2024 UK Expedition: Land’s End to John O’Groats

Well, here we are again… starting a new adventure!

This time we are biking the full length of Great Britain – South to North (a little over a thousand miles) – plus adding a little sight-seeing at the beginning and end of our journey. This afternoon we arrived at our tour-start location (Cape Cornwall)… Where we joined up with the rest of our team (14 riders in all… eight of us are veterans from last year’s Alpine Arc expedition).

Coming along with us is Coco. Coco is actually the third bear we’ve traveled with. This is the long version of his history:

The traveling bear started out when Kay was in college in Iowa. She applied to work for the summer at the YMCA in Estes Park (long way from Des Moines). Kay’s mom put Tedbear in with Kay’s suitcase and his travels began. He went on hikes in Rocky Mountain Park. Later, when we started traveling more, he went with us on dive trips and biking tours. Tedbear got lost in the Atlanta airport on the way to Chile. 

Bear #2 showed up when Kay was taking a Rhine river cruise with her Mom and sisters. One sister asked where Tedbear was. After hearing the sad story, she bought a replacement in France. Le Bear now joined the adventure. Le Bear was stolen in Madrid outside the airport heading to the Andalucia bike tour. Coco was a Christmas present from our son to replace Le Bear. 

Where has Coco been? Singapore, Indonesia, Grand Cayman, UK, Norway, France, Switzerland, Italy,  Slovenia.

The other bears: New Zealand,Fiji, Paupau New Guinea, Australia, China, Japan Greece, Italy, Germany, South America, St. Lucia, Vietnam…I might have missed a few. 

He often rides on the back of a bike (sometimes wearing a showercap raincoat). He’s also been known to help captain dive boats. He’s worn a BCD but hasn’t gone diving. He’s also been known to check out playground equipment and statues.

Day 1 (today) is traditionally a non-riding day where we get the bikes set up and get everyone/everything organized. Tomorrow we start riding!

Today’s Distance: 47 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 47 miles

Today’s Climbing: 3,589 feet               Cumulative Climbing: 3,589 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 4.2 hours         Cumulative Moving Time: 4.2 hours

We are now officially on the move!

We started out this morning from our accommodations at the Cape Cornwall Golf Club and road about seven miles to the Land’s End viewpoint. Riding the full length of Britain is “a thing” and Land’s End is the traditional starting point. It’s also known as LEJOG. Land’s End to John O’Groats. Then we were off to Penzance, made famous by the 1879 Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera “Pirates of Penzance”. We had to walk our bikes for about half a mile or so because there was some sort of carnival/festival going on in Penzance this weekend right on our planned route.

Pressing on, we moved away from the coast and into some more pastoral and wooded areas on what appears to be British-typical very narrow roads. Most of us are still getting used to riding on the left side of the road and having our mirrors on the right side of our helmets (our Australian friends are having no trouble at all). Our brakes are also reversed from what we are used to. The rest of today’s ride was through a forested region (again, with really narrow roads… and some pretty substantial hills).

We successfully arrived in Truro. Supposedly, tomorrow will be a somewhat longer day. Often, the first riding day is a bit shorter just because everyone is still sorting out their routines and hardware but things seemed to go quite well for everyone we talked to today, so we appear to be off to a good start.

We are now almost 5% of the way there!

Today’s Distance: 54 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 101 miles

Today’s Climbing: 4,938 feet               Cumulative Climbing: 8,527 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 5.1 hours         Cumulative Moving Time: 9.3 hours

Today was a very challenging day (in a good way)…

The terrain today was quite varied, from very narrow hedge-lined farm road, to very narrow roads through heavily forested regions, to very narrow roads in highland grazing regions. Plus many very substantial hills (think 20-23% grades in places)!

We spent a fair amount of the day on roads typically about ten feet (sometimes eight) from hedge-to-hedge. They are pretty much ideal as dedicated bike paths. The issue arises from the fact that they also support two-way car (and truck, tractor and bus) traffic. That can make for some interesting moments. In the forested areas one often runs into extended “tree tunnels”, where the trees have branched out to cover the path below completely. Don’t be too impressed, that’s not all that difficult to do when the roads are this narrow. Once in a while the view would open up to show the surrounding farmland, and there were also a fair number of wind turbines scattered about. The support van commandeered a bus stop for our lunch stop. We have to hand it to our British support staff… they really know how to handle food on the road.

