Day 15

We did it!!!

14 1/2 days and 985 miles ago, we were bright eyed and looking forward to the challenge. Today saw us complete that challenge at John o’Groats with immense pride and excitement. The distance was just under 40 miles. The terrain was hilly, the wind was biblical (25km/h headwind/sidewind). We decided fairly early on that we didn’t care about the 1000 mile mark and just wanted to get to JOG.

When we got there, a tired Liz and Si made their final few pedal pushes up to the John o’Groats sign. Liz decided to take care at the end, as the sign is on some bumpy ground. Simon wasn’t so careful, and managed to fall off a mere 5 meters from the sign! That was his fifth and final fall of the trip

We got lots of pictures by the sign and sprayed the sparking wine around in celebration! It was such a good vintage, Duane used the remaining bubbly to clean the windscreen. We saved the Veuve till tonight and are enjoying it in mugs. Classy.

We began to make our way back in the motorhome and managed to get back to Perth, and decided to grab some fast food as we denied our bodies of it for two whole weeks. We were really after a KFC, but we stumbled upon a Burger King, which did the job nicely. A triple whopper later, and we’re done for the night

Today really was a completion day for the entire adventure. We had our fair share of ups and downs. Days of emotion, days where we weren’t sure if we could carry on. We pulled through as a team, supporting each other. Credit to everyone involved, including people in the background, like Duane, who played a massive part in our success.

Would we do it again? I doubt it. Do we wish we hadn’t done it? Not at all. The sense of achievement when standing on the platform which has the John o’Groats sign is incredible. Like standing on top of the world.

Sincere thanks to everyone who supported us. Not just by donating to our charity, but in the nice messages and texts that have helped us on our way. Our journey is over, the adventure is complete. Now time to repeat the stories again and again to the same people till they get sick of hearing them and blaming it on our age

We cheap Ampicillin hope to get home tomorrow evening after a few things which we have been craving…

1. A lay in \o/
2. Olympic breakfast at a little chef
3. KFC

From all the team, thanks for following, and we hope you’ve enjoyed reading this blog and following our progress on our adventure. Till next time…

Day 14

So close, yet it still feels so far away! We’re currently sitting in our motorhome under 40 miles away from John O’Groats! We can almost smell the finish line, but don’t want to get carried away yet

Today saw loads more jet planes flying overhead. We think they’re coming from the Wick airbase. We also saw a very weird sign, which neither of us expected or have ever seen before, it simply said ‘Lambs in the road’… awesome

So, we started from our campsite this morning in Lairg and made our way up north. We knew it order pills online without prescription was a relatively short day today with what looked like about 60-65 miles on the map. The terrain was very hilly, so felt a lot longer, however it was a mere 63 miles in the end We passed through Betty Hill on the way to our destination, Melvich. Betty Hill is a village on the coast… yes, we’ve hit the North coast of the UK \o/ We saw the Atlantic Ocean again, but this time it’s from the North of the country. It felt great to have reached the other end of the country, only now we need to get to the East side of it

So we’re stopping off tonight in a campsite by the side of a pub. 2 pints of Guiness later and I’ve had another great idea… why not make it up to 1000 miles if we’re close We just added up what we’ve done and we’re up to 951… With only 40 miles or so left, that would leave us 10 short for the thousand, so we may have to detour to get there in 1000 miles

We’ve almost got there now! Thanks for all your kind messages, comments, sponsors.

Day 13

The day started on the banks of Loch Ness, which you’d imagine would be flat. Wrong!

To say today has been hilly would be an understatement. buy medicine online without prescription Still, we managed to get through it and notch up a total of 78 miles for the day…and that should be the longest remaining day out of the way now!

We’re staying in a place called Lairg, which had a lovely sunset over the lake. We’ve just been to the pub to celebrate Andrew’s birthday with some food.

By our counting on the map, we think there are just about 100 miles to go, which puts us set for a saturday finish.

Day 12

We woke up today with dread and fear as we heard the rain thumping on the roof of the motor home… Luckily by the time we actually rolled out of bed and got changed, the rain had stopped. The weather was changeable today, with overcast and showers in the morning, followed by some nice sunny spells in the afternoon.

Liz and Si started where they left off, about 15 miles short of Glencoe. It was actually relatively flat going most of the way to Glencoe. Well, the road in the valley was, whereas the hills alongside the road were stunning and far from flat

As we cycled through the valleys between the hills we heard a jet fighter plane roar through the sky and in front of one of the peaks, which was really cool

We cycled on through Glencoe and up towards Fort William where Duane found a shop. 5 bottles of Whisky later, he left the shop. We continued on to a Loch called…. Loch Lochy! What a stupid name for a Loch! Translated, it’s Lake Lakey. Sounds like a Friday afternoon naming meeting if you ask me. We finished on Loch Ness, which is where we are typing up this blog post. Currently the edge of the Loch is about 5 meters away from the motorhome, but sadly, we Ampicillin Online still haven’t seen Nessy

We’ve worked out our milage and finish date which has cherped us up a bit Tomorrow we’re looking at a 77 mile day, then a 66 mile day on Friday, followed by a final 40 miler to John O’Groats, injury/illness permitting of course. Hopefully we’ll both make it together which will be a great achievement.

