Day one: Land’s End to Redruth

It’s £10.99 for a photo at the signpost. Tim would have scoffed at that, and all this commercialisation at Land’s End. It’s like a holiday resort, and not a nice one. Tourists queue to have their photo taken. 

Beyond the wall is the real land’s end: huge cliffs stacked in the sea, an old stone lighthouse, and the Isles of Scilly just visible on the horizon. It’s a beautiful clear day.

We stand on the other side of the wall from the signpost with our bikes and take a cheeky picture, complete with family in the background. 

‘We’ is me (Anna), Mark, Lorenzo and Howard (my boyfriend). It’s the first time I have met Lorenzo and Mark, and with luck all three of us will be riding all the way from Land’s End to John o’ Groats. This will be the longest tour Lorenzo has ever done. We compare bikes. Lorenzo’s is pretty much the same as mine – heavy but not to the extent that you can’t lift the rear wheel up.

Mark’s, on the other hand, is extremely heavy. We can barely lift the back wheel. He doesn’t know quite why it’s that heavy, but it’s amazing how quickly all the kit you need for cycle touring adds up. We’re already taking bets on how soon he’ll be packaging things up and sending them home.

We talk about Tim for a while. Mark and Lorenzo had never met him, but were among the many people who had followed him online and enjoyed his adventures. This is quite common: most of the posts that have been left on social media in tribute to Tim say “I never met him, but…” then talk about all the ways in which he touched their lives. 

We talk about how we love the way he didn’t hold back at all: the way he described his travels was like you were there on the road with him, and he was equally open when it came to describing his mental struggles. Mark said he’d helped him through his own dark times. We remember a particular message he had written before his Morocco trip, when he said he’d been overwhelmed by doubts about his ability to pull off the adventure, and had stayed in bed for two days. “Lots of tears,” he’d written on social media. Even those who didn’t know him could tell he was very genuine, and very gentle with it. A big, gentle, generous and funny guy, but also one who didn’t take any shit from anybody. That sounds like my friend Tim.

We’re taking it easy today: a lazy 11.30am departure from Land’s End. The weather could not be more perfect for our first day on the road. It’s calm and sunny – no wind to speak of, just clear blue skies and a lovely warm sun. The plan is to ride 30 miles to Redruth – a bit shorter than the coming days, to ease us into it. 

After making the climb out of Lands End we pick up NCN route 3 and follow it along the quiet country lanes. There are few cars to speak of and the road is surprisingly gentle, for Cornwall. Perfect weather and a perfect road. Tim would have loved it.

It doesn’t stay flat forever of course, and eventually there’s a get-off-and-push climb. Then it’s a furious descent into Mousehole, right on the edge of Mount’s Bay. We follow the slow sweep of the bay, the cycle route taking us right next to the water on a delightful traffic-free path. We can see Lizard point (the most southerly point of mainland Britain) stretching down into the sea across the bay, and there’s St Michael’s Mount, huge, majestic and dramatic, rising from the sea. 

We stop in Penzance for lunch then head north, away from the sea. The Cornish peninsula is only 9 or so miles wide at this point, so it’s not long before we’ve arrived on the north Cornish coast. Coffee and cake by the harbour in Hayle, then up and up onto the cliff tops towards Portreath. This was not exactly the planned route and we’d already added a few extra miles anyway going round Mounts Bay, but we had got chatting to some people in Hayle who had recommended eating in Portreath rather than Redruth. So we slog at the climb because we know it will be worth it: a beautiful harbour with a sandy beach, a lovely pub, and fish and chips by the sea.

We make a toast to Tim and make sure to rate the dinner as he would have done. It’s heartbreaking that we’re even here, but we’re so happy to be on the road in his honour and to have had a cracker of a first day.

Stats for the day: 54km distance, 549m climbing

Accommodation review: Sunset Camping. Mark didn’t get much sleep as it’s right next to the A30, and no one bothered with a shower as they were too tired!

Blackberry consumption: high