This post recounts the eighth day of my 14 day LEJOG19 adventure, in August 2019. For tips based on my experience, please go to my blogpost How to ride Land’s End to John O’Groats. Read Day 7, Northwich to Conder Green

This was a lovely day. It rained a lot, as low pressure continued to dump lots of rain on Great Britain, but it wasn’t as heavy as yesterday, and the roads were drier.

We had many opportunities to see the effects of three days’ rain, especially as the flood plain of the Lune was living up to its name!

The first part of today’s ride took us along an old railway path from Conder Green to Lancaster. I normally have a good sense of direction and geography, but today I was disoriented . Weren’t we going away from Lancaster not towards it? I had a similar feeling later near Tebay, not realising that it was south, not north, of our destination Penrith.

There was an animal theme today. A herd of cows took interest in us at the morning brew stop. Later, we found the lane blocked by a gate as a lovely female farm worker let a lorry-load of lambs into a field. She apologised for keeping us waiting; we said it was no problem on a Sunday morning when we were enjoying the lovely Lancashire hill country. We smiled at the registration number on the van, which ended BAA!

Later, I was intrigued to see a this sign for Arkholme with the reference to its being a thankful village. Thankful villages were those that lost no one in the Great War; 59 men from Arkholme went off to war and came back. Nearby Nether Kellet was ‘doubly thankful’ as it lost no one in either of the world wars.

My favourite part of today’s ride was the stretch in the fells with the West Coast Main Line railway, M6 and river Lune to my left. We saw an electric express train heading south, which led me to imagine steam hauled trains traversing these lonely hills, as they did until my early childhood.

Lunch was a more meagre affair than normal in a pub that had sixties music (a theme we found in northern pubs) competing with Songs of Praise on TV. We joked that we hadn’t prayed enough for good weather!

We had a big climb our of Tebay straight after lunch, which I was pleased to complete without too much difficulty. The afternoon session was relatively easy, and we were soon in Penrith, our final night south of the border.

At first glance my guesthouse in Penrith was lovely – a solid Victorian house with lovely features. We were told there was a drying room, which was a godsend as I needed to wash some cycling clothes, But this drying room proved to be a false god: it was a cupboard with no heat. Needless to say, nothing dried! It proved surprisingly difficult to dry clothes during this summer trip, as the few heated towel rails were typically unheated. Happily our first guesthouse in Scotland did a wash for us.

Venturing into Penrith for dinner, I could feel a distinct change in the weather. I wore long trousers for the first time in two weeks, a pattern that would continue off the bike for the rest of the trip. You wouldn’t know that it was August!

The day’s stats

62 miles, 4,085 feet climbing, 5 hrs 2 mins cycling, 12.3 mph average

Read Day 9, Penrith to Moffat

This post recounts the seventh day of my 14 day LEJOG19 adventure, in August 2019. For tips based on my experience, please go to my blogpost How to ride Land’s End to John O’Groats. Read Day 6, Clun to Northwich

This was the day I concluded there’s no such thing as waterproof cycling clothing. We got wet. Very wet. So wet that we were handed towels when we arrived at our lunchtime pub stop.

But the first stage of the day;’s cycling from Northwich was dry – and fast. We averaged over 16 mph over the first 20 miles, which was a surprise given we were making our way past the Manchester conurbation. A contrast with my 2002 LEJOG route past it, which was slower and more stop-start. Much of today was urban riding, unlike most of the past six days, in towns that had seen better days. But we went through one gem early on: Great Budworth, a village of timbered cottages similar to those in Pembridge and Weobley two days ago.

The rain started for real – ”organised rain’, in that strange phrase loved by certain TV weather forecasters – as we started the climb onto the moors near Bolton. I was cycling on my own by this stage, and reflected on how the equivalent day on LEJOG in 2002 was also a washout, (We had waves down the road that time and we were flooded out of our campsite, so I should think myself lucky in 2019!) It was a shame that we didn’t get a view as it must be spectacular up here ion a fine day. Despite the rain, I wasn’t cold, and found it strangely satisfying, although I confess that feeling faded towards the end of the afternoon.

As we entered the Rock Inn, Tockholes, we were handed towels to dry off. I chose a seat by the glowing fire, but quickly realised that it wasn’t on! Lunch was just what I needed: a hearty cheese and onion pie followed by jam roly poly. I also ordered a pot of tea to warm up, a tradition that lasted for the rest of the tour.