More climbing, and then we broke out into some true highland grazing areas. This landscape here was much more exposed and a lot flatter. After that, we worked along some extended downhills (fun!!!) and arrived at out accommodations in Launceston.

Today was definitely a tough day… 20-23% grades are very hard to climb. The tour organizers had rated today’s ride at a 4.5 out of 5.

Today’s Distance: 54 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 155 miles

Today’s Climbing: 4,383 feet               Cumulative Climbing: 12,910 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 4.8 hours         Cumulative Moving Time: 14.1 hours

We have survived another day! Where we left the county of Cornwall and entered the county of Devon.

By the way, a bit of geographic context: We started out this trip at roughly the same latitude as Vancouver, Canada… and will end it pretty much even with Juneau, Alaska.  Therefore, even in July the morning temperatures are in the high 50s (F) and have only been reaching the mid 60s (F) in the afternoon [under pretty much full overcast so far].

We had stayed overnight at a golf course, surrounded by farmland and pastures. The first part of our day was on some more “proper” roads – painted lines and everything! Our first “coffee stop” was at a combination bicycle service center/snack shop. The light fixture was a chandelier made of gears. The pull to flush the toilet was a bike chain.

Then back to narrow roads… and catching a glimpse of the upcoming town. Lots of pasture land here, not much in the way of row crops.

It’s a great feeling when folks roll into the hotel parking lot at the end of the day, swapping stories and generally looking a bit bedraggled. Tomorrow is a longer day miles-wise but with less climbing. Every day is a new adventure!

Today’s Distance: 61 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 216 miles

Today’s Climbing: 2,956 feet               Cumulative Climbing: 15,866 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 4.8 hours         Cumulative Moving Time: 18.9 hours

Coco was really excited about today. Strapped in and ready to go!

We headed off to the town of Cheddar today… yes, the place where the cheese was invented!

The forecast was for rain throughout the day, but other than a little occasional light misting we actually did really well. There were many apparel changes as people adjusted for temperature, breezes and moisture throughout the day.

It’s worth mentioning that we are adapting to a new way of navigating. Experience Plus (the bike tour company we work with) traditionally puts chalk arrows down on the road that you follow throughout the day as your primary navigational guide. It’s their “thing” and it adds a really cool “treasure hunt” aspect to the tours. Unfortunately, on our way to the airport to come here we received word that the British authorities (some of whom clearly need more bran in their diet) had expressly forbidden our tour guides from marking the road with chalk arrows.

So… the support crew pulled out a bunch of GPS map units and mounted one on each bike (with each day’s route being loaded each morning). It works, but it’s way different from what we are used to.

Today’s ride took us on busy urban roads, less busy rural roads, still more narrow hedge-lined country roads and (memorably) around a busy roundabout where staying on the GPS-specified purple line would have meant going around the roundabout in the wrong direction (that screwed up just about everybody).

We rode through the really nice, quite small village of Ham, where they show a LOT of pride-of-ownership. Everything was really well-cared-for, there were a few hills, but less than the last couple of days. 

Arriving in Cheddar! Now off to get some dinner!

Today’s Distance: 56 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 272 miles

Today’s Climbing: 4,377 feet               Cumulative Climbing: 20,243 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 5.2 hours         Cumulative Moving Time: 24.1 hours

Today was pretty exhausting… but we experienced a lot of different environments.

Just outside of Cheddar we climbed through a beautiful gorge – complete with random free-range groups of goats. Not too long after we crossed a river ford with some old stoneworks. We’ve actually seen this a few times, people just riding horses on the road.

Today we were on main roads, country roads, suburban streets including MANY roundabouts, quite a few actual bike paths and more narrow hedge-lined roads… pretty much a sampler of everything.

You also see some mundane stuff. It was trash/recycle pickup day in one of the neighborhoods we rode through.

Riding through Bristol (a pretty significant metropolitan area) involved a lot of busy streets, busy roundabouts and many turns (watch your GPS carefully!). It was by far the most exhausting part of the day. We had to retrace our steps several times but got back on track quickly. It’s easy to figure out when you are off course.

Once you’ve crossed in Wales, the road signs are in a both English and Welsh. Welsh, as far as we have been able to determine, was derived from some sort of random letter generator.

We think that we have crossed back out of Wales and into England. The Welsh forests are quite pretty though.

Another interesting note, given the latitude and time of year here, sunrise is at 4:58 AM and sunset is at 9:30 PM. It feels kind of stupid to get ready to turn in when it’s still pretty bright outside.

