Day 13

Saturday 16th August 2008

Helmsdale to John o' groats. 61 miles

We woke up on the morn of the Helmsdale highland games to find the weather was set fair which was good for the people going to the games, and good for us. but with a strong East north easterly wind, which would not be good for us. As this was our last day and was intended to be relatively short we decided we would depart after breakfast the dinner we had the previous night made us all keen to try their breakfast and it did not let us down, it was quality, a fitting breakfast for our last send off. Breakfast started at 8,00, so we prepared ourselves and our bikes before breakfast, the talk at breakfast was about the climb out of Helmsdale, friends who had done Lejog before us had described it as the hardest climb on the whole journey, We fretted between our selves could this be true. and in any case what was hardest climb to date, for us? Candidates included the climb out of Drumnadrochit we had done yesterday, of course the climb out of Tavistock, up on to Dartmoor, back in day 2, or the famous Shap. Anyway we would know soon enough. We took photos outside the Bridge hotel, what a splendid time we had there. We were straight into the climb, and it looked to us as if the road had been modified to change the slope come out of Helmsdale, it was still a hard climb, but to be honest nothing to write home about. However, clearly we were not listen to what our friends were really talking not about one hill, but a series of hills that went on for about 20 miles, up and then down shape inclines. We recorded our fastest speed of the whole trip in this stretch, 46 mph, which seems very fast were you are sitting over two thin tyres, with brakes that were worn and suspect, after 900 miles and 12 days of use. following 20 miles of this we turned north to Thurso, which was 25 miles of rolling terrain with the wind behind us, this is the way cycling should be. For this stretch we averaged around 20 mph, with little effort, and what fantastic scenery. Once at Thurso we met our support team, Mairi, who doubled up as coach, Lorraine and Graham, who had come to stay with us at Helmsdale, and were keen to be there with us as we crossed the line, and Gillian, who had been with us from the start, who had from a to z been there with us to help us in any way she could to make sure we crossed the line in John o' Groats. In Thurso we had our last stop in Tesco coffee shop, and very good it was, particularly the Blueberry Muffin, So with 20 miles to go we finally set off for our destination, but just as it should this prize target of ours was not going to give its self to us easily, the last 20 miles were in to a very strong wind and this last leg was to be a good old fashion grind, at this late stage strangely it was not physical tiredness that was the issue, we knew we could finish it, but did the last few miles need to be so hard?
At about 2.15 on Saturday all 4 of us crossed the finish line together. hands held aloft together having completed our goal, Was the journey a success, well just like the Lejog you have to look at it in many different ways. Did we complete the course? Yes, Was it a success just to get fit enough consider doing the event? Yes, Did the Charities that were supported benefit? Yes, Are we individually or collectively better people for doing this? Maybe that is something we should ask you in a few months time. What I have learnt from this, is that just because it is raining hard and the wind is in your face for a section of the journey does not make the journey bad, in the afternoon the wind might change and the sun might come out, however you have to carry on cycling to give it a chance to change. That is true for Lejog, and it is true for life,
Thank you all for supporting us, particular thanks to Gillian, Phil, and Mairi, who gave the most precious thing, time. Oh and finally now that four ordinary people have done lejog what are you going to do??

After drinks we loaded the van and headed to Dalwhinnie.

Mileage : 61 Miles

Time : 4 hours 32 mins

Total : 962 Miles

Beer of the day: Nothing different

Overnight : The Inn @ Dalwhinnie

Day 12

Durmnadrochit to Helmsdale.

84 Miles.

What a difference a day makes! As expected it was raining when we got up, and in anticipation of a long day in the saddle we set off early, with only a bowl of cereals to keep us going, this time we were a way by 7.40. On the advise of the the landlord we took the route over the mountain, which was shorter, and more picturesque. Well the first 3 miles were hard, for a 3/4 of a mile the climb was 15% assent. By the time we got to the top and cycled on a little further we were wet, very wet, and cold, very cold. After about 15 miles we took a slight detour, well a slight navigational error to be honest.

The plan was to cycle to Tain, about 50 Miles distance from the start, however after about 30 Miles we decided that we had to stop and get a warm drink, we stopped in Muir de Ouig where we stopped in the first cafe we came to. Three great things happened in the cafe, first we were given the tea by the lady in the canteen we must of looked so sad and looked like drowned rats. The next amazing thing was we meet a man called Ian Bremmer! Ian Bremmer is the man who organised the 42 hour trip by a team from Lands End to John o' groats. He is very well known in the cycling world, he also gave us 20 pounds to the charities we were supporting, thirdly we got warm. After this we cycled on, still in the pouring rain but feeling stronger, but with out our full breakfast, 50 miles was too much, so we ended up stopping again at about 40 miles in Milton. This is interesting as when we did Shap it was 50 km mainly in the rain, and yet we still managed the distance, yet today we struggled, are we getting tired and weaker, or just a bad day? After our lunch break we started in the rain again. Again the next 25 Miles went quite well through Boara and a long the coast, and with about 15 Miles the rain eventually stopped, and with 5 miles to go the faintest rays of sun came through.

