Summary
First of all, an update on my last day in Cornwall; when I checked out of the B&B in St. Ives, The Tregony guest house, the owners knocked a very generous £20 off my bill asking me to add it to the charity donations, Thanks very much for that.
I then set off on my bike to ride the 8 miles to Penzance where I had a pre-booked hire car waiting for me. With only 2 gears I had no option but to dismount & push when the steep hills arrived and being Cornwall there were a number of those. However, although my average speed (9.6 mph) was easily the slowest of the whole trip, I reached Penzance around 10.15 am and soon had everything packed into the car & I was homeward bound.
I've now added some more photo's to the gallery from the 2nd half of my trip.
As I write this, the total donations to Cancer Research UK now stands at an incredible £2,000. I am still receiving new donations and my Just Giving webpage will remain open until at least the end of September so hopefully the total will continue to rise.
From non-cyclist in September 2010 to cycling the length of the UK in July/August 2011, if someone had suggested that to me 12 months (or more) earlier I wouldn't have believed them.
When I first conceived the idea, around June/July 2010, I knew that a lot of research, planning, money, time and a massive amount of physical effort would be required to fulfill my dream. If I hadn't of really wanted to do this, if it had been just a pipe dream and if I hadn't had lots of cycling experience from my youth, I almost certainly would have failed.
So if anyone else is considering doing this I would heartily encourage them, it's a great experience, it's very rewarding but don't underestimate the dedication you will need to succeed.
I bought my bike, a Brevatto, from 'Brucies bikes', a small bike shop in Kendal, Cumbria. I am almost able to report that it's performance was faultless but of course there was the gear cable failure right at the end (the end of the ride and the country). Cables are a consumable item so its still fair to say that the bike performed superbly well, allowing me to concentrate on the cycling (and blogging) without the distraction of having to nurse the bike. In fact, before the cable broke, the only attention I gave to the bike after setting off from home was to top-up the air in the tyres 3 times (at Wick, Fort William and just before I ascended the hill on the way to the top of Cheddar gorge), give it a quick wash on my rest day in Bolton and get the chain oiled before I left Crediton.
The B&B's varied considerably, one or two were rubbish, three or four were excellent and the rest were more than acceptable.
I was extremely lucky with the weather, there can't have been many 2 week JOGLE's or LEJOG's that have seen only 4 hours of rain, less than 3 cold days and the majority of days hot with long periods of sunshine. With the weather that I had it would have been very suitable for camping, but the extra weight, the discomfort of sleeping and washing (yourself and your clothes) and the effort required to erect and pack the tent every day, definitely wouldn't have suited me, maybe 20 years ago it might have.
The standard of road surfaces has been much the same throughout the UK, some roads have been like riding on velvet and these seem to make you go at least 5 mph faster, some have been real boneshakers, literally, the roads where the surface has lost more than 20% of its top layer are incredibly uncomfortable to ride on (the term jogle is very apt), but the majority of roads were quite acceptable.
Similarly, I found the standard of motorists behaviour towards cyclists is much the same up and down the UK, they appeared better in the remote areas but I'm sure that was down to the lack of traffic rather than the quality of motorist. I did wonder if the "John o'Groats to Land's End in aid of Cancer Research UK" sign on the back of my bike earned me some respect & more space when the motorists were passing and I'm considering going into business to manufacture various signs for other cyclists. E.G. "Land's End to Moss Side" or "Accrington to Bricktown" or how about "Ramsbottom to Wankendorf"?
I did this on my own, without any support; riding with someone else would have made it easier and more sociable, having support would have made it easier still as I wouldn't have had to carry the panniers containing alternative clothes, energy bars, washing materials, etc. but I rode at my pace and I stopped/started when and where I wanted to so there are benefits to doing it solo and of course a greater sense of achievement.
My favorite day, without any doubt, was the day I rode from Fort William to Inverary, the scenery around Glencoe, Rannoch moor and beyond, was quite simply stunning although I'm very aware of how lucky I was to have had such fantastic weather that day, it must have been over 20 deg. C at the top of Rannoch moor and there was barely a cloud in the sky. The day I rode from Altnaharra to Beauly was also very enjoyable.
I'm not sure which was my worst day, either Hay on Wye to Cheddar or the last day, Padstow to Land's End, both needed all my strength and determination to complete, having said that, the Hay on Wye to Cheddar route was very scenic but perhaps more suited to a car or a mountaineer than a cyclist.
The good and bad days actually just reflect the numerous training days I had, some were fantastic, some were very hard and most were just about right.