Today’s Distance: 50 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 322 miles

Today’s Climbing: 2,782 feet               Cumulative Climbing: 23,025 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 4.1 hours         Cumulative Moving Time: 28.2 hours

Well, here we are in Worcester… home of Worcestershire sauce!

We will be here for two nights, with tomorrow being one of two rest days in our three-week journey. Laundry time!

We started out this morning in a light mist, getting hit with the great majority of the day’s climbing in the first eight miles.

This part of the country has very lush, green forests with lots of ferns… it’s pretty, particularly in the light mist.

It wasn’t too long before we got off of the more-traveled roads and were once again working our way through the countryside. There are farms along the road, but they are actually quite far apart.

This farm had a side hustle going on at the edge of the road (see below). Even considering the exchange rate, that’s a pretty good deal for poo…

Once in a while you come across a well-built church out in the countryside. It’s worth noting that these are generally not the way-overly-grandiose-and-ornate cathedrals that one sees “on the continent”… since the Roman Catholic church is not a big thing here.

Worcester is closely associated with its waterway, which we cruised along for quite a while on the way to our accommodations. Supposedly there is a carnival and parade going on here tomorrow, it should be interesting to see what that is all about.

Time to get cleaned up, rest some weary muscles for a day and just generally recoup a bit!

No miles, no elevation gain, no saddle time.

We’ve actually had a pretty busy “day off”. We’ve got the laundry/reorganizing pretty much under control and had the opportunity to absorb a bit of the local ambience.

First things first…

Coco had gotten a little damp on yesterday’s ride, so a blow dry was in order…

Note that the hair dryer is located in the top drawer of the desk. That’s how things are done here, no high voltage connections inside the bathrooms, so look in the desk and there it is.

It was drizzling off and on throughout much of the morning, but we decided to take a guided walking tour of Worcester at 11:00… led by a charming and well-informed local resident. There is a lot of history here, what with Worcester having a pivotal place in English history since the time of William the Conqueror (1066). There are buildings here that are over 500 years old. Of note; the black lines are actually timber.

Of course, this was all built with nothing but manual labor.

At one time (before the railroads), canal/barge traffic was a big thing. The canal is still in active use (mainly for recreation travel).

As we mentioned yesterday, it just so happens that there was a big parade today (for no particularly specific reason), and it passed directly in front of our accommodations.

And around here, you must have bagpipes…

Back on the road tomorrow morning! Weather forecasts are a bit iffy, so we’ll let you know how things turn out.

Today’s Distance: 45 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 367 miles

Today’s Climbing: 3,583 feet               Cumulative Climbing: 26,608 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 4.0 hours         Cumulative Moving Time: 32.2 hours

Back on the road with the countryside slowly changing as we move along.

We’re still seeing lots of forested areas and hedged roads, but the rural areas are now becoming more agricultural. We’re seeing some wheat fields now mixed in with the grazing areas. Things are definitely “opening up” a bit. However, things kept getting darker and more forbidding throughout the morning.

Our “coffee stop” in the morning was pretty interesting. There was a small garden/museum installation there with some interesting displays.

They used to rip-saw the long beams used in building construction – a two-man saw with one person above and one in a pit. Extremely labor-intensive. We saw a lot of this kind of 16th-17th-style construction in Worcester over the last couple of days.  Lots of timber in your structure marked you as a wealthy person.

Before getting to our lunch stop, the ominous skies presented us with a pretty significant rainstorm (complete with some mini-hailstones). Everyone got to field-test the rain gear that they had been hauling around! All-in-all, it worked out pretty well… but the warm, dry cafe was a welcome respite from the weather.

Our destination today was the town of Ironbridge… so named because it is home to the very first cast-iron bridge in the world. It is considered to be the first artifact of the Industrial Revolution. The process of using limestone as a flux for purifying iron was developed here – creating a supply of high-quality/affordable metal (and the rest is history). This bridge was constructed in 1789 and is still in use today (we crossed it).

We need to spend some time tonight drying out our rain gear (and de-humidifying Coco again). What adventures will tomorrow bring?

Today’s Distance: 54 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 421 miles

Today’s Climbing: 2,559 feet               Cumulative Climbing: 29,167 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 4.2 hours         Cumulative Moving Time: 36.4 hours

It’s always fun to find interesting structures and architecture along the road.

This started our day off just outside of Ironbridge. Today was far and away, the best weather of any day of the trip. It was not long at all before the windbreakers were being taken off and stowed away.

