Day 2 October 28th

Got up at an unearthly hour – 5.30 - after a very loud night of wind and hail. After a bowl of porridge that was neither too hot nor too cold, made way down to Land’s End. As have already said, planned to use the car as a pathfinder so got there and turned around immediately, driving along the north Cornwall coast towards St Ives. After about 15 miles, stopped the car, unhooked the bike and went back the way I’d just come. Reached Land’s End after about an hour, which was good as I was hoping to average about 15mph. Signed the relevant End-to-End documentation at the hotel and then, with only the slightest pause turned round to head back. Camera still doing weird stuff. Of three shots I took there, two were overexposed. Good thing we have camera/phone thingys now so was able to make it up with that instead. Two minutes out of Land’s End and it started to hail – yippee. And the radio is going on about how apparently it’s colder than Alaska. So much for global warming.  Still, the rest of today’s ride was quite enjoyable. There were a few showers, but they passed very quickly and personally i thought the weather was quite nice. What was interesting was that my average speed seemed to stay about 15mph irrespective of direction, so should easily manage 120 miles per day – might even aim to up that as fitness levels rise. Ended up at Launceston and feel quite tired now, so having an early night.

Gary Lorrison

Day 1 27th October

Set off from durham at about 9.15 and essentially drove non –stop all the way to tintagel. Enterprise are giving me a very nice discount on car hire for the ride. The route was pretty easy to work out, using Leeds, B’ham, and Bristol as punctuation points along the way. Very easy driving and left the main road only a few miles from Tintagel – my destination. Found the Youth Hostel very easily although the last half mile or so was along a VERY potholed single track path. There was a car coming the other way which could have meant some severe reversing, but fortunately i spotted it just as i came onto the path so simply backed up off the path and waited for it to pass. Drove on down to the youth hostael – the path is deceptive it looks as though it’s going to take you straight off the cliffs into the sea but at the last minute does a 180 and takes you to the hostel itself – which is hugely spectacular overlooking the sea on a promontory. And the sea itself was a beautiful turquoise which i arrived at just as the sun was setting.  For some reason my camera would only let me take one photo so will have to have another go tomorrow morning in the cold early morning dark.

 Checked in and was given a private room, although I was paying for a dorm, due to the presence of a school party that was coming. Think they wanted to keep me out the way! The room is a bit weird and isolated but at least warm and quiet. Have now found out that the school party is mainly girls so maybe I’m missing out!

Anyway this place is booked up tomorrow, so will have to stay elsewhere tomorrow night which is a shame. Will stay in tonight and refrain from any fundraising. Got quite a sore back from all the driving – 8 hours or so - so just want to relax and get ready for tomorrow’s first day of riding.

The plan for tomorrow is to head down to Land’s End and then drive up along the coast towards Zennor and St Ives. I’m planning on using the car as a starting and stopping off point for the day. This allows me to feel a bit more relaxed about being safe at the end of the day because as long as I can get to the car I am safe i.e. even if a can’t find a place to stay I can still kip in the car if push comes to shove. It also allows me to ride without having to carry large amounts of luggage while riding.  With respect to route planning, Iplan to put the car at my “end point” for the day, then cycle back i.e. towards Land End to the previous day’s ending point and then back to the car (or do the same but in slightly shorter legs so i use the car maybe twice or even three times a day – cycling in a series of sprints). This also means that I am using the car as a pathfinder, so that when on my bike I don’t need to worry about maps because I will have just done the route in the car. This may not sound like a big deal, but on previous lejog rides I have found one of the frustrating things is the need to read maps. Not because I have a problem mapreading, but because I tend to focus on the map to the exclusion of looking around at the scenery, and on routes with lots of turns, I found myself becoming very map fixated and I’m sure it slowed my down. Not having to think of the route while cycling will I hope make a big difference to both my enjoyment and my speed.

That’s the theory anyway. Of course the obvious downside of that is that I will have to cycle twice the distance, but that’s a price I am prepared to pay. My aim is to start cycling at about 6am and do two lots of sixty miles per day aiming to average 15 mph. This means that i will cycle 120 miles a day but actually move forward about 60 miles.  So two lots of four hours cycling is therefore the plan – from 6-10 and 11-3. If I can do that and have the rest of the afternoon/evening free to eat and sleep that would be nice.

Unfortunately, the hostel and no internet connection and no phone signal so am completely cut off!!

Manflu - bleurghh

Meant to set off on Monday - yesterday - but came down with flu over the weekend. How very annoying. Am sitting at home in my dressing gown feeling sorry for myself. It is very windy though so not a great time to be a-biking. Of course, in this county the weather is such that that's pretty much always the case.  

So anyway, next Monday it is instead. Hope the world manages to last until then. The way things are looking at the moment, the jury may just be out on that.

two weeks left

this is my first actual post so kind of a test. two weeks to go before i start LEJOG )(land's end john o'groats for those not in the know) for the third time.

first time around i got hit by a car. back wheel broken but escaped unharmed.

second time - hit by a pedestrian and sprained an ankle

third time - lucky? ... let's see. as ever i'm wishing i'd done more training, but nevertheless looking forward to a change of scene. hope the weather's better than today, cos it's been bluddy horrible.

Gary Lorrison