We arrived in Helmsdale at about 4.00pm the bridge Hotel a marvelous hotel who's owner kindly gave us the rooms free of charge, even on the eve of the highland games. Once we arrived there was no drinks in the garden, just showers, and warm clothes. Now we are in the pub with warming drinks, maybe a little less complacent than we were last night, but now we only have 62 Miles to go, but will tomorrow be easy or hard, what will the last day offer up? For us doing the Lejog, this trip is just like life, you do not know what tomorrow will bring, but for us be it success or failure we know that tomorrow is the last day for us, what ever happens we must make it count.

Mileage : 84 Miles

Time : 5 hours 40 mins

Total : 901 Miles

Beer of the day: Cairngorm Ale

Overnight : The Bridge Hotel

Day 11

North Ballahulisch.. to Drumnadrochit.

64 miles

Again the plan was to have breakfast at 7.30 and leave at 8.00, and again we got away by 8.30, that’s ok for days where we only have 64 miles to go, but tomorrow when we have nearly 80 it will be a different story. For the third day in a row we had fine weather and this was to be the best weather day of the journey so far. It was a 12 mile cycle in to Fort William, and the wind was blowing with us for the first 4 miles, and against us for the last 60 for miles, but never mind the sun was on our backs and the scenery was spectacular. Mike’s ankle was getting better, and instead of using the bike frame as a climbing frame and mounting his bike in four stages, he was now able to do it in two moves and first lean the bike over to 45 degrees, then put the foot on to the cross bar, next a little shimmy closer to the bike and then put your foot on to the top of the crank shaft, one final shimmy and then clip in. This is a process that for a normal person would take maybe 10 seconds, but Mike has got this down to 2 maximum.

Once at Fort William, we took a brilliant detour via Neptune’s staircase, this is a series of 7 locks that are the start of the Caledonian canal, this is a magnificent way of getting, by boat from the west coast of Scotland to the East without going around the north coast, it takes an hour and a half to traverse the series of locks, and you pay for this as a toll system, depending on the length of the boat.

We decided that we should follow the toll path instead of the road, the benefits of the toll path was it was flat, the disadvantage was it was gravel, and bumpy. We travelled quite slowly along this road, but we still got a puncture in front of the Ness and Ian’s bike (the secret to riding on the rough road is to pick your path). We travelled to where we had to leave the toll road onto the link road to the A82 Inverness. We rejoined the support team of Gillian, and Mairi at the commando’s memorial, and while we were nibbling 3 fast military jet planes came by significantly lower than the top of the Munroe’s. From this vantage point we could look back at Benn Nevis, Britain’s highest peak, everybody told us that we were very lucky to see this peak without the cloud. From here on we had a great relaxing ride along the locks. Loch Lochy, Lock Oich, then there was a bit more of the Caledonian Canal, before we got to the world famous Loch Ness.

As far as we know we are the only Lejog team to have imported our very own Arabian Nessie to the region, there was a lot of nervousness about the dangers that the Celtic Nessie would be attracted to the Arabian Nessie. Talking of Arabian Ness’ we stopped just after Fort Augustus for a lunch break in a parking bay overseeing Loch Ness, within 5 minutes another van pulled up that was supporting a team of young lads that were doing the Lejog in 7 days (this is equivalent to 14 days on a tandem) all fit young lads on racers, anyway us Lejogers started talking, and lo and behold, the support of these young lads used to live in Dubai and knew Ness… well (for Dubai people they were Hillary and Dave Smeaton, Dubai mid 80’s to 90’s). After lunch the afternoon race was on with neither team confessing there was any race at all. To safe guard the team Mike decided that the brothers should sacrifice the stage win to mount a rear guard against of the possibility of a Celtic Nessie advance. Either that or the brothers just could not keep up with Little and Large. Anyway the stage victory went to L & L. Once into the hotel, for the first time ever we just had a drink, it is amazing what sunshine does for you.2 days to go, less than 150 miles to go, there is a real feeling that this is going to happen we will do Lejog!


Mileage : 64 Miles

Time : 4 hours 40 mins

Total : 817 Miles

Beer of the day: Kildonan

Overnight : Benleva Hotel

Day 10

Day 10

Wednesday 13th August 2008

St Catherines to Noth Ballachulish.

77 miles. The plan was to meet at the van at 7am, have breakfast at 7.30am and leave at 8am. However breakfast took longer than expected but it was such an experience and we all seemed to be drifting off with the gentle sound of Scottish tunes playing from the hi-fi, it was amazing we got away at 8.30am.