I had company for the rest of the day, which was nice, We came across a cycle race as we neared Lancaster. Sadly, we didn’t get the promised view of Blackpool Tower but a number of our group couldn’t resist stopping for ice cream at Wallings not far from our destination at Conder Green. By then I was far more interested in finishing the day and getting into dry clothes!

Tonight we were in the Mill at Conder Green, the best hotel of our stay, and I was blessed to have a room with a bath. Later, Louise, Paul, Nico, Kevin and I had a wonderful dinner. I went for a curry as a change from a week’s pub grub, and it was delicious. I followed that with the cheese board.

We were amused by Nico, who was yearning to join the rest of our party in the Stork pub, half a mile away. But the weather was still atrocious. He kept staring out of the window at the driving rain, finally plucking up the courage to venture forth. We stayed put! It would be nice to spend time at the Mill in fine weather.

Day’s stats

74 miles, 3,950 feet climbing, 5 hrs 18 mins cycling, 14.1 mph average speed

Read Day 8, Conder Green to Penrith

This post recounts the sixth day of my 14 day LEJOG19 adventure, in August 2019. For tips based on my experience, please go to my blogpost How to ride Land’s End to John O’Groats. Read Day 5, Monmouth to Clun

It’s not what you want to see before a day’s cycling. As I drew back the curtains in Clun, the rain was bouncing off the pavement. This is going to take some of the fun away from the day’s ride across one of my favourite counties, Shropshire.

Happily, the rain had passed by the time we set off, although the forecast for this afternoon was clear: we’d get wet later. But for now, I enjoyed the views of the Shropshire hills – the Long Mynd and Stiperstones. This was the setting for some of my favourite childhood books, the Lone Pine stories by Malcolm Saville. I doubt many people under 50 have heard of them.

We loved the exhilarating descent from the hills towards Shrewsbury. I clocked 41mph – probably my fastest ever speed on a bike. We spent a pleasant 10 minutes on the bridge watching the rowers in action and seeing our Cheshire contingent meeting their friends, who were joining them for part of the day’s ride. I reflected on memories of my much-loved Aunty Jean, who came from this lovely town. I smiled as I recalled her answer to my question, “How do you pronounce the name, SHREW-sbury or SHROW-sbury?” Her answer? “A mix of the two: SHREW-OW-sbury!”

Just as we prepared to move on after lunch in Burlton, the rain began. There followed a frustrating session as I couldn’t decide: jacket on, or off? In truth, we only had a few showers, although one was amazingly heavy. We got far wetter from the flooded roads, which were hard to navigate at times.

One of my memories of the equivalent day on my 2002 LEJOG was seeing Beeston and Peckforton castles on either side of a gap in the hills. It was a little disappointing not to get the same view this time, although we did see the gateway to Beeston, above.

Our destination tonight was near Northwich, Cheshire. To get there, we experienced that county’s dreadful roads (even when they weren’t under water) and very impatient drivers. We were staying at the Hollybush Inn, a rather unusual place. The staff were kind enough to find some old newspapers (from 2016!) to dry our shoes overnight. I had arranged a massage to ease the aching limbs. It was a revelation how much this helped over the coming week.

Dinner and breakfast at the Hollybush were enormous, which made up for my smallest room of the trip. Tomorrow’s weather forecast is dreadful. Those shoes are likely to need more newspaper!

Day’s stats

82 miles, 3,800 feet of climbing, 5 hrs 55 minutes cycling, 14 mph average speed

Read Day 7, Northwich to Conder Green

This post recounts the third day of my 14 day LEJOG19 adventure, in August 2019. For tips based on my experience, please go to my blogpost How to ride Land’s End to John O’Groats. Read Day 2: Fowey to Moretonhampstead

As if we hadn’t climbed enough hills in the previous two days, we faced a brutal truth from the word go today: a steep climb out of Moretonhampstead. And it was raining, so the combination of a warm day, a stiff climb and a rain jacket had me overheating straight away. I quickly decided I’d ditch the jacket (in my jersey pocket) and cool down. There folllowed a pretty if switchback ride to Exeter, and several grinding long ascents on a road with temporary traffic lights.

We passed quickly through Exeter (a contrast to Plymouth yesterday) although we didn’t see anything of the city other than the modern Exe bridges. The good news was that we’d done most of the day’s climbing other than a stonker of a climb after lunch at the picture-postcard thatched village of Broadhembury near Honiton. The Drewe Arms is as pretty as the rest of the village, and we enjoyed the stop.