We know that many of you have been disappointed that we have not yet had a “Soil Report”.  We finally had a chance today to access a field (of turnips, we think) and check out the local conditions! It turns out that the soil here is pretty dark, and you can very easily tell just by feel that it is mostly made of peat moss. It’s almost spongy.

Actually, that’s pretty predictable if you think about it… this is definitely peak bog country. I just didn’t realize that it would be that easy to detect it in the soil. And it’s not just turnips being grown here (we’ve seen potatoes as well). Just a bit down the road was an enormous field of poppies.  

And there have been a few houses with thatched roofs too – this just looks like a terrible idea fire-wise… Did we learn nothing from London burning down in 1666?

We will continue our trek northwards tomorrow, evidently through considerably less agricultural areas than we saw today. We’ll see…

Today’s Distance: 51 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 472 miles

Today’s Climbing: 2822 feet               Cumulative Climbing: 31,989 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 4.4 hours        Cumulative Moving Time: 40.8 hours

Okay… Quick show of hands.

How many of our followers have pedaled a bike for 50 miles in full rain gear?

We can now scratch that particular event off of our bucket list. Been there, done that… still drying out the T-shirt.

We knew last night that there was a rain front coming in from the south, and that it would be travelling with us as we proceeded pretty much due north. It arrived on schedule and performed as expected, so today was a very wet ride. Coco was riding inside of Kevin’s rain-protected bike pack today.

Just outside of Hartford is the Anderton Boat Lift. Originally built in about 1875, it is not a lock but rather an actual lift that brings the boat and the surrounding water up (or down) to the next level of the canal (50 feet). Our lovely model showing off the attire of the day… with canal boats waiting for the lift to open at 10:00.  The rain gear actually kept us pretty warm and “dry”… with the main problem being raindrops accumulating on our glasses.

Just outside of our (very welcome indoor) morning coffee/snack stop was this little marker stone… telling us that we are nearing the halfway point of our Land’s End / John O’Groats (LEJoG) trek.  It also points out the fact that today we “threaded the needle” between Liverpool and Manchester.

After lunch (between 1-2 pm) it stopped actively raining… but the roads were still really wet and there were lots of puddles.

But we did all make it to our destination! Here’s a scene from the end of today symbolizing the road (and our team) continuing to go forward tomorrow. We have a LOT of hairdryer time scheduled for tonight. Pretty much everything that was on us or our bikes is completely soaked… but that’s part of being on an expedition!

Today’s Distance: 45 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 517 miles

Today’s Climbing: 4,436 feet              Cumulative Climbing: 36,425 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 4.2 hours        Cumulative Moving Time: 45.0 hours

We had a really beautiful day of cycling today! We went through a lot of different geographical environments and weather conditions, and all the way the views were striking.

We were a bit concerned at the start of the day as it was threatening to be another rainy outing (and we did have some mist, drizzle and actual rain) but overall, the weather was so varied that pretty much everyone ended up in a different combination of weather gear.

We are transitioning into an area with more stone walls and less hedges. Coming into our morning coffee stop, there are quite a few of these stone bridges around here.

It’s hard to capture just how green everything is here. But then, it’s always raining, about to rain, or just finished raining… or overcast.

Around noon (after a considerable bit of pretty steep climbing) we broke out into a completely different landscape – Moorlands! This area was vast, open and very lush. This sparsely-traveled narrow road was like having our own private bike path, going on for mile after mile. Very cool ride!

Then we descended back into a more familiar environment with trees and little towns.

So why are we posing with our bikes at this specific spot? Because this is the halfway point of our expedition! Quite an accomplishment for ten days of riding (517 miles). On to the North Sea!

Towards the end of our day, a lot of our group ended up at the same bridge at the same time. Everyone is getting along quite well. It’s a nice group of people. Always a plus!

This was such a beautiful day. Pretty much capturing why we do these trips in the first place. Supposedly, the next couple of days are going to be pretty challenging. Every day is a new adventure!

Today’s Distance: 61 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 578 miles

Today’s Climbing: 5,089 feet              Cumulative Climbing: 41,514 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 5.6 hours        Cumulative Moving Time: 50.6 hours

A little longer day today, but the weather held together pretty well for us. Our morning break stop was at a chocolate/coffee shop, so several purchases were made. Open green vistas, pasturelands and the ubiquitous stone walls. Lots of varied landscapes today, the forested areas are still really pretty. Agriculture is still a big thing here and there were some killer-steep hills back in this narrow-track thick-forested region.

