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Wednesday 1 September 2010

Lejog trip summary.

A great trip which lasted 14 days, covered 958 miles, I actually covered more than 1000 including the 10 miles from Penzance to Lands End, a couple of diversions and getting lost once or twice.

It was interesting being in parts of the country I'd never visited before, the scenery was great and everyone was friendly and interested in what I was doing.

I followed a route from a book I purchased 6 years ago, dated 2002 called Bike Britain by Paul Salter and it proved worth it's weight in gold. Indeed the few times I got lost were mainly due to me or down to detours due to road works etc. The book was designed to do the trip in 3 weeks but it was easily adaptable to do it in 2. The larger cities were quite slow and difficult to navigate through, particulary Preston but most of them involved quite a lot of time and concentration to get through.

I scanned and printed the maps from the book with the directions and the profile and used them in my map holder on my handlebar bag. I had to wrap them in a see through plastic folder to ensure they didn't get wet as my map holder proved not to be waterproof.

The route daily destinations are listed below:
         Date                      Destination             Daily Miles   Total Miles

18/08/2010 Wed Land's End 0 0
18/08/2010 Wed Nanstallon 70 70
19/08/2010 Thu Crediton 67 137
20/08/2010 Fri Radford, Bath 73 210
21/08/2010 Sat Bromyard 80 290
22/08/2010 Sun Ellesmere 70 360
23/08/2010 Mon Eccleston 68 428
24/08/2010 Tue Windermere 69 497
25/08/2010 Wed Annan 64 561
26/08/2010 Thu Tarbolton 76 637
27/08/2010 Fri Ardlui 75 712
28/08/2010 Sat Fort William 60 772
29/08/2010 Sun Beauly 65 837
30/08/2010 Mon Helmsdale 69 906
31/08/2010 Tue John O'Groats 52 958



Things that I wouldn't change:

1) The bike, My Hewitt cheviot SE touring bike is a great touring bike and it has low enough gears that I was able to get up all the hills, without geting off and pushing. It always feels stable even when fully laden. Also, I managed to do it without one puncture.

2) The Brooks saddle - I had no posterior problems at all.

3) The direction of travel, quite a few go from John O'Groats to Lands End but I thought it was good to get the hills of Cornwall out of the way first. Also, although the wind wasn't a major factor, the one day when it was strong, it was from the south so was more in my favour than against me. Also it was good to have Hilary meet me at John O'Groats and drive me home, this wouldn't have been practical at Lands End.

4) My luggage, these Altura panniers  have proved to be very waterproof, so everything was kept dry.

Things I learned and would do differently:

1) I wouldn't take my camping gear, the wet weather wasn't condusive to camping and indeed I ended up getting a cold and the last thing I wanted to do was camp. Indeed it was one whole pannier and was at least half the weight I was carrying and slowed me down no end. I would probably just look at aiming for a place the next day and book a room there the night before.Indeed the second week, Hilary was booking my next nights accomodation the night before after discussing where I should be aiming for, I maybe could have gone further but I was glad of the rest in the late afternoons. Hilary was a great help here and I would have struggled with out her.

2) I would look at doing the trip in May, as I believe it is quite often drier and certainly less busy tourist wise. This should make it easier and cheaper for accomodation.

3) I'd probably take more photos but somehow I never feel like taking photos in the rain. So the photos I do have are mostly when the sun showed up.

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