This event has been an adventure for everyone, and certainly one not to be forgotten! In this article, we hope to share some of the problems (as well as successes) for anyone contemplating the challenge!

We will be adding to this article over time, so we advise bookmarking this page if you are interested. Last update: 2nd September 2008

General Advice

• Check all roads are legal for cycling - This may sound obvious, but was something we had overlooked. Don’t assume that just because it’s an A road, you can cycle on it. We got stuck after crossing the Forth Road Bridge, not knowing we couldn’t go any further up the road. We had to divert through Edinburgh, which added a lot of stress and time to our day!
• Check specific campsite rules - On arrival at our first campsite, we were swiftly turned away having driven across the country to get there! Their reasoning behind this was that we were a single sex party. The advertising on the car and the fact we had a trailer with nearly £1000 worth of bikes on it meant nothing. We had to drive 10 miles extra down the road to another campsite. Not only this, but it meant we had to change our cycling route to include the alternative campsite which extended one days cycling by 10 miles. The alternative campsite donated a pitch free of charge and were fantastically helpful by the way!
• Bring Sat Navs! - Not an obvious one, but if we hadn’t have had 2 sat navs, it would have made things just that bit more difficult. On the bike, it is extremely useful as it meant we didn’t have to carry maps. We used the sat nav as a map, as well as letting it guide us through the route. Of course make sure that you get waterproof protection for it, because it will get wet! Another advantage to both support car and cyclists having a sat nav is that both parties know exactly where the other is. For example, when Matt needed medical attention on the road, the coordinates were simple entered into the car sat nav and it took us straight to him.
• A Gazebo - This proved very useful for us, as it rained most of the time. This allowed us to dry clothes/sleeping bags etc under it, even when it was raining. Of course it also meant we could cook in relative dryness.
• Test equipment before leaving - We hadn’t tested the brand new mobile modem before we left. It should have allowed us to update the website every day. After spending most of our evenings on the phone to carphone warehouse, we still had no internet connection by day 4. Only after visiting a shop on our way down did they discover it was actually the equipment that was faulty.
• Don’t store loose matches in a bag - On the last day we almost had the entire trailer up in flames after some loose matches in a plastic bag had managed to strike off each-other as the bag was put into the trailer. It was only becuase we could smell candles that the smoke was discovered!
• Take regular food stops - It was soon realised that only one food stop at lunch was not enough to keep cycling all day. Regular stops to shops/cafe’s were needed to prevent complete energy depletion.
• Make sure you know where the bike shops are - Many supplies were needed on route that we hadn’t brought with us, or had depleted supplies of. For example, between us we went through 5 inner tubes, which was pretty unbelievable. There were various other breakages involving pedals, pump clips etc.
• A kettle can save on gas - We realised about halfway down that we were wasting a lot of money by using the gas burners to boil water. If you have a campsite with electrical hookup (and an adapter to convert to standard socket) it is much cheaper to purchase a Tesco value kettle. Of course, check with your campsites electrical usage rules first.

Strange Things That Happened

• Sitting in Tesco car-park with the advertising on the car managed to raise an extra £22.50 just from people coming up to the window!
• We had our campsite invaded by a group of hungry ducks. Thankfully all tents were closed and this provided at least 5 minutes of amusement.

The final stretch began in dull weather with Matt cycling the first 70 miles over hilly terrain. With reasonably high winds, the going was tough. Meanwhile, the support team had packed up camp and driven off to the meeting point at truro. At the meeting point, we were joined by Alistair’s parents and Matt’s mum who had driven down to see us finish. At this point, both Alistair and Jonathan joined Matt to cycle the last 50 miles.

The weather took a turn for the worst during the last 50 miles, with heavy fog and some rain. The family members followed us down for the last 10 miles, offering supporting cheers. The last 10 miles were cycled in record pace but in pain, with Matt & Alistair having to favour one leg (due to bad muscle pain for Matt and the knee injury for Alistair). We crossed the finish line at Land’s End at around 8pm, with Matt having cycled the entire way.

After much celebrating and discussing the events of the past week, we all went for a celebratory curry! More information about the trip in general will be posted soon!

After a good nights sleep the two cyclists were in high spirits and ready to hit the road hard, sadly after around 10 miles Jonathan was forced to pull out of cycling the leg to Exeter. He was experiencing pain behind the knee, and following Alistair’s event-ending knee problem, it was agree that resting the limb until the final day would be the most sensible course of action.

Matt then pushed back onto the road and into the wind, whilst making good time to the outskirts of Bristol (around 30 miles from camp). At this point things were looking good for a comfortable day, but then Matt made the error of trying to navigate through the city. Not Wise ! Despite the supposedly simple route of just following the same road as he had been, confusion in unfamiliar territory led him to lose large amounts of time, checking and re-checking his position, and in the end it took around 1.5 hrs to travel 10 miles. Once back on the open road he made reasonable time to get to the old faithful Tesco Car Park at Weston-Super-Mare.

He then made good time travelling the 65 remaining miles to Exeter, despite adverse wind conditions. The campsite was one of the nicest we had stayed at having a top notch shower block, generous pitches and even a games room (cheer). One day to go !

