new to Britain going for a bike ride. Steve suspected with his more tuned ear that he was Australian. In case I havent mentioned it my friend is from Aus which perhaps helps explain his explorer/walkabout spirit. The chap asked us if we were doing NCN 4 and if so was this the correct way. I pointed him in the correct direction and he dashed off not weighed down by cumbersome bike spares or tools. Steve and I set off shortly after once I had refolded the map and put it in my pocket.

A little while later we came around a corner at a crossroads and stopped to check the map as we felt we might have gone wrong and who should roll up but our Antipodean friend again. After chatting for a bit we learnt that he was a New Zealander who was very new to Britain and had thought as Britain was so tiny on the map it would be easy to navigate. Turns out that as well as not being encumbered by spares or tools he also wasnt encumbered with a map. After suggesting he use maps in future and giving him directions according to our map he dashed off. We then set off ourselves and got back on track with Steve deciding he had spent too long in Blighty as his Antipodean hearing couldnt distinguish the New Zealand accent from Australian. I suggested Steve could consider himself a true Brit now :)

On the returning leg when we got back to Hampton Court on the way to Kingston for the second time that day I was really starting to feel the pain and after a brief consult with Steve I learnt I wasnt the only one. We decided to head home from Hampton Court instead of going all the way to Kingston. According to the trusty cereal box trip computer heading home from here should still give us the required distance.

That last stretch home was the hardest for me yet and later I found out from Steve that he could see from his vantage point behind me I was working hard because the tempo of my peddling was slowing with the effort. By the time we reached home I was ready to drop and just collapsed on the sofa for maybe 30mins.

If we had to cover this distance every day for 8 days we could be in trouble.

Its how far?

I had purchased the NCN route guides for the West Country Way and the Cornish Way as these were the 2 routes we would be taking to get to Land's End. Once they arrived I looked at the distance of the route and realised it was looking like about 340 miles.

Originally I had planned to take a weeks holiday to do the trip giving me 9 days including the weekend either side but I needed one day to do the train rides all the way home so 8 days to cover 340 miles. This meant the 35 mile route we had tried at the weekend wasnt long enough. We were looking at covering 42.5 miles every day. This had me a bit worried as the 35 mile route was already hard work. I had a look at the route we had covered and altered it slightly so that instead of heading home at Walton Bridge we followed the thames all the way back to kingston and then home from there. That should give us this new distance target. We would try this new route the next weekend.

The first slog

Steve came round my place the next saturday afternoon in preparation to try out the route. For this first full run we left all equipment other than essentials (bike tools, spares and lunch) behind and set off to spend the day getting lost in Surrey. It took a minute or two to persuade Steve to lighten his rucksac a little by leaving behind the jumper and jeans he was going to bring along. Fortunately Steve did have more foresight than me and brought along his camera and got some nice shots.

The NCN route starts by the Thames up near Richmond and we had decided to start it at Kingston as we would have to cycle there to start. The route was actually very scenic and enjoyable with a large portion being along the Thames on tow paths. Unfortunately this did mean sharing a portion of the route with walkers and other cyclists.

We very quickly found that on nice tarmacked roads we could whizz along at a fairly good pace. However, given the less pleasant surfaces of gravel, mud tracks with large tree routes to avoid and moving targets (walkers) our speed along tow paths dropped drastically.

By the time we had completed the first leg to Kingston and then back to Walton Bridge by the Thames path Steve was already feeling his legs complaining having not done any cycling for 10 years or more and suddenly finding himself looking at 30 odd miles I could understand the problem. We took a break at this point as its quite nice around there with seating by the river and a playing field. This gave us some time to discuss whether we felt we should push on. We agreed that there would be no sense pushing on if it just ended up injuring one of us. However, after taking a breather we were both all for pushing on so we saddled up and headed off again.