It’s Andrew’s birthday tomorrow so don’t forget to wish him a happy birthday! We’ve booked tomorrow night’s accomodation which has a pub and restaurant, so we’ll likely be celebrating in there

Thanks again for all the comments/texts! Keep them coming for our final push.

P.S Em: We have Mr. Bump plasters… I’ve already used one on my finger
P.P.S @bencc: Yes, we are hardcore \o/
P.P.P.S Colin: Poof!

Day 11

Well we all woke up after an amazing night’s sleep ready for the new day… We couldn’t wait to start cycling as our muscles weren’t hurting at all today. OK, I’m fibbing slightly. We got the usual night’s kip in a not so amazingly comfortable motorhome, muscles still aching. But spirits are high in the camp, despite what we’re going through.

We left Kilbarchan at about 9:30 and the hills were painful. cheap pills online We stopped to see a cow and her calf close by in a field and noticed the calf walking very gingerly. The cow had some stuff hanging out still (hope i’m not being too descriptive) and the calf was a little wet. We had a chat to the farmer to let him know the cow had just given birth and he said it happened less than an hour ago! So that felt quite special to see the little new born calf

So, we set off and headed up to Loch Lomand. Andrew joined us for just under 35 miles, while we cycled past the Loch. Liz and Si continued after the loch, through the Ben Nevis and Glen Coe region. It’s hilly.

Liz and Si pushed on and managed to finish on a respectable 81 miles. We’re at a campsite in Glencoe, but tomorrow, we will need to get a lift back about 15 miles to where we finished today. Tomorrow’s trip should see us cycle through Glencoe and past Fort William, up to Loch Ness. Who knows, we might see Nessy

Oh, Midges! The’re really really really really annoying and we’ve found that they don’t seem to be getting on with our deep heat spray
We’ve also updated all other days with pictures (From Day 4 ), so do read back and see our newly uploaded pics but haven’t had a chance to play with today’s… check back soon

Day 10

Double figures! Only 4 to go, if we keep up the milage. Liz and Simon are really starting to feel it now. 10 days of non-stop cycling is really starting to tug on the muscles, pushing some pains in and around the knees. We’re applying ice and stretching as much as we can now for the final push through Scotland. Liz’s knees were better today, so it was Simon’s turn to ache!

Today saw Liz and Simon start from Penpont travelling North West on the A76 towards Kilmarnock. There was an unexpected road closure ahead, but fortunately we had Duane and Andrew in the motorhome ahead of us, planning a detour for us and communicating it to us via the radios.

The weather was lovely today! At last, a good day! Minimal wind, no rain, warm sun. We’re hoping for more of the same! We pretty much hit our target today, of about 65 miles. Again it’s not a massive amount, but a recovery ride for our tired legs. Hopefully we’ll meet flatter roads tomorrow around the lochs for us to get some good distance up on.

We finished the day on the outskirts of Glasgow, in a small village called Kilbarchen. Tomorrow we hope for an early start and a ride round Lock Lomand before a potentially hard passage through Ben Nevis and Glen Coe towards Fort William. That afternoon could be a bit of a beast!

Points to note today:

Simon has now gone 2 days without a fall.
Duane managed to stop behind a parked car thinking it was traffic.
Liz got the first puncture of the trip! Well, I say it’s a puncture, a piece of the inner tube about 1 inch by 2 inches somehow ripped off the rest of the inner tube… presumed blow out! Luckily we were by the motorhome, so 5 mins and we were on our way.

We’re stopping at a campsite/B&B called Pannell fam which again gave us free accomodation, so we’ll put that to the fund

……..Oh, drugs online without prescription and Liz’s bottom hurts

Day 9

Heat up the oil, mix the batter and pass the Mars bar… we’re in Scotland! \o/

Liz and Si set off from the campsite fairly early and were soon saying farewell to ol’ blighty! We crossed the border into Scotland at around midday. The sun was shining, the rain had stopped and the prevailing wind was… in our faces (22km/hr!). The last bits of England in Cumbria were very hilly, but once we got into Scotland and travelled West towards Dumfries, it got a lot flatter and only the wind was making the flats seem like hills.

