Coast2Coast

To celebrate by forthcoming 40th birthday, early in 1997 I decided that I would have a go at cycling from John O’Groats to Lands End and plans were therefore put into place to attempt the ride in the August. In order to make the journey worthwhile I decided to do

The day of reckoning had finally arrived and after a day at the office I arrived home to complete the final packing.   The bike was loaded onto the car and Sarah and Ben delivered me to Fareham railway station with plenty of time to spare.   We said our

I slept remarkably well and awoke about 6:00 and decided to get up and view the journey from outside my cabin.   We were just arriving at Dalwhinnie, a station to the east of Rannoch Moor where Robert and I had talked about walking to at some stage in the

I left Wick at 09:30 after a good breakfast and climbed steadily for several miles.   It was a glorious day, blue skies and a cooling breeze.   The first big test of the ride came at Berridale (which I had been warned about), which was preceded by a pleasant

After a good breakfast, left Tore and headed south to Inverness and the bridge over the Moray Firth.   I stopped here to take a photo and to adjust my saddle-bag which was getting closer and closer to the back wheel.   I only had today and tomorrow and then

I anticipated this to be one of the longest days today, getting down towards the Scottish Border and hopefully meeting up with Mum and Dad.   I left Pitlochry at 09:30 and managed for the most part of the day to keep off the main A9 which was a blessing.

A real hot summers day today.   I left Galashiels just after 9:00am and had a good ride for the first couple of hours.  I turned off the A7 at Hawick onto the B6399 to avoid the traffic and headed cross country.   The scenery was really pleasant but the

I was woken early with a cup of tea and loaded the bike onto the car and dad transported me back the 20 miles to where I had finished the previous evening.   It was a very quiet and sombre journey for some reason, probably the thought of tackling Shap,

We had breakfast at the Little Chef next door to the Travelodge.   Dad was suffering from a hangover from his couple of pints from the previous night so did not feel up to a cooked breakfast (he only had two pints!). I was on the road again by 09:00

And so into the second week of my journey. I left Trumpet at 9:15 and quickly settled into my rhythm again.   After just over an hour I turned the corner and saw the welcoming sight of Gloucester Cathedral in the distance – I was really beginning to feel back

I said farewell to Mum and Dad at North Petherton and set off with the aim of reaching Tavistock and the start of our holiday in Devon. Today however, was going to be a bad day.   I took a stupid detour to get off the main A38 and ended

I woke early and by 08:30 was back to the place where I had been picked up last night.   The weather was foul, wet and very foggy on the hilltops.   We had decided to take an overnight bag as there was the possibility that I would not complete

I had achieved something that I had always wanted to do, to cycle from one end of the country to the other.   I had achieved it within my original plan of 9 days, an average of 100 miles a day.   I had proved to myself that at nearly