More towpath along the Thames followed and I made a mental note to visit some rather nice secluded little pubs on the river that we spotted. [You'll have to find these yourselves as I like the idea of quiet secret little pubs by the river :) ]

We realised very quickly that our trek would be slowed somewhat by the necessity to stop every now and then and consult the maps at junctions and built up areas. This was no longer looking like a fast bike blitz down to Cornwall. It would be all to easy to get lost so caution and careful study of the ordnance survey maps I had was called for. Whilst I made a mental note of some nice looking local pubs I think Steve was making a mental note of some ice cream vans that would need investigating at some point. Steve has a slight liking for Whippy ice creams, lets just say if there was such a thing as a Whippy connoisseur Steve would be it.

Eventually we reached Staines and by this point the only thing on my mind was that this was as far out as we went and from here on it was a ride home. Steve was stalwartly following my lead and hadn't mentioned being tired since Walton. By now I knew Steve had been the perfect choice for a cycle partner for the trip as he's always up for an adventurer and doesnt quit easily.

From Staines there was a long stretch of road before going down a side road and then through some parks. Upon leaving the parks I knew we were back in Weybridge. A short stretch of cycle lane before we were back on the Thames path heading back to Walton Bridge. We were almost home and I felt my legs wake up a little at the thought of getting home and collapsing on the sofa.

Once back at Walton Bridge we collapsed on a bench to get a breather. That turned out to be a mistake. Once I had sat down my legs didnt want to get up again. After a few minutes rest we eventually saddled up and set off for home. This last stretch was only about 15 minutes but by the time we got back we were exhausted. But we had made it back. Although knackered I was on a bit of a buzz having succesfully completed the route which I reckoned was about 30miles and Steve looked pretty happy with our progress too.

I think we both knew our legs would be protesting at the treatment when they realised the next day what they had been put through but regardless of that we made plans to head out again next weekend for more practice. I had plans to dump some stuff in the panniers to get an idea of weight and Steve wanted to get the rack and panniers on his bike and find out what that would be like.

A hard days slog but we ended it feeling like we had achieved something. Next to await the pains and cramps of tomorrow.

NCN route 4

Using a combination of NCN maps and road atlases I found NCN (National Cycle Network) route 4 went close by my home. I could tailor a bike ride around that route and make it into a ride that would equate to the distances we would be looking at doing each day. I had looked at some road atlases and guesstimated that we would be doing about 35miles a day...ish

Baby steps

A weekend later we decided to go for our first ride together not too great a distance so that Steve could get the feel of the bike. The route was to be a jaunt into kingston from my place followed by lunch beside the Thames and then a ride home through Molesey. Nowhere near the distances we would be covering but hopefully it would give Steve a little more confidence on the bike. He was still a little unsure about cycling on roads with cars whizzing by. The route would be just about 13 miles.

By coincidence I had got a very basic trip computer free in a cereal packet. Although basic it did report speed, distance and cumulative distance which was all I really needed. I attached this to the bike and calibrated it to my wheel circumference before we set off to confirm my distance calculations.

By the time we had reached our break point by the Thames over Kingston bridge just after mile 6 Steve had realised that cycling was going to need different leg muscles to those we had been trying to get into shape for a charity run. I think he was grateful for the lunch break and I was quite enjoying the break too given the lovely weather and watching the river life drift by.

After maybe an hour we set off again as our legs had received a nice break and recovered somewhat. Shortly in to the homeward leg Steve found that it was temporary and as soon as he was back on the bike his leg muscles were complaining again.

Eventually we made it home but I think we both knew we needed serious training to get ready for a weeks worth of cycling around 35miles every day. However we were both quite chuffed. The bikes had stood up to the journey well and all our repairs on Steves new steed held fast. Steve had gone for his first ride in maybe 10 years and felt it wasnt quite as terrifying as he had built it up to be in his head. Next thing for me to do would be to find a longer route for us to do to get into serious training for the trek ahead.