Our route took us past a neolithic stone circle, supposedly the second-largest in the UK. The “Long Meg and Her Daughters” site was constructed some 5,000 years ago. This is the “Long Meg” stone, the shadow of which aligns with the center of the overall formation on the winter solstice. The main stone circle appears to be over 400 feet in diameter.

We are staying tonight in what is termed in the bike tour community as a “logistical hotel”. That is what one calls a hotel chosen for the fact that it exists in a convenient location rather than for the “number of stars” that it might be awarded. It is “adequate” but small. For instance, we’re composing this on the bed because there is no desk. There are so few rooms here that half of our team is at a different “logistical hotel” about two miles away!

Lots of hills today (over 5000 feet of vertical ascent!) but we got here. Tomorrow is supposed to be the longest single day of the tour, so we may be pretty tired the next time we check in.

Today’s Distance: 77 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 654 miles

Today’s Climbing: 6,148 feet              Cumulative Climbing: 47,662 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 6.4 hours        Cumulative Moving Time: 57.0 hours

Checking in after a long day… the longest riding day of the tour as a matter of fact.

A short distance down the road this morning were some of the remains of Hadrian’s Wall. Constructed around 122 AD (under the direction of the Roman emperor Hadrian), this wall ran completely across the island, supposedly providing protection from marauding barbarians from the north. These ruins are what’s left of one of the guard towers (which were spaced every half-mile or so).

We are officially in Scotland now! (And boy can you hear the accent in the locals…)

Kevin coming into the afternoon snack stop. Note the hillside in the background. This area is obviously a place where commercial logging takes place, with numerous clear-cut patches. Interestingly, many of the forests are actively managed, with the trees very clearly being planted in rows.  There are a lot of places where you can see the very young replanted trees in the cleared areas.

The final leg of the day. You often see these little buildings and houses kind of out in the middle of nowhere. There are quite a few working farms showing up along our path now too.

Tomorrow is a rest day (the second and last one of our expedition), so immediately after posting this, laundry processing will commence.  

We’ll check in again just to let you know how our “off day” went…

No miles, no elevation gain, no saddle time.

Laundry has been processed, everything is re-converging back into the suitcases, and we’ve explored a bit.

We’re staying at a golf course resort (our third one actually), and one very obvious thing is that the grass looks AMAZING. It rains something like 400 days a year here, so the groundskeeper has a lot to work with.

We’re a bit outside the actual town of Peebles, so this morning we took a bus into town to look around. Peebles isn’t very big, but we did find a bike shop. Exploring the business district was fun!

Peebles is set on a small, very quiet river. We had lunch at a small tea house, then it was back onto the bus for a return to our resort.

Back on the road tomorrow for the final third of our adventure!

Today’s Distance: 57 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 711 miles

Today’s Climbing: 3,248 feet              Cumulative Climbing: 50,910 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 4.8 hours        Cumulative Moving Time: 61.8 hours

Here we are in Kinross… after what was probably our easiest riding day so far.

Due to the lay of the land, we have actually crossed over to the east side of the island of Great Britain and are now just north of the city of Edinburgh. Having moved yet farther north, the sun now rises at about 4:47 AM and sets at 9:51 PM – over 17 hours of daylight.

Coco at our morning van stop, showing off some of the very typical local architecture. After a rainy rest day (and night) yesterday, the morning weather conditions were actually pretty favorable.

We were on some very well-maintained bike paths for a fair portion of our day today. In general, the roads have widened somewhat and there are less hedges than before. Riding through the city of Edinburgh was interesting and a bit complex. Fortunately, one of our British-based guides took the lead and herded most of us through as a bunch.

In the city, you can hear bagpipes playing. We actually saw one of these street bagpipe musicians standing on box on a street corner with a “donation box” in front of him. Just like a guy playing violin in a New York subway… but Scottish style.

Coming out of Edinburgh, we had to cross a major waterway connecting the east side of Scotland to the North Sea. Getting across this major suspension bridge was a lot easier than when we crossed into Wales – there were not gale-force winds involved this time!

We did get drizzled on for the last 20 miles or so… such is the nature of doing pretty much anything on the island of Great Britain. One just switches into gear appropriate for the amount of rain and pedals on – no big deal!

Northward!

Oh… England plays Spain in the finals of the football (soccer) championships in about two hours! Head off to your local pub and get rowdy!

