Day 20: Melvich to John o’ Groats
Not long after setting off we pass a NC500 sign for John o’ Groats – the first time we’ve seen our ultimate destination on a road sign. It feels wild that we’re within touching distance of our goal. It’s a strange psychology, doing a ride that is so focussed on one place: throughout our journey,…
Day 19: Crask Inn to Melvich
The midges are out. I can see them through the mesh in my inner tent, crawling over the fabric, waiting for their breakfast. The outer tent is thick with little black bodies, similarly waiting. I know I need to be smart – as soon as I open the zip, that’s it. I pack up everything…
Day 18: Dingwall to Crask Inn
There are a few options for routes from here when you’re riding a LEJOG: one is up the coastal A9 through Dornoch, Golspie, Helmsdale and Wick; another is straight up the middle, via the Crask Inn, aka the wilderness route. We’re taking the ‘straight-up-the-middle’ route. We stock up in the supermarket in anticipation – we won’t…
Day 17: Aviemore to Dingwall
I’m in the bike shop in Inverness at 9am. I can already tell they don’t want to help me, judging by the look on this staff-member’s face: one of tiredness and dread. The look says, we already have a stack of bikes and only one mechanic. We don’t need any bother today. He says he…
Day 16: Pitlochry to Aviemore
Today is all about Tim. This is the stretch that we cycled together back in 2020, in that strange ‘eat out to help out’ summer, when he booked a Caledonian Sleeper to get some much-needed cycling therapy in Scotland and asked if I’d like to go with him. We’d never ridden together before, both of…
Day 15: Kinross to Pitlochry
We must be strong now, or perhaps we’re just used to it, but we barely register the hills today. We’re on another route that paces a motorway, but this time it’s on a road that climbs into the hills then plunges back to the valley, to cross and climb the other side. Each rise and…
Day 14: Rigside to Kinross
It’s another big bridge day, and this time there’s not one but three. Today we will cross the Firth of Forth at Queensferry, just outside Edinburgh. It was the 1880s when a bridge was first built over the Forth (the rail bridge, known today simply as the Forth Bridge), to carry the growing rail network.…
Day 13: Kirkpatrick-Fleming to Rigside (nr Lanark)
Ivan has travelled a long way (from London) to ride what is arguably the least inspiring stretch of the whole ride. We’re also joined by Sally, who’s travelled here from Dumfries and will return home after Moffat. This is the part of the cycle network that cyclists bemoan the most: for more than 50 miles…
Day 12: Patterdale to Kirkpatrick-Fleming
Ullswater looks magical in the morning haze. We start early, before the mist entirely lifts, but soon the sun burns through to bring another scorching day. Before we started the ride, someone asked what weather I would prefer: relentless sunshine or relentless rain. The answer has to be relentless sunshine, but only just. Spending all…
Day 11: Morecambe to Patterdale
Today is the big one: we will be crossing the Kirkstone pass. The Lake District hills are clearly visible across Morecambe bay where we start the day, and they look dauntingly big. I’ve cycled over the Kirkstone pass three times, a couple of times with luggage, but never with a load this heavy. The others…
Day ten: Culcheth to Morecambe
The Leeds Liverpool canal brings our canal count up to six, but this is the final towpath we will use. England eventually runs out of canal. It brings us smoothly into Wigan (Ian at the campsite insisted it was paved all the way into the town; I was skeptical, but it actually is), which is…
Day nine: Stoke-on-Trent to Culcheth
From being canal-shy, now we can’t get enough. The Midlands are canal heaven, so of course there won’t be a day goes by that we don’t touch a towpath. The Trent and Mersey leads north from industrial Stoke, punctuated with the chimneys and kilns of the old potteries. The well-paved towpath descends into vicious cobbles…
Day eight: Kidderminster to Stoke-on-Trent
The obvious route out of Kiddy is the canal, so even though we’ve rejected towpaths before, we give this one more of a go. It is lovely in many ways: peaceful, scenic, with plenty of blackberries and no hills or traffic to worry about. The locks are quaint and the bridges are pretty. At first…
Day seven: Gloucester to Kidderminster
The bumpy paths and heavy loads are taking their toll on the bikes, and Mark has popped a spoke. So our first stop will be at the bike shop in Gloucester. It’s a 7-odd mile ride along the Gloucester-Sharpness canal, and it’s a bright morning, and the towpath has a good surface this time so…
Day six: Clevedon to near Gloucester
One of the things that Tim loved was bridges. The bigger the better. Perhaps it’s because he worked in construction and loved the architecture and engineering, but actually bridges fascinate me too: their symmetry and grace, how they defy gravity, and how they physically link two places. Today we would see the Severn bridges, icons…
Day five: Taunton to Clevedon
There’s a set of sculptures on the Bridgwater and Taunton canal: a to-scale model of the solar system, with the planets placed relative to their actual distances, and made relative to their actual sizes. There are actually two sets, stretching out either way from the sun: fourteen miles long in total, so it takes about…
Day four: Crediton to Taunton
The first rule of cycle touring is that everything takes longer than you think. We’ve arranged to meet some people in Tiverton who will ride with us for the rest of the day, and to see some of Mark’s friends, as he lives just outside Tiverton. We’ve said midday, because that is absolutely enough time…
Day three: Camelford to Crediton
Thank God for this disused railway line. It’s been an extremely hard morning. It wasn’t too bad to start with – 20 miles across the moor, undulating rather than hilly, atmospherically misty but not actually raining – and we stopped for breakfast in high spirits having achieved some good, fast miles. But after breakfast the…
Day two: Redruth to Camelford
It was raining even before we started: light drizzly rain that doesn’t feel like much but soaks everything. But it’s warm, and the rain is refreshing, and the landscape emerging from the mist is extremely atmospheric. The first part of the day is “get-there” miles, not just because it’s raining, but because the route invites…
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…
Ride for Tim 