We all agreed that the Thistle House was a great place to stay and defiantly in the top 3 so far. It is worth mentioning the trouble Mike and Gillian took to book all the nights accommodation and so far the vast majority of them have been good, all different and all appropriate for the type of clients for who they usually cater.

The Band B in Wrexham was mainly catering for construction workers and was set up like a travelling mans business hotel, very functional, but not like a home. If you compare it to somewhere like the Thistle which was very homely and full of personal touches. Both were good quality, just different clients in mind.

Once on the road we travelled 16 miles to be a mile from where we started the journey from St Catherines to Inveraray by Road. After an hours cycling we were able to look across the water to see last nights home, the only serious climb from Invereray up to Taynuit which basically goes over a watershed between 2 Lochs. The rest of the days ride was basically following the various Lochs. Today the weather was superb, and coupled with the fantastic scenery it really was a special day to cycle. The only slight negative was the northerly wind that was blowing in our faces but even this was not very strong. We had lunch in Connell by the side of the loch watching the occasional light aircraft land at Oban Airport.

From lunch we only had 28 miles to go so we set off at a steady pace and had our last stop with Gillian with only 15 miles left while Mike and Rob were discussing location of our stop for the night Ness and Ian sped off towards the finish line. For the next 10 miles we had the break away being chased by the pellition. Eventually we regrouped and rode into North Balachulish together. As we approached Ian realised that we could either cycle our bikes for an extra mile or so around the link to the bridge we had to cross or we could hike the bikes up the steps to the bridge which we did (we discovered that carrying tandems up stairs is not an easy thing to do but still quicker than cycling an extra mile. Once over the bridge it was a simple one mile ride to the B & B and who was there to guide us? Well apart from Gillian there as Mairi, ‘lollypop 2’, who had agreed to step into Phil’s big shoes, and so far has not put a foot wrong. We look forward to see how she performs over the next few days.

Thank you Mairi for stepping into the breach.

Mileage : 76Miles

Time : 5 hours 20 mins

Total : 753Miles

Beer of the day: 80/-

Overnight : Tom-na-Creige

Day 10

Wednesday 13th August 2008

St Catherines to Noth Ballachulish.

77 miles. The plan was to meet at the van at 7am, have breakfast at 7.30am and leave at 8am. However breakfast took longer than expected but it was such an experience and we all seemed to be drifting off with the gentle sound of Scottish tunes playing from the hi-fi, it was amazing we got away at 8.30am.

We all agreed that the Thistle House was a great place to stay and defiantly in the top 3 so far. It is worth mentioning the trouble Mike and Gillian took to book all the nights accommodation and so far the vast majority of them have been good, all different and all appropriate for the type of clients for who they usually cater.

The Band B in Wrexham was mainly catering for construction workers and was set up like a travelling mans business hotel, very functional, but not like a home. If you compare it to somewhere like the Thistle which was very homely and full of personal touches. Both were good quality, just different clients in mind.

Once on the road we travelled 16 miles to be a mile from where we started the journey from St Catherines to Inveraray by Road. After an hours cycling we were able to look across the water to see last nights home, the only serious climb from Invereray up to Taynuit which basically goes over a watershed between 2 Lochs. The rest of the days ride was basically following the various Lochs. Today the weather was superb, and coupled with the fantastic scenery it really was a special day to cycle. The only slight negative was the northerly wind that was blowing in our faces but even this was not very strong. We had lunch in Connell by the side of the loch watching the occasional light aircraft land at Oban Airport.

From lunch we only had 28 miles to go so we set off at a steady pace and had our last stop with Gillian with only 15 miles left while Mike and Rob were discussing location of our stop for the night Ness and Ian sped off towards the finish line. For the next 10 miles we had the break away being chased by the pellition. Eventually we regrouped and rode into North Balachulish together. As we approached Ian realised that we could either cycle our bikes for an extra mile or so around the link to the bridge we had to cross or we could hike the bikes up the steps to the bridge which we did (we discovered that carrying tandems up stairs is not an easy thing to do but still quicker than cycling an extra mile. Once over the bridge it was a simple one mile ride to the B & B and who was there to guide us? Well apart from Gillian there as Mairi, ‘lollypop 2’, who had agreed to step into Phil’s big shoes, and so far has not put a foot wrong. We look forward to see how she performs over the next few days.

Thank you Mairi for stepping into the breach.