Today’s Distance: 44 miles                 Cumulative Distance: 754 miles

Today’s Climbing: 2,454 feet              Cumulative Climbing: 53,364 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 3.9 hours        Cumulative Moving Time: 65.7 hours

We had our best weather day of the whole expedition today. Windbreakers and rain gear stayed stowed all day! We actually had true sunshine today. We saw our shadows and everything!

Today was also the shortest distance day of the tour so far, making it necessary to start a bit later and allowing us to check out more “side things” than on more demanding days, while not arriving at our destination before our rooms were available.

Before starting out this morning, the two of us chose to take a very short ride over to Loch Leven, a small lake on which the town of Kinross is built. There’s a very small castle on the island in the center. And lots and lots of buzzing midges on the shore where we were standing in windstill conditions… we did not stay long.

We actually were pretty immersed in agriculture today. We are seeing quite a few potato fields now – big ones. We’ve been here long enough now to wonder about how many fish you would have to catch to require all of those potential “chips”.

Pretty much everybody stopped to check out this big potato field and its adjacent field of purple-flowering flora, which (according to our local plant and geology expert – it’s great having retired people with varied backgrounds on these trips!) is Lacey Phacelia, an America-introduced soil-enhancement and pollinator-attracting cover crop.

We took a break in the town of Perth, using some of our free time to check out the local museum. We also rode down a side path to take an outside look at the grounds of a local palace. Then it was back to the main route again!

Where we passed the world’s tallest hedge. Really, it was in the Guiness Book of World Records and everything (there’s a plaque). It’s over a hundred feet tall, and now we know how high those hedge-trimming tractors can reach.

Closer to our destination we came to another neolithic stone circle. This one was much smaller that our first site and did not get nearly the same respect. It’s only six stones, and they built the road literally right through the center of it. Three stones on the left, three stones on the right. Pretty much buried in unmowed grass (Stonehenge, it was not).

But just down the road was this fun sign… we thought that the graphic design was interesting. So we packed quite a bit into an easier day, and arrived at our accommodations right on schedule.

Tomorrow is supposed to quite a bit tougher, bring it on!

Today’s Distance: 59 miles                 Cumulative Distance: 814 miles

Today’s Climbing: 5,092 feet              Cumulative Climbing: 58,456 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 5.0 hours        Cumulative Moving Time: 70.7 hours

Today was one of the “challenge days” of our expedition… and challenging it was.

We started off in a light rain, going out on a long ride through very open territory. Weather forecasts were iffy.

This is a pretty typical view of the first part of the morning – wet roads winding through unpopulated areas. We were actually entering a national park area, so that kind of makes sense.

Pressing onward, the moorland topography started to show up. Vast open spaces with little but sheep and the very occasional farm structure. Beautiful landscapes and the light rain continued off and on throughout the morning. 

There was a long, sustained, pretty steep (think 10%+) climb up to the first of two ski resorts. The pass that we climbed to get here topped out at 2200 feet (or, as the folks running the bottom lift lines at Colorado’s Copper Mountain ski resort would say, “7500 feet underground”). These have to be really short, simple ski runs.

Fueled up after the first climb (three more to go!) we dipped down into some lower valleys, where the water running off of the moors creates wild streams.

Just before starting the first of the three tougher climbs of the day, we were set upon by highwaywomen! OK, they were trekkers heading towards the nearby Balmoral Castle (of British royal family fame), but the highwaywomen description is way cooler. No pictures of Balmoral Castle. There are signs prohibiting stopping to do so.

This was just as the landscape rose into open moorland again and the slopes became considerably steeper. Oh, and it started to rain pretty hard as well. Long story short, beautiful scenery (seen through rain-drenched glasses), but prolonged, steep pitches on the first two climbs and some 20%+ grades on a three-pitch killer climb up to the second ski resort.

No pictures from that part of the ride. Everything on the bike was absolutely soaked (including the rider), and water could be seen starting to get into the zoom hardware of the camera (which had a fogged-up lens anyway).

The killer final series of climbs were vanquished (at great personal energy expenditure) and Kay was, in fact, waiting at the second ski resort with her bike! From there it was a really fun, misty, miles-long downhill glide to our accommodations here in Tomintoul.

Everything is so soaked that we are in the position of having to use the hair dryer to get things in good enough shape to put them in the laundry bag. Great fun, but a long, tough day. From here on out things should get a bit easier.

It turns out that the Scotts have a specific term for today’s weather… they call it “Tuesday”.

