tour report

[Tony R]

Hello, I set off with a general aim to get from Land's End to Holyhead but was going so well by
Chester that it seemed silly not to carry on (with the west coast ports as far as Troon as bail-out
points). Anyhow I ended up reaching John O' Groats reasonably comfortably having seen many parts of
Britain I hadn't seen before and sampling many, many, many bakeries en route. I've posted the route
outline below for those who like that kind of thing. Highlights for me were:- in the south,
Dartmoor; in the middle, my new favourite English road the A6; and in the north, most of Scotland
but in particular Arran, Ardnamurchan and Caithness. Lowlights were firstly, time spent away from my
family and secondly, pushing my bike past the scene of a fatal collision on the Orkneys. The local
grapevine said the fatality was a cyclist. Total mileage for the end to end was 1083 and for the
trip including r'n'r on the Orkneys and getting back home was 1374. All the trains to get me there
and back ran on time and cycle accomodation was ok - although I don't like the hanging by the front
wheel system used by Virgin. And making connections with Scotrail was a bit hit and miss. I stayed
in hostels mostly - all were excellent though I preferred the ones not in big towns. I found I
preferred the scenery in Scotland but the bakers in England. I would need to be in serious bonk
trouble before trying a macaroni cheese pie.

Penzance-Land's End-20miles-Penzance-60-Golant-54-Bellever-104-Clevedon-77-Leominster-27-Clu
n-77-Chester-95-Arnside-67-Carlisle-71-Kendoon-58-Brodick-15-Lochranza-85-To bermory-76-Loch Lochy
YH-114-Helmsdale-57-John O'Groats.

tony R.

[Pete Biggs]

tony R wrote: .....
> Penzance-Land's
>
End-20miles-Penzance-60-Golant-54-Bellever-104-Clevedon-77-Leominster-27-C lu
>
n-77-Chester-95-Arnside-67-Carlisle-71-Kendoon-58-Brodick-15-Lochranza-85- To
> bermory-76-Loch Lochy YH-114-Helmsdale-57-John O'Groats.

Blimey, that's good going. Well done.

~PB

[Doobrie]

excellent .... i think id like to do that one day ... what sort of time would be needed to do this
comfortably?

i'll look up the site, im sure ive seen many links to various end to end sites

[Doesnotcompute]

doobrie wrote about an insanely long cycle ride:

> excellent .... i think id like to do that one day ... what sort of time would be needed to do this
> comfortably?
>
> i'll look up the site, im sure ive seen many links to various end to end sites

I think 6 weeks would be fairly comfortable :)

--
dnc

[Chris French]

In message <MPG.19a0d20c3cfb03f6989720@news.gradwell.com>, doobrie <doobr1e@TAKEOUTyahoo.co.uk>
writes Re End-to-end

>excellent .... i think id like to do that one day ... what sort of time would be needed to do this
>comfortably?
>
>i'll look up the site, im sure ive seen many links to various end to end sites

You are talking of a trip of a 1000 miles or so (depends on the route) I'd probably want to give
myself at least 3 weeks, with say a couple of days for travelling and a couple of 'rest days' you
are talking of roundabout 55-60 miles a day.

Which is on the high side for me when I tour (but then I do tend to take camping gear and like to
potter and drink a lot of tea and eat a lot of cake......)

For those who travel lighter/faster then 2 weeks is doable.
--
Chris French, Leeds

[Gonzalez]

tony R wrote:

>Hello, I set off with a general aim to get from Land's End to Holyhead but was going so well by
>Chester that it seemed silly not to carry on (with the west coast ports as far as Troon as bail-out
>points). Anyhow I ended up reaching John O' Groats reasonably comfortably having seen many parts of
>Britain I hadn't seen before and sampling many, many, many bakeries en route. I've posted the route
>outline below for those who like that kind of thing. Highlights for me were:- in the south,
>Dartmoor; in the middle, my new favourite English road the A6; and in the north, most of Scotland
>but in particular Arran, Ardnamurchan and Caithness. Lowlights were firstly, time spent away from
>my family and secondly, pushing my bike past the scene of a fatal collision on the Orkneys. The
>local grapevine said the fatality was a cyclist. Total mileage for the end to end was 1083 and for
>the trip including r'n'r on the Orkneys and getting back home was 1374. All the trains to get me
>there and back ran on time and cycle accomodation was ok - although I don't like the hanging by the
>front wheel system used by Virgin. And making connections with Scotrail was a bit hit and miss. I
>stayed in hostels mostly - all were excellent though I preferred the ones not in big towns. I found
>I preferred the scenery in Scotland but the bakers in England. I would need to be in serious bonk
>trouble before trying a macaroni cheese pie.
>
>Penzance-Land's End-20miles-Penzance-60-Golant-54-Bellever-104-Clevedon-77-Leominster-27-Clu
>n-77-Chester-95-Arnside-67-Carlisle-71-Kendoon-58-Brodick-15-Lochranza-85-To bermory-76-Loch Lochy
>YH-114-Helmsdale-57-John O'Groats.

Fantastic!!!

It is now 4.50am.

At 7.30am my train leaves Paddington for Penzance. My return train leaves Inverness at 7.55
on 29/8/03.

Farewell group. See you in 3 weeks...
--
remove remove to reply

[Tony R]

"Pete Biggs" <pLime{remove_fruit}@biggs.tc> wrote in message
news:bh6ckk$uj9k6$1@ID-144931.news.uni-berlin.de...
> tony R wrote: .....
> > Penzance-Land's
> >
> End-20miles-Penzance-60-Golant-54-Bellever-104-Clevedon-77-Leominster-27-C lu
> >
> n-77-Chester-95-Arnside-67-Carlisle-71-Kendoon-58-Brodick-15-Lochranza-85- To
> > bermory-76-Loch Lochy YH-114-Helmsdale-57-John O'Groats.
>
> Blimey, that's good going. Well done.
>
> ~PB
>
Thankyou. And the rest of urc's technical advice panel as well. I had no mechanical problems and was
comfortable most days. Considering that last year I often suffered back pain and the bike then spent
the winter in little pieces in various cupboards, I think good advice was given. The 3t Morphe bars,
shorter 3t "the" stem and ahead/quill adaptor work well for me, by the way. Doobrie, I'd say take as
much time as you can afford. If you've got six weeks use them. Britain is a fascinating place with
much regional variation comparatively closely packed. The more miles you can manage the more you
see. Also I know everyone says these things but that's because they're true - after Cornwall it all
seems a lot easier and rest days are in no way "wasted" days.By the by, I can recommend my evening
reading material: in England/Wales I read Geoffrey of Monmouth's "the History of the Kings of
Britain" which surely contains the earliest literary reference to the Highway Code (1136 CE). Whilst
in Scotland it was John Prebble's "The Highland Clearances" which goes some way to explaining the
Highlands' beauty's desolation. tony R.

[Doobrie]

> Doobrie, I'd say take as much time as you can afford. If you've got six weeks use them. Britain is
> a fascinating place with much regional variation comparatively closely packed. The more miles you
> can manage the more you see.

i only get max 2 weeks together at any one time with current job and to top that a GF who isnt a
cyclist or a driver so couldnt even be my backup ... time to start pushing those driving lessons for
her again!