Mileage : 76Miles

Time : 5 hours 20 mins

Total : 753Miles

Beer of the day: 80/-

Overnight : Tom-na-Creige

Day 9

Tuesday 12th August 2008

Troon to St Catherines:

62 miles, and one river crossing.
We had a send off committee of 2 as we left Troon Rob gave us an unexpected, and unwanted detour though Troon, once on the road it appears that as we get progressively more tired we take longer to get started, and this morning was no exception. We had expected the wind to be blowing strongly from behind us, however it turned out to be more across than anything else. We had decided to go on without stopping to Gourock from where the ferry left for Dunoon. We had the official information from the website and the telephone support for Argyle ferries that told the ferry leaves on the hour, We also had some information from Jimmy of Troon that told us the boats go every 20 minutes. Discounting Jimmy’s opinion we were aiming at the 11.20 crossing. With about 15 miles to go it was looking tight for the 11.20 crossing while, some hadn’t noticed this, and some were accepting of the fact that we would have to take the next one Ness was determined to push for the 11.20 crossing, and so we pushed, we were doing speed we just could not keep up for too long, but we knew that if we made it would cut an hour off our day, Gill was at port, and had confirmed which of the 2 possible ports it was and fortunately it was the closest. As we hammered on Mike’s phone went, but he was unable to answer this and cycle at full speed, so he did not reply. As we came over another summit we were broken to see the ferry leaving port, but it was only 10 past not 20 past, how could this be? Well if we had listened to Jimmy, or answered Gillian on the phone we would of known the boat go every 20 minutes, but we did feel exhilarated in knowing that if we had to we could put the pedal down. The short journey across the firth of Clyde took about 20 minutes, and is was one of the highlights of the trip, the mountains looked so commanding, and it felt like we were really beginning to leave the heavily populated part of the UK behind. Once across we regrouped with Gillian, who had caught the boat before ours (the one we could of caught had Rob not given us the guided detour around Troon), we then cycled slowly until we found the first café, come coffee shop and had lunch of soup and a sandwich. It is interesting, that 4 or 5 days ago we were wolfing down huge quantities of food, but as the days go on we seem to be loosing or enormous appetites, and consuming more normal amounts of food, not sure if this is a good sign or not? The last 22 miles were along the banks of Loch Eck, and Lock Fyne, the scenery was fantastic, and what a pleasure it was to cycle all day in the relative dry and to finish the ride with dry clothes. As we conclude the day’s note I must tell you of the strangest noises Mike is making at Gillian, team masseur, gives him a gently rub down with a towel, tomorrow will see if the rub down has worked, if not we might have to go for the deep friction version, if he does we do we might need ears plugs.


Mileage : 62 miles

Time 4 hours 03 mins

Total : 677 Miles

Beer of the day: Fyne Ales -Innishail.

Overnight : Thistle House Guest House, St Catherines.

Day 8

Monday 11th August 2008.
Cumbertrees to Troon. This was a 77 miles. Generally flat trip to Troon. It sounded like an easy day, however, it was not to be, we went for a slightly later start, because we were tired from the day before, once we were ready we went for the bikes only to find that Ness’s and Ian’s bike had a puncture in the front tyre, although this did not take long to sort out it seemed to set the tone for the day, as we started, so did the rain. The first 40 miles was tough, weather it was a case of after the lords mayor’s show of day7, or if we were suffering from our late night out in Cumbertrees, all of 10.30. Anyway for what ever reason we all felt very down by the time we got to Senquhar, pronounced “Shanker”However after a bowl of Scottish soup, and a flat sausage roll the rain stopped, and we all felt a lot better. For the second half of the day it would have been difficult to recognise the riders as the same 4 who struggled so badly compared with the after lunch team that flew up hills and down slopes at incredible speeds. As we approached Troon there were mixed emotions all round we were pleased to becoming to the end of an another day in the saddle, but it was also to be the last day we would have Phil “lolly pop man” Batt as part of our team. Phil had always told us that he would not be able to continue beyond Troon, but none of the team really expected him to desert us, all week we had been devising plans that would release him from his other commitments, and all week although tempted Phil would resist and insist he had to go. Phil had an interesting way of settling in to the team, quietly spoken, Phil proved to be a mine of detailed information about the road networks in all parts of the country and what various towns or cities were famous for, although with every day Phil became more and more integrated the team, Phil will probably be most remembered for commenting, on video, on the size of Rob’s belly.
Always back on the road, Rob was pushing to get to Troon so he could be with his wife, Karen who’s parents live in troon. We were fast approaching Troon, and the last Lolly pop duties for Phil. Once in Troon we said goodbye to Phil put him on a train to the airport, and possibly recruited a lolly pop lady, but more about this in the future days, for the next couple of days the full responsibility for guiding, feeding, tending, and caring for the four cyclists relies with Gillian. The evening meal was in Scott’s by the Marina, there was no local beer of the day and our senior cycling team member refused to try the whisky.


Mileage : 77 miles

Time 5 hours 19 mins

Total : 615 miles

Beer of the day: Nothing

Overnight : South Beach Hotel Troon.