Here are some cycling facts from my trip:
I cycled a total of 1,022 miles (averaging 73 miles per day)
I ascended a total of 53,914 feet (equivalent to 10.2 miles or 1.85 Mount Everest's)
I descended a total of 53,910 feet (proving that it is uphill from JOG to LE)
I cycled for a total of 78 hours 7 minutes (averaging 5 hours 35 minutes per day)
I cycled at an average speed of 13.3 mph
I achieved a maximum speed of 46.2 mph
I rode with an average cadence of 68 rpm (revolutions per minute of the crank)
I rotated the pedals a total of 318,716 times
I had an overall average heart rate of 130 bpm
I burnt a total of 55,288 calories
I have so many memories of my JOGLE, here are just a few; the fantastic weather I had for the majority of the trip, the shock of how hard the 1st day was & those dreaded frogs! The surprise & elation of receiving a donation from a passenger in a car whilst riding alongside it, the sheer beauty of riding alongside the loch's and mountains in Scotland, the sight of watching a large cruiser negotiate the northern end of the Caledonian canal, the striking & moving sight of the Commando monument, the joy of riding along 'in the zone' on quiet, scenic roads with just the satisfying 'whoosh' of the pedals, wheels & tyres for company, the frustration but later amusement with the motorist advising me to go to Brodick to eat, drink & fill-up with petrol! The discomfort of being attacked by flies as I ascended the String (the road over the mountain on the Isle of Arran) and breaking my speed record as I descended the other side, the embarrassment of falling off! The joy and sense of achievement when I reached the English border, the pleasure I had cycling with Carl, Ron and Sue on the day I rode from Ambleside to Bolton, the great night out I had with my family & friends on the night before my rest day, the 'fun' I had getting lost in Ellesmere, the shock of how steep, long & perpetual the hills were between Hay on Wye and the Severn Bridge but also the pleasure I had riding down Cheddar gorge knowing my accommodation was near to the bottom, the sight of the ocean as I approached Padstow, the shock when my bottle exploded, the timing of my gear cable breaking (how lucky I was that it happened so close to the end), the satisfaction and sense of achievement I felt when I completed the trip, enhanced by the knowledge that I had inspired loads of people to give some of their money to help conquer that most awful of diseases, Cancer.
But equal to all of that was the people I met along the way, the landladies & landlord's, my fellow resident's, the people who stopped to chat to me as I took a breather, the people in the cafes who would enquire about my journey, the complete strangers who would stop me at the side of the rode to make a donation, the little girl who gave me her remaining half packet of mints, the motorists/passengers who didn't stop but still gave me a heart-warming shout or wave of encouragement as they passed by, the people in the pubs who would prevent me from writing my blog as they chatted with me, the Hemming family who drove me back to St. Ives when I was tired & 'gearless' and of course all of you, everyone who has made a donation to Cancer Research UK, everyone who has followed my progress, everyone who has wished me well, everyone who left messages on this website, Frank for uploading my blog every day, Bill for being on stand-by to come and get me if I had failed, you all helped me succeed and of course without you Cancer Research UK would be over £2,000 worse off, I am very proud to have inspired that. I'm also proud to have done this in honour of Nat Lofthouse, a gentleman and a true legend.
If you haven't donated, please do so, even a small amount will help.
THANK'S VERY MUCH TO YOU ALL.
Finally, when I was planning my Jogle lots of people said to me "why are you doing it from north to south? YOU'RE DOING IT THE WRONG WAY", so in response I have written the following song, any similarity to any other song (by Frank Sinatra) is purely coincidental:
And now, Land's end is here
And so I face the final corner
My friend, I'll say it clear
I've lost my gears, of that I'm certain
I've emptied a bottle of Fanta that was full
I traveled each and ev'ry 'B' road
And more, much more than this, I did it the wrong way
Regrets, I've had a lot
But then again, too many to mention
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each satnav course, each careful pedal along the bypass
And more, much more than this, I did it the wrong way
Yes, there were times, I'm sure I told you
When I bit more energy bars than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate them up and didn't spit them out
I faced it all and I stood small and did it the wrong way
I've fallen off, I've laughed and cried
I've had my photo taken, my share of posing
And now, as tears subside, I hope you find it all amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say, without a flat tyre all the way,
"Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it the wrong way"
For what is a man, what has he got?
If no Sudocrem, then he has a sore bot.
To say the things how his bum truly feels and not the words 'it never heals'
The record shows I took the hills and did it the wrong way
Yes, it was my way!