Today’s Distance: 24 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 838 miles

Today’s Climbing: 1,587 feet              Cumulative Climbing: 60,034 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 2.0 hours        Cumulative Moving Time: 72.7 hours

Here we are in Inverness, home of Loch Ness and its ever-popular but elusive plesiosaurus “Nessie”!

We have had what they would refer to over here as “a bit of a day”… but rest assured that everyone in today’s tale emerges (more or less) unscathed.

Things started out well enough, and what a difference a day makes! The rain had stopped, skies were relatively clear, temperatures had people taking off their windbreakers, and visibility (compared to yesterday) was astounding. Off we went for more awesome countryside views! The vistas are so huge that you can’t really effectively capture them in a snapshot.

If you recall, we are navigating with GPS this time, so every once in a great while you cruise down a more significant road for several miles and then very suddenly turn onto a more minor side road. As these turns come with no pre-warning and our navigation units have a very small field of view, one will occasionally overshoot an exit and have to backtrack a couple of hundred feet, no big deal.

Unless the person in front sees the error and the one behind doesn’t…

Kay had slowed down to prepare to turn back but Kevin didn’t hear her announce that fact, and Kay couldn’t pull to the shoulder (because here there just simply aren’t any). Kevin, not expecting anything but continued smooth sailing, didn’t see the slowdown in progress and clipped Kay’s bike quite hard (sliding on the right side of his face on the tarmac). 

The bike helmet did its job, no traumatic head injuries (although the mirror got sheared off and glasses were broken). Kay took a low-speed tumble and whacked her elbow pretty solidly, but was otherwise all right.

There was blood, but a hastily-self-applied handkerchief got that mostly under control until a passing motorist stopped and then following riders came by. The motorist called 999 for an ambulance which would take 45 minutes to arrive. Assessing Kevin’s injuries as non-life-threatening (and no broken bones), the support van was called in to assist with transport to the Inverness emergency room.

So, five stitches to close the gash over right eye and three to close the gash underneath along with a bit of superglue. There are numerous “road rash” patches (which surprisingly, do not really hurt), and the right shoulder (which took the brunt of the initial fall) is going to be really sore for a while. Kevin’s face was cleaned up before this picture was taken so what you see is facial road rash. 

Kay was also checked out at the ER, and the elbow injury involves a small chip off of her olecranon process (the tip of her elbow), which stayed put, so other than a nasty bruise, and a sore back she seems to be essentially OK.

Kevin is cleared to ride again tomorrow and the bike has had its front wheel replaced – good to go!

BTW: There was no charge whatsoever for our treatment! The way the medical system is set up here, emergency room treatment is utterly free of charge. We were told to just “leave” once they were done patching us up.

Dinner was scheduled to be self-choice/self-pay tonight (and we had some very specific errands to run)… so once we got to our accommodations, we went to the business district and got to work.

Looking forward to a much less dramatic day tomorrow!

Today’s Distance: 56 miles                Cumulative Distance: 894 miles

Today’s Climbing: 2,818 feet              Cumulative Climbing: 62,852 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 4.4 hours        Cumulative Moving Time: 77.1 hours

We had a very nice riding day today… with way less drama!

We were both feeling fundamentally sound enough this morning to attempt today’s 56-mile ride. We took a quick test ride down the street before we committed to the task at hand. Kevin’s right shoulder and upper torso muscles are really sore, but his stitches and patches of road rash aren’t really causing any discomfort at all.

Kay has discovered quite a bit of bruising on her legs and there is a sore muscle in her upper back, but her chipped elbow wasn’t causing any particular grief this morning. Both a bit worse for wear, but fully functional. So we got set up to go!

Getting out of the town of Inverness was a twisty, complicated process. So we all followed our guide over this footbridge crossing the River Ness. Then we progressed down to the point where we crossed the Moray Firth.

BTW: A firth is a connection between a river outlet and the sea (think fjord). We crossed the Firth of Forth a few days ago (which we thought was pretty cool).

Our first snack stop was overlooking some really pretty lake structures, and had a hayfield next door! The place where we stopped also had these little lawnmower Roombas running around, totally on auto-pilot (way cool!). Shortly after the snack stop, we ran into another HUGE field of the purple plants (Scorpion flowers) that we saw a few days ago. These fields are rare, but pretty extraordinary.

Proceeding on, we had some really nice viewpoints over the water-dominated countryside. On our ride today, a passing motorist rolled down her window and said that seeing Coco riding back here had made her smile!

Close to the end of our ride, we stopped at series of short waterfalls in the local river where salmon have to make a sequence of leaps to get to their spawning grounds. There were some good-sized salmon doing some pretty impressive jumps. It’s really hard to get a picture of one in action (we tried).

