Edinburgh

Our few days in Edinburgh were taken up with a visit to Edinburgh castle, some whiskey tasting, a bit of shopping, an brilliant opportunity to have a go playing bagpipes (surprisingly I wasn't THAT bad, and bought a chanter to practice for next time), and walking all over Edinburgh, both old and new.  Of course we also had a bus tour, which I think is the best way to see any new city, and get your bearing to walk it.

We also wandered past the Floral clock, which rather disappointingly was being replanted, and incomplete at the time.

LeJog ... the journey back to John O'Groats

Day 1

Riding went very well indeed, and Nick rode from Lands End to Tewkesbury.  We stayed at the Caravan Club site adjacent to the abbey.  The wardens were lovely, and gave me a pitch close to the gates, because I would have to accompany Nick to the gates the next morning with a key to let him out.

At around 9pm I realised that when I'd done my shopping for the day, I'd forgotten to buy double cream, which is the most calorie intensive part of Nick's breakfast on cycling days, so the wardens gave me directions to the One Stop, the only shop open late at night.  I got there at 9.05pm to

JogLe (John O'Groats to Lands End)

Day 1

Loch Ness - with not a monster in sight

For me, there was a little excitement on the road watching one of the swinging bridges between lochs swinging open to let some water traffic through.  Sadly I had to scuttle back to the van to get ready to move off too soon!

Real Time Tracking

You can track us here if you fancy watching our progress.  Threesimcleaton is the bike, and Footsack is the van.


You get to see the proposed route on your screens via a computer, which we don't on our phones.

John O'Groats

It's extremely windy here on the north-west tip.   So windy that I haven't yet seen a gull flap it's wings!   Although there is a heatwave, there was plenty of snow to be seen on the way through Scotland.  I'm not particularly impressed with the campsite here - there is no heating in the shower block, and even with the 'heatwave' it's rather chilly in there.

We managed to squeeze in a bit of a walk up on the cliff, and a meander through the shops, and went to the Seaview Hotel for a late lunch.  The lady at the information office down by the beach had told us that this was the only place in the village that we would be able to get 'real' food, as opposed to fish & chips etc.  The food was quite delicious, and the people in the hotel bar, both locals and staff very friendly.  It was rather odd to me, when a bunch of 14 or so teenage lads came in to play darts and pool, and not one of them had a pint ... all whiskey drinkers.  I guess they start them young in Scotland.

We also did the obligatory photo shoot under the signs, because there was pretty much no way I would be up in the dark to take photos at 4am in the morning, which is when Nick will be starting his journey south.  I shall leave at a time far more sedate.

The journey north

The pick  up  in  Rugby went off very smoothly and I have 3 pendants and 2 chains to show for my journey up there, because I stopped off and did a little shopping with a friend from school, Wendy Warren.  She has a website for her jewellery, and her stuff is absolutely gorgeous!

Traffic on the M6 was horrendous (what a non-surprise), but I was very happy to be going northbound - south was much much worse.

We spent the night just north of Gretna.   Yo Scotland!  I haven't been here since 1976!  This was our first night ever in a lay by, and went really well too,  but I confess there is a Britstop a couple of miles away just in case we didn't like it.

The layby that hosted our first night of Wild Camping

The onward journey from Gretna to John O'Groats was uneventful and we arrived early afternoon.

Departing Tomorrow

Well, that's certainly come round rather fast.  Clothes sorted and packed.  Stuff to keep me amused, and the 'tech' gear has gone in today.  Now we have pretty much everything except  us.  Tonight we will fill the tanks, commission the toilet, pop to the garage for a bit of diesel, and have a very early night!!

I think I more or less have the 24 hour monitor thing sorted now too.  Yesterday's phone call to the doctors surgery, was nothing short of depressing.  No appointments available, and an instruction to phone daily until an appointment was available.  So bizarre that I started thinking that it would be a hell of a lot less stressful to just turn up my tootsie and die.  Anyway, I duly made the required phone call today, spoke to a different person, who said I didn't need doctors appointment at all, that Patient Services (whoever they are), would contact me with a date/time to come in and pick up the monitor etc.
No idea who long that will take.  I hope its not too long, because not knowing what is going on is just a 'tad' stressful, and stress is something that I'm supposed to be reducing.

I almost forgot our large pot of loose change for parking machines and laundromats.   That would have been catastrophic!

I'm now sitting around, with no maps open on my PC, no piles of stuff to pack or do.  I feel rather at a loss.