Today was a pretty good day. Matt and Jonathan left early in the morning for Gloucester, they made it to lunch after 60 miles in good time. The route was quite challenging, and as a result Jonathan decided to retire for the day and allow Matt to continue unhindered.

A highlight of the day was the hot lunch of bacon butties behind the trailer in a lay-by, hats off to the chef(Ross) who cooked the bacon to our individual tastes. Matt finished the second leg late but still in time for a good dinner.

Matt maintains that he would have arrived more promptly at the campsite if the sat-nav hadn’t led him over several steep and unnecessary hills shortly before arriving at the site.

The support crew enjoyed a relaxing evening at the campsite, and turned in for an early night. Matt was just glad to hit the hay.

Our two cyclists (Jonathon and Matthew) set off southward today from Kendal. The going was reasonably hilly with the start being positioned in the lake district. After the support crew had picked up some much needed Kendal Mint Cake, lunch was served from Chorely Tesco car park! Matt continued the leg down to Whitchurch on his own after lunch and arrived at around 8:30pm.

The support crew were hugely excited to note that the Whitchurch campsite included a variety of wildlife our favorites being the hoard of ducks that toured the campsite in search of food (and ended up attacking our equipment).

A big thank you to the Karners for traveling all the way across to Whitchurch to wine and dine us! This was much appreciated and just in the nick of time (Ross cooking and everything!).

After Alistair’s reluctant decision to join the support crew instead of risking a permanent knee problem, Matt had to cycle the rest of the way to Kendal from Dumfries on his own.

Now that Alistair cannot cycle, we have managed to source another cyclist to keep Matt company on the rest of the journey. Jonathan Price is now going to try and help Matt make his way down to Land’s End. Good luck to them both!

The team enjoyed a rather scary night of old timers karaoke at our backup campsite!

Disaster struck today. Yesterday I (Alistair Wooldrige) developed a knee injury which I continued cycling on for the 115 miles. Hoping it would have got better overnight, we set of in earnest for Kendal. After 20 miles of cycling on one leg because of the pain, I had to get our support crew to take me to the nearest hospital. I was diagnosed with an inflamed ligament just below and under my knee cap and was advised that if I continued it would most likely result in a permenant knee problem. We decided to camp overnight near the hospital area to give a chance to think. The result of this was that I was not prepared to cause myself a permenant knee problem. Matt continued to cycle to our substitute campsite in Dumfries.

Another quick update by phone go afraid as the laptops internet continues to play up (and ate yesterdays news).
On the cycling front today was fairly demanding with many ascents required. On the road for a total of 13 hours today with a large portion of time spent stuck in Edinburgh.

On the support side of things the day was mainly spent attempting to source a new alternator for the car (a mean feat for a 38 year old car). Luckily a call out to the RAC resulted in a brand new unit which fitted turning up unexpectedly in the back of the van. Many thanks RAC! We got to campsite with time to spare and had a meal ready by the time the cyclists (finally) arrived.

Thats all for now. Until tomorrow!

On the cycling front, its been a pretty good day in terms of the terrain. However, the aches and pains resulting from yesterdays cycling have surfaced. We’re currently suffering with painful knees, hands, feet, backs and obviously saddle sore. Most of the journey seemed downhill for the 80 miles, resulting in an easier ride. The weather hasn’t been too kind today, with heavy rain being quite predominant. Today we’ve gone through 2 new inner tubes and two punctures, all on my (Alistair) bike!

Unfortunately today we had a bit of a problem with the car, thankfully it only occurred when reaching the campsite and will hopefully be fixed tomorrow morning. All the luggage from the trailer is drying after getting wet yesterday. We’re currently enjoying the Perth campsite (for the second time on our journey) and the dry weather.

Day 3 tomorrow is about 130 miles, travelling from Perth to Peebles.

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone! We’ve had some real difficulties getting online using our mobile modem (no thanks to the Carphone Warehouse hotline).

The trip up to John O’ Groats was long but went without any real problem; making it all the way in the planned two days. Unfortunately, despite our previous booking at our planned Perth campsite, the owner decided to turn us away (having neglected to tell us previously that an all male party would not be allowed) as a bunch of rowdy charity cyclists and classic car enthusiasts. However we were taken in by another kind campsite who have offered to put us up for free! This has slightly altered our route (making an especially long day 3) but the cyclists are ready for the challenge.

Leaving camp at 8am (this is why the cyclists are pictured next to an empty sign post - which is only fitted with the John O’ Groats sign at 9am), the first 60miles went without a hitch thanks to the reasonable weather and strong north-westerly winds. This resulted in some over-exertion and the price was paid in the second half of the journey (taking almost double the time for the same distance again) where the weather turned for the worse and moral was down. In total 130miles covered in just over 10 hours. A sterling effort considering the difference between the hills of Scotland and the mighty peaks of Cambridge.

The weather report says we might be in the clear for rain tomorrow, so fingers crossed for a good days cycling.

Off to search for a pub, hopefully we shall update again tomorrow!