She may not look like much but shes got it where it counts

Well after rummaging around in my garage I came out with a frame and back wheel. Sweeping back a few more cobwebs revealed the front wheel hidden behind an old bucket. Taking the bike parts all out into the sunlight revealed the following:
1. front inner tube had deteriorated and needed replacing
2. front tyre was split and needed replacing
3. front derailler wasnt aligned correctly
4. rear gear lever was hanging off frame
5. most mechanicals had rusted
[all in all not as bad as I had feared]

Time to get the old elbow grease out and get busy. First thing we did was give all the parts a good clean and the frame a proper wash followed by oiling the mechanicals. Fortunately we had already bought a spare inner tube just in case and I had a spare tyre so we next repaired the front wheel.

Once we had the front wheel back on the frame and the bike in a basic riding condition we moved on to repairing and reattaching the rear gear lever. We took a screw from a spare set of light brackets to replace the broken screw that had held the gear lever in place. It was a bit long for the frame so I had to cut it down to size. (I knew my grandads old tool shed and tools would come in handy eventually).

Lastly we spent some time aligning both derailleurs to allow smooth gear changes. This took a while as the arm spring on the front derailleur was either pulling the derailleur too far or if the cable was slackened off a bit to combat this the derailler couldnt move far enough. I think we must have scratched our heads for about an hour playing with that front derailleur. Eventually I spotted a small dial on the actual gear lever which as it turns out is for fine tuning how much the spring moves the derailleur. One twist of that dial and the problem was sorted.

So, after an afternoon getting burnt in lovely sun we had a functional bike...now we just had to get Steve riding it.

A bike, a bike, my kingdom for a bike

Steve's initial forray into getting a bike meant popping into some big name bike stores but of course they were all rather expensive (100s of pounds) for what might turn out to be a single use.

Next thought was to borrow a bike. One friend he tried had only recently sold theirs. Another friend was giving theirs to someone else but said we might be able to borrow it for one of the practice rides. I suggested that we go on the practice rides on the bikes we would actually take with us so that we were comfortable with them and we could iron out any wrinkles in their performance before hand through testing.

It was at this point that I remembered an old bike of mine that had fallen into disrepair years back and abandoned in my garage. Perhaps that was still usable, if I could find it in amongst all the other stuff I had lying around in there amongst the cobwebs...

Volunteers, one step forwards...

After thinking about who would be up for a challenge a good friend of mine named Steve Burden came to mind. Sure enough, when I suggested my idea he was immediately interested in the thought of an adventure camping and cycling the west country and we started discussing ideas.

It didnt take too long to run smack bang into our first hurdle. Steve did not own a bike! An even bigger hurdle than this was that he hadnt ridden a bike in perhaps 10 years and even then it had not been on busy main roads.

We needed to urgently get hold of a serviceable bike for Steve and get him riding it to familiarise himself with it. We also needed to blow the cobwebs off Steve's cycling skills and build up his confidence around other traffic. So, where to get a bike without spending large amounts of cash?

Being reasonable

Right, Land's End to John O'Groats is a bit ambitious for a first bike trek. Having spent some time browsing maps from places such as sustrans, the organisers of the NCN (National Cycle Network), I found that there were a couple of NCN routes that link together to cover almost the full length of the west country.

The West Country Way goes from Bristol to Padstow and The Cornish Way links Bude to Land's End. Between these 2 routes it would be possible to get all the way from Bristol to Land's End sticking to NCN routes. The 2 routes linked together looked like they would provide approximately a 340mile route. With some training and planning I may just be able to cover that distance in my planned weeks holiday. Now to find someone foolish enough to join me as a cycling buddy on this endeavour.

The first mad ravings of an idea

For a while I've fancied the idea of taking a week and going on a cycling/camping trek and the commonly known route is of course Land's End to John O'Groats. The idea has been lurking at the back of my head for a while. This year I decided to pull my finger out and do something about it. It didnt take much research to realise just how big a task that Land's End to John O'Groats would be given my level of fitness and the few hours spent in the saddle. After some initial weekends cycling it was obvious that I wouldnt be able to cover a distance as great as 838 miles (according to google maps) in just 1 week and thats taking the direct motorway route. This called for a serious rethink.