Three years ago today

That is when we started on this cycling journey.  Nick had been reading a cycling forum that organised some informal long rides, and commented that he'd like to join some of the rides, but didn't know whether his pace was comparable to the group's, and wouldn't like to be lagging behind everyone else, holding them up.  I did a quick google, found a 100 mile event not too far from us (the Action 100 New Forest Sportive), and just like that, he was entered in the event, and off we headed to Winchester.
I knew he would be able to finish it with ease, because the miles he covered each week commuting was far more than a mere 100, but, you know how it is, its much easier for someone else to have confidence in you than for you to have confidence in yourself.
He did so well, that following behind in the car looking for him, I was convinced I must have driven past him and not noticed, because we just kept on driving and not finding him.  Eventually though we caught up.
There has been no stopping him since then, And now here we are, contemplating a ride of 2975km.

Did you guess it right?

I confess that I am quite delighted with the way this storage bag has worked out.  With poppers at both ends, it stays on the table leg forever.  I like stuff that never has to be stored away.

Departure -3

This morning has gone very well indeed.  I've been having a few issues the last week with my pulse being about 25% lower than is usual for me, and been stressing a bit that I would end up being incarcerated (admitted to hospital), putting a total spanner on the Jogle works.  Thankfully, the nurse at my Cardio Rehab sessions has recommended that I have a 24 hour heart monitor instead (have to wait for a GP appointment to get that ball rolling so won't be anytime soon), and gave me a guideline as to when to leg it for casualty in terms of pulse.  If it goes 6-10 bpm lower than the lowest its gone so far, I'm to pack myself off to the ER.

I've now got everything properly loaded on my Garmin in the van (Yippee ... that sometimes fights with me to the point of wanting to fling it out the window)  Everything is still going so smoothly that I've made plans to pop in and visit a friend on Friday afternoon on my way to Rugby to pick Nick up.

Rugby ... strange place to be picking Nick up really, but it makes perfect sense.  The quickest way to get him out of the London congestion etc is by train, so why not make it a train journey long enough to get away from all the London and surrounds weekend traffic.  His train should come into Rugby station, about the same time as he would get home, but, I'll have been driving for about 4 hours when we meet in Rugby.  It means we can get to John O'Groats a little earlier on Saturday than we otherwise would be able to.

The bike is ready

The routes are all on the cycling Garmins now; I have two, an edge 810 and an older edge 800. Having two is very handy when they crash during long rides, and also means I can leave one on the data screen and the other on the map screen all the time, making it easier to follow a route.

I tried out my new dynamo powered front light for the first time last night, and I really like it. No more stress over front light battery levels. Also, the pattern of light on the road includes a line at right angles to my direction of travel, which looks a bit like that dial they have in planes that shows the pilot where the horizon is - the one that spins round and round when the plane is in a death spiral, I forget what it's called. So when the bike tilts as I go around a corner it feels like I'm flying a plane.

Departure -4

The routing is complete, apart from waiting for the ink to arrive to finish printing off the way points for Nick's backup.  We've even highlighted the route on the paper map book.  We do still need to load the way points, routes and tracks onto the GPS units, but that is all.

We still feel like everything is under control.  We are still worried that we must have missed something big.

Have made a storage bag today.  Have you worked out how it works?  Answers on a postcard (which means in the comments) please.  I will tell you that it has got something to do with the table leg.  During the contruction process of the van, when we were sorting out the fabric for the upholstery, I got a "few" metres of some upholstery fabric from the guy doing the job in a co-ordinating colour for things like this.

I've used Kam Snaps for the closures at both ends.  I absolutely love these little things!  You need to have one of the Kam snap pliers though, they can't be used without it.



Also need to sort out covering a bit of wood we'll be using a temporary shelf, and a little strap to keep all the remoska bits together.  The remoska is already in a bag, but all the bits strapped toogethr will be helpful.

And, we forgot to do the bike light adjusting after dark yesterday, so will have to make a concerted effort to remember tonight.  Its not something we want to be doing at 4am on Sunday morning!!

Departure -5

We've mostly had the entire day off today, spending it with family.
Did a little van rearranging this morning, and will print out whatever is needed for my reference file this evening, and make sure that everything necessary is transfer to the assortment of Garmin devices.

This evening will be spent making sure there is nothing unnecessary in the van cupboards/lockers, and tomorrow, we will pack the van other than clothes/food.  Can't believe tomorrow is the last non working day before we leave.

Happily my body seems to be functioning much better today.  Hip is prepared to do some moving (had a shortish walk of about 3 miles on virtually flat ground, but still not driving, because I don't want to antagonise it), and although I still feel a little off, not quite as off as yesterday :)

Nick still has a little bit of fiddling about to do with his water bottles (drawing lines on them for the ration of gunk to water), checking angle of his lights (scheduled for after dark tonight), and prepping his tools and spares to be loaded in the van.  He also still needs to show me the recipe for his current food drink.

We feel like everything is going too well at this point.  The only 'disaster' is running out of ink while printing off the waypoint sheets, but as there is ample time to get in some ink to complete the job, it really isn't a disaster!