We then proceeded on to our accommodations in Lairg, where the internet gets a rating of one star out of five. This missive is being composed on a couch down the hall from our room due to really low signal strength.

We both survived the ride in pretty good shape, and are confident that we can carry on for the last two riding days. We’re getting close!

Today’s Distance: 46 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 941 miles

Today’s Climbing: 2,106 feet              Cumulative Climbing: 64,958 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 3.5 hours        Cumulative Moving Time: 80.6 hours

We had a really beautiful, easy ride today (only about 45 miles!).

Leaving the very small town of Lairg, we proceeded directly into some open country on a pretty minor road. There are some very large areas of open land in Scotland. It’s kind of like eastern Wyoming, except it’s a lot less windy, and it’s green, and there is some actual diverse vegetation, and it’s generally overcast and cool, and it’s really one enormous peat bog, and there are streams. 

Our morning snack stop was out in the middle of nowhere at a little inn-pub-church building overseen by a pair of Americans. It is a multi-purpose facility providing prayer and a pint! They also served us home-made scones and Scottish banana bread fresh out of the oven. Yum!

We were starting to see some more topography by that point. It’s just so hard to capture these enormous, incredibly green vistas.

Along the way, there were some ruins of a “clearing”. This refers to an area to which local farm families had been forcibly displaced in the mid-to-late 18th century when the landowners discovered that it was simply more cost-effective not to have them on their land. It was a dark time.

Our very first glimpse of where the Atlantic Ocean meets the North Sea, the north coast of Great Britain! After checking in to our accommodations, we used the bikes to explore the area a bit and made our way to the very flat (and incredibly clean) beach.

Bikes are not well-designed for beaches, and there were lots of narrow little gates to maneuver through along the way. Here we had to cross a narrow foot bridge.

Tomorrow will be the last riding day of our tour, where we will visit one of the northern-most accessible coastlines and the northern-most occupied town on the island of Great Britain (John O’Groats). It should be a really fun way to finish out our adventure.

What will tomorrow bring?

Today’s Distance: 61 miles                  Cumulative Distance: 1001 miles

Today’s Climbing: 3,310 feet              Cumulative Climbing: 68,268 feet

Today’s Moving Time: 4.8 hours        Cumulative Moving Time: 85.4 hours

We have successfully completed our journey from the farthest southwest point of the island of Great Britain to the farthest northeast point!!

Just over 1000 miles of pedaling (Kevin’s cumulative odometer reading was 1001.4 miles. So, the trip would have been about 1030 miles if not for “the incident” causing us to not ride the last 28 miles one day).

We lifted ourselves and the bikes up over 68,000 vertical feet of hills, that’s well over twice the height of Mount Everest. Since we started and ended the trip at sea level, that means that there were also more than 68,000 vertical feet of downhills (some quite steep) – which explains the four sets of caliper-brake pads that Kevin went through. The other bikes had disc brakes with no need for replacements. It took about 85 hours of actual riding time… which is rather a lot.

Here’s how our final riding day played out:

We started off in some light, misty rain with views of the coast. Along the way, we made a nine-mile detour to visit Dunnet Head, the most northerly geographic point on the island of Great Britain. John O’Groats (our destination) is the most northerly inhabited point.

A slight wrong turn brought us to a field with Scottish Highland cows! This is local variety of cow that have really long, shaggy coats. We’ve been looking for them all along the way. The Dunnet Head coastline provided some beautiful, rugged scenery. There’s a stone monument out there that marks the “Most Northerly Point Of Mainland Britain”. The weather improved and was quite warm!

Coming back to the main route, we had lunch at the Castle of Mey (where the Queen Mother used to hang out). Then it was on to our final destination of John O’Groats!  There was much rejoicing as our team assembled at a very nearby inn before riding as a group to our accommodations and the official sign-post.

Coco was just grateful to get off of the back of Kevin’s bike.

This has been an amazing adventure. It took a lot of effort and perseverance, but it was so worth it.

We have had triumphs, setbacks and even injuries. We’ve endured steep terrain, inclement weather, and long miles. We’ve shared the journey with old friends and made new ones. We’ve had preconceptions replaced by experience and have witnessed everything from customs to architecture to food to agriculture change from the start of our journey to its end.

This is why we do these things, because these experiences mean that you never leave a trip of this magnitude the same as when you started. Until our next adventure…

B