Made it to Lands End at 6pm today, 1024miles

in okehampton, lands end tomorrow!

hello, just a quick update to say we reached okehampton at half 8pm after some tough hills in devon. the first half of the day was a quick run through somerset without problems. Going to bed now for a early start tomorrow,  want to get to Lands End while it's still light and it's supposed to be the hilliest stretch of the ride. excited about tomorrow! day 9 was 100.2miles, average speed 12.9mph, 7hours 42mins in the saddle, 7100feet climb

in Bristol, 2 days to go!

hello, we arrived into Bristol last night to meet the parents kim and catherine for dinner at 9.15pm. We left Bridgnorth after a good breakfast at 9.45am. Dad saw us off and followed us for a part of the route. We had a slow start on the B road from Bridgnorth to Bromyard as the road had some big hills. We passed through Bromyard heading on to Hereford for lunch with Dad. The road was a faster A road after lunch and we made better progress. There were still hills and one of the climbs was long and steep, approaching Monmouth. We continuing through the very pretty Wye valley towards Chepstow passing a ruined Abbey. the sun was setting as we passed over the Severn Bridge with some great views. We finally made it to Bristol after a quick run down the a38. day 9 was 99.5miles, average speed of 11.6 mph, in 8hour 33, climb 8640 feet

in Bridgnorth, 3 days to go!

hello from Bridgnorth, near Telford. We managed to pass through the urban area between liverpool and manchester without too much hassle. Between Preston and Warrington we followed B roads and a few urban minor roads, avoiding motorway junctions. On this section we experienced the heaviest rain of the trip so far and got absolutely soaked. luckily our packed items didn't get too wet. after a quick stop at a bike shop for thomas to get new gloves we headed down the a49. we had to stop at a rotating bridge on this road as a canal boat was passing, it was from southampton! We stayed on the a49 for a while which was quite a busy a road but with lots of junctions and town sections to slow the traffic down. at this point we were hungry and tried to find a pub, without much success, until we found the wild boar inn in Tiverton which was very posh and we were a bit ashamed to walk in wet dirty and sweaty! After lunch we passed through Whitchurch to get some supplies. We then took the B roads to Telford which were nice and flat and we had the wind on our backs. In Telford we had to climb a hill which then descending into the Severn Gorge to Ironbridge and saw the iron bridge which looked impressive and nicely lit in what was now night. passing over the gorge on a b road bridge we faced a tough climb, hairpin bends and a dodgy 4mile ride down the unlit road til we reached Bridgnorth. Luckily my front light lasted until the street lights reappeared! in bridgnorth a scottish chap spotted thomas's flag and came to chat and we ended up with £30 more sponsor money! a good day apart from the rain, day 7 110.2miles, average speed 12.2mph, 8hour 59mins in the saddle, 6070 feet climb. 

in Preston now after climbing a mountain!

hello we're in a friendly Preston B&B after completing the section of the route through the Lake district. Yesterday had another slow start as we climbed the hills of the rural roads heading south from Carlisle. We saw some amazing views of the north hills of the lake district. At one point we took a wrong turn and had to walk our bikes 100m or so down a field track and through a little stream! a bit later we reached an a road which we knew had a massive climb 10or so miles away. the difficult thing was we climbed to 1000feet only to come back down to 500feet at the base of the climb. After some great views of low flying military aircraft we started to climb kirkstone pass, begining with a 20% incline. after a long sweaty push and a few breaks to catch our breath we made it to 1500feet for some breathtaking views. a short break later we had the best descent of the trip so far into Windermere where stopped for lunch. In the afternoon we sped to lancaster with our first tailwind of the ride. tensions got a bit frayed in the afternoon over choice of route however after a few hills the road improved and we got on better. after sailing through lancaster we pushed on to preston. unfortunately on the way thomas lost his gloves. we made it into preston just after 9pm. day 6 was 96.7 miles in 8hours 25mins. average speed 11.4mph, total climb 8100 feet

back in England!