We couldn’t delay that climb any longer, and the moment of truth came as the skies opened at the start of a very wet afternoon. It was a largely level ride after Stafford Hill although the pleasure at easy cycling was tempered by being bombarded by water from all directions. We had a very tricky descent on a gravelly, narrow lane just before the afternoon brew stop. The Peak Tours team had added an awning to keep us and the snacks dry as the rain returned. Happily, the sun returned just as we approached our destination, Street, and we took the chance to clean and fettle the bikes ready for tomorrow’s stage.

We stayed at Mullions hotel in Street, and I was delighted to get an ensuite bath for the third night in a row. I enjoyed a walk along Street’s main, er, street, and noted the buildings carrying the name of the Clark family, whose success in the shoe trade made Street’s name. As has already become the routine for LEJOG19, I edited the highlights video, which was shorter today because of the weather.

Day’s stats

70 miles, 5 hrs 8 mins riding, 3,900 feet climbing, average speed unknown because of Garmin issues

Read Day 4, Street to Monmouth

This post recounts the second day of my 14 day LEJOG19 adventure, in August 2019. For tips based on my experience, please go to my blogpost How to ride Land’s End to John O’Groats. Here’s the post about Day 1, Land’s End to Fowey

The sun was shining as we set off from Fowey to the Bodinnick ferry. We were lucky – heavy rain overnight had moved east by breakfast time, a theme that would be repeated several times over the journey north.

Yesterday was simply an appetiser for today’s main course of West Country hills. The pattern was simple: climb, descent, repeat. But it was garnished with lashings of nostalgia as memories of childhood holidays in this part of world came flooding back. We passed through Looe and had the morning’s brew stop at Seaton, Cornwall, just cross the road from where I paddled a rubber dinghy in the glorious heatwave summer of 1976.

Lunch today was on the waterfront in Cremyll overlooking Plymouth. We had another ferry ride to the Devon city, but had to wait as we couldn’t all get on the first one. There followed a bit of a frustrating trek round Plymouth – an example of how cycle ways too often take slow and circuitous routes to avoid main roads. Finally, we escaped onto the Plym valley railway path, which took us into the foothills of Dartmoor without really noticing how high we’d climbed. (The beauty of cycle paths that use old railways.) This was much easier than the long, long climb from Tavistock that I remembered from 2002.

By the time we reached Yelverton, the sunshine had given way to wind and a sharp downpour. Fortunately, the weather cleared before we tackled the climb onto the moors. The sight of the prison at Princetown made me shudder – the 200 year old building is a menacing presence in the bleak moors. We were not detained, and pressed on to our destination for tonight, Moretonhampstead.

Day’s stats:

63 miles, 6,122 feet climbing, 5 hrs 26 mins cycling; average speed 11.6mph

Read Day 3, Moretonhampstead to Street

This post recounts the first day of my 14 day LEJOG19 adventure, on 4 August 2019. For tips based on my experience, please go to my blogpost How to ride Land’s End to John O’Groats

The moment had arrived. I along with 18 other cyclists were gathered by the famous sign at Land’s End, supported by three guides from organisers Peak Tours. There was laughter – and a few butterflies. Were we and our bikes up to the challenge? How would we cope on the endless hills of the West Country?

As always, Land’s End struck me as a place to leave, rather than a destination. (A good reason to cycle from there to John O’Groats, rather than the other way. Even more important, the prevailing wind will usually be a helpful tailwind rather than an infuriating headwind slowing you down.)

The ride to Penzance was surprisingly fast which banished my nervousness and we were soon cycling along the seafront to the first Peak Tours ‘brew stop’. This was a wonderful moment as we were given mugs with our names on for us to grab a coffee and an array of snacks to keep energy and morale as high as the Cornish hills.

Having cycled LEJOG in 2002 along the north coast of Cornwall, I relished the softer scenery of this southern route skirting Truro and heading across the river Fal on the King Harry ferry. (There’s something special about taking a bike on a ferry, especially a rare chain ferry like this one.) We were making good time, and even reached the pub lunch stop at the Royal Oak at Perranwell before it opened!

Those Cornish hills proved manageable until the very last one, a brute of an incline near the lovely harbour village of Fowey. But I was soon approaching Fowey and the nice surprise of a gem of a pub as the night’s accommodation, the Galleon Inn. It was right on the harbour and my room was in a modern, comfortable wing. A perfect place for a meal to get to know my fellow cyclists and to watch the boats go by.

Day’s stats:

Pre-ride to Land’s End from Cape Cornwall: 7 miles, 400 feet climbing, average speed 13.8mph

Land’s End to Fowey: 65 miles, 4,878 feet climbing, 4 hrs 43 minutes cycling, 13.8mph average speed

Forward to Day 2: Fowey to Moretonhampstead