Our target was to take it easy today after pushing ourselves hard for the previous two days. Although the wind put a stop to that, we did manage to pass Dumfries and end up at a campsite in Penpont. All in all, a 63 miler, which although we call it a recovery ride, it’s still longer than our training rides

As far as injuries etc goes, Liz’s knee is a little painful, but it’s the same muscular strain that she had treated by our Osteo, Tony. So she’s looking after that one with lots of ice and stretching. Si’s legs are a bit tight, but are getting better. Stretching lots seems to be doing the trick. One big problem we’re noticing is bums! Yes, they’re now starting to hurt in an epic way.

All in all, this is totally the hardest thing we’ve done. It makes the Marathon look like a gentle walk. Truly it does. We’d never have imagined this would be anywhere near as hard as this. Our advice to anyone wanting to try… don’t! We’d love to reach our donation target, we’re almost there! So keep making us smile with texts and comments, and why not add to our total! Or donate again if you’re feeling really generous

Oh and here’s info on Duane, as requested by Mr Nice. He’s complaining more than the cyclists about the motorhome, the sleeping conditions, tiredness. He keeps making us smile and laugh with his wit and crap jokes. He can’t stop talking about Appleby, a town we passed through. He’s stalled the motorhome twice so far and can make a mean pasta All in all, he’s still looking after us all and is the man!

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Day 8

We didn’t get much down time yesterday after our ride, and didn’t really load much food on due to the late finish. As a result, we didn’t sleep great and felt very low on energy, physically and mentally. We couldn’t even convince Duane to take our places

We had a bit of a lay in so didn’t get out till 10am, which is very late for us. Today was going to be a big challenge as we were going near/through parts of the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District. Wow! Hills of epic Devon proportions again. Andrew needed today to complete his recovery and the team are looking forward to him rejoining them tomorrow afternoon in Scotland.

So the plan today was to get as close to our planned stop near Carlisle as possible (The most northern city in England). Everything was against us, the prevailing wind was going the wrong way! The hills were epic, we were buy drugs online without prescription tired, hungry and oh yeh, it rained. Still, Si and Liz were actually starting to quite enjoy the cycling Only managed 20 miles before lunch due to our late start, but we really pushed through the hills in the afternoon to roll up 70 miles in total and get to the campsite as planned.

Another day done, another fall for Simon Still at least they’re all cleat related falls and nothing serious (he isn’t hurting himself when he falls as he’s usually stationary)

Time to watch a bit of Green Wing and enjoy our last day in England with a Tanglefoot… Into Scotland tomorrow, Och aye, and then we’ll feel like we’re on the home straight… 8 days down, about 600 miles down, 6 days to go.

Thanks for all the lovely comments/texts guys, they’re all making us smile Keep them coming!

Day 7

We started day 7 early knowing it was going to be a long ride. The terrain looked like it would be flat enough to get some good distance done early. Andrew was unable to join today, so was recovering aching muscles and refueling energy. Si and Liz went off quite fast as the roads were very flat, and managed to achieve an admirable 40 miles before lunch, which made it taste that much better

The second half of the day was a different story, however. The terrain took a nasty hilly turn and reminded us of days gone by. We struggled on and managed to put in a sterling effort to achieve an 86 mile day in total. A great step forward in our overall mileage. Let’s hope we’re able to walk tomorrow

Today, the rain stopped \o/ and the sun came out. It was almost too hot to cycle a stupid distance, but we did it anyway. Had to keep on top of our fluids to make sure we weren’t dehydrating, which meant lots more wee stops

Oh and someone fell off their bike today… Guess what… it *wasn’t* Si… ok, it was

The day took us from Cheshire, through Lancashire, taking us between Liverpool and Manchester.

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Day 6

Today started as yesterday finished really. The weather was pretty awful – wet, cold & windy. And what’s worse was some of our kit hadn’t finished drying from the previous night, so we had to make do with some soggy shoes and arm/leg warmers.

We all have moments during each day where we struggle physically and emotionally to continue moving and making progress. As a team, we always try to help each other along where we can and usually we overcome our ‘walls’. However, today was slightly different. Sadly, 3 of us started the day but only 2 finished, as Andrew was very tired and low on energy. He made Buy Ampicillin Online it till lunchtime but wasn’t able to continue. He has been resting for the day and the team hope he will continue tomorrow. Andrew has so far completed over 350 miles in under 6 days, which is plenty to warrant a rest!

Liz and Simon continued after lunch and managed to complete around 70 miles in total, reaching our target for the day. The terrain today was a lot flatter than other days (relatively) but still hard going, especially with a headwind at times.

We’ve now passed through Shropshire and are staying overnight in Cheshire at some pub/campsite/thing. It’s not great, but it’s cheap, like the budgie. We’re in a place called something, about 10 miles north of Market Drayton, on route to Crewe. Tomorrow, we should clear Manchester and Liverpool! Also, the weather should be better so we wont have the wet cold numb feeling all over \o/

Please do comment and give us lots of support… we really do need it! Oh and Mr Nice… have you sponsored us yet?