hello from carlisle! we made it into town just before dark after 105miles! yesterday i didn't update the blog because we didn't get into the hostel til 10 and everyone sharing our room was already asleep! struggling to remember yesterday after so many hours in the saddle but i do remember the mountain pass near rest and be thankfull, very beautiful and the descent was a great thrill!yesterday was day 4, 98.4miles 11.5 average speed, 8HOURS 30MINS 6184 feet climb. today we slowly left glasgow (lots of red lights), with a few drivers beeping in support and one lady passed us some sponsor money at a red light. after leaving the suburbs we joined an old b road which was replaced by the a74m motorway. this road was very empty and desolate and there was no impression of distance travelled so i found it quite hard. thankfully after lunch however the road followed a long gradual descent and our speed picked up. eventually we reached gretna green and a few miles later we reached England! i was very happy to get this far! it was 7miles later we entered carlisle for the night. day 5 was 105.1miles average speed 11.7 8hours 56 in the saddle, 5500 feet climb.

Good morning from Oban!

hello all. We made it to Oban youth hostel last night after our first day of over 100miles. we set off from inverness in the pouring rain after craig had visited the pharmacy - his midge bites from day 1 were getting swollen. We had quite a slow start mainly caused by the pain in my knees. We eventually passed Loch Ness are proceeded down the caledonian canal, past a memorial statue at Spean Bridge, stopping for some food for lunch. in the afternoon the weather improved and we made better time to fort william. here, the lochs and mountains looked fantastic. we pressed on towards Oban with the coast to our right. we had some great views and passed over three bridges til we arrived. we found out later that the mileage measured by google maps was wrong, we had done more. The last 30miles seemed to last forever and we had to put lights on as it got dark. At 9.15pm we made it to the seaside hostel to warm up and enjoy a nice kebab. Day 3, 114.2miles, average speed 12.9mph, time in saddle. 8hours 48mins, climb 5400 feet

Made it to inverness

hello from inverness. another long day today with the added bonus of heavy rain for most the day. the scenery for the first half of the day was amazing, empty natural landscapes, beautiful lakes and mountains topped with clouds. after a break in Bonar Bridge we climbed the 'direct' route to inverness which was a steep climb to begin with and a misty mountain pass. A long while later we made it to inverness a9 bridge and passed over beauly firth on the convenient cyclepath and made it to the hostel. starting to get knee pain and hoping the rain doesn't  return tomorrow. Day 2 97.8miles 7hours 40 in saddle average speed 12.7 climb 5070feet

Made it to Tongue

hello, we finally made it to Tongue hostel at 8.50 pm after a long and very tough day. We were late starting and didn't leave JOG until 12ish. The first 50miles were slowed down by the wind in our faces, we made it to thurso at 3 for a late lunch, after visiting the very scenic dunnet head, the most northern point of mainland britain. After thurso things got challenging as we tackled steep inclines of the highlands. all in all a tough day but at least there was little rain! day 1, 94.1miles. average speed 12.2mph. 7hours 40mins in the saddle, total climb 6470feet.

hello from john o groats!

Arrived at Wick

We arrived at Wick at around 10pm after a very long train journey. There was a bit of a mad rush at Edinburgh but everything went ok. Heading towards John O' Groats today!

Birmingham to Wick tomorrow!

Hello all! We've all finished packing for the JoGLE now, we're getting up early tomorrow to get the train to Wick: 08.20 to 22:15 on three trains. I'll message next from Scotland!

P.S. Should hopefully appear in the Daily Echo tomorrow!

Altitude Profiles for the JoGLE

Using GPSIES.com i have managed to produce altitude profiles for each of the 10 days of our JoGLE. Day 6 looks interesting!

Day 1: Wick to John O Groats to Tongue

Day 2: Tongue to Inverness

Day3: Inverness to Oban


Day 4: Oban to Glasgow

Day 5: Glasgow to Carlisle

Day 6: Carlisle to Preston

Day 7: Preston to Bridgnorth

Day 8: Bridgnorth to Bristol

Day 9: Bristol to Okehampton

Day 10: Okehampton to Lands End