Chapter 6: Cycle 1000 miles - see little, learn a lot.

I’ve just cycled 1002 miles in just under ten days – travelling from Lands End, at the very southwest tip of England, to John O’Groats, at the very northeast tip of Scotland.

Sounds boring….and in many ways it is but if you keep your eyes open you learn a lot, if not see much, apart from hedgerows and sheep.

The Facts.
I went with cycling friend, Kevin. We travelled on good road racing bikes and carried only one bag on our backs (with half a change of clothing) and a saddlebag with essential spares.

We did about 100 miles a day and stayed at B&B’s we found along the way. We stayed as much as possible to ‘B’ roads and lanes. You go from south to north so you get some good following wind in the first few days and get over the first days of climbing the Devon and Cornwall hills.

Every day was the same.
Alarm at 7.15am
Breakfast of cereal and cooked veggies
On bikes around 9ish
Cycle 35-50 miles
Have a break
Cycle 30-40 miles
Have another break
Cycle the rest
Find a B&B
Have a shower and do some stretching
Find a pub with food
Eat loads, drink one pint
Watch football on TV
Txt and call friends
Go to bed

So what did I actually see?
In a way, not a lot: some nice villages, some excellent lochs, some major towns and cities – Chester, Liverpool, Glasgow etc and some good coast line.

The Challenge.
The challenge isn’t so much the distance and time but the weather conditions. As long as you stop and eat regularly you avoid much degeneration. But the weather!? There were days when we almost got blown off the bike, almost suffered hypothermia in the highlands and battled all the way out to John O’Groats on the final day. But also there were days when we flew along at 25mph for hours on end in short sleeves. The challenge is against the conditions – not against the distance.

What did we learn?
Everyone has been touched by cancer somewhere. We were cycling for two cancer charities, when we mentioned this everyone had a story of a friend or family member who had cancer.

Cafes in cities are for young people for breaks from their routine, in the villages they are for old people to laugh, chat and wile away the day.

Cities cause road rage. We were never hooted in the countryside but as soon as we hit a city there would be some car with some problem with the way we simply existed on the road. When you’ve been cycling for hours through countryside and hit a big city it really hits you back as to how condensed, dirty and frantic these places are to live.

Obviously then, people are friendlier in the countryside and villages. Outside the cities we couldn’t buy anything without a half hour chat – either with the shopkeeper or the person in front in the queue. I was in support of the quirky ‘ independence for London’ campaign (especially when I heard a regional DJ announce “and after the break Charles and Eddy” – that wouldn’t happen in London! But we need each other – the people (that may in the main support hunting) but are friendlier, more helpful, have more time and are more rounded than us city dwellers.

So many people live to shop. Whatever time we hit a city the streets would be packed with people carrying branded retail bags. Something has got to be done to encourage people to find fulfilment through other means.

B&B’s must be the nations largest sector of small business. Each is run by an entreprenaur. All are working at ways to make sure their business is as busy and profitable as possible – because they need to in order to live. We paid between £17 and £25 a night each and that’s not much with which to build a small business and live.

There must be a book somewhere for ‘running a successful B&B’ as several golden rules seem to crop up in most places – a small edible chocolate ‘treat’ in the bedroom, letting people serve themselves as much cereal as they wanted, having facilities for drying wet clothes, when these things weren’t in place it was noticed.

The church really was so influential in the past. We cycled through so many villages with enormous churches. Villages that at the time of the church build must have had a handful of resident cottages. Now so many of those churches had a barometer outside, measuring the amount of money that had been raised for a new roof or steeple…

Many people in this country work all hours for almost no money. There was the transit driver who took our bikes from John O’Groats to Inverness for our flight home, who had moved into a mobile home as he couldn’t afford the council tax and was lifting us 110 miles at 6am for £20 cash in hand. He was due to finish at 7pm. The café owners who would be up at break of dawn to bake and then sell their bread and cakes until closing time for a pittance.

Chain stores have got a few things right and that’s frustrating. In a few towns we ended up in chain coffees stores and not local cafes. Which is mad – travel through the country but go to a café that could be anywhere. But the reason for this is the chains were better – more choice, better coffee and still open when we came passed at gone six. Surely some café owners can learn and incorporate the best of both so they provide the best product along with the best environment.


My overriding memories and one highlight.

Writing down huge lists, in tiny writing, of all the villages we were going through the following day so we wouldn’t get lost in the lanes.

Cycling down un-signposted lanes no-handed trying to get that list out of my back pocket.

Buying two papers between us and ripping out the bits we wanted to read in the daytime cafes and reading them in the evening pubs.

Listening to Radio 2 on my essential mobile / radio as I cycled in the wind and rain. It was the only station I could get but kept my mind occupied through the hardest bits.

Seeing the word ‘Slow’ written in massive letters on the road, just on the brow of a hill we’ve taken 20 minutes to climb!

The words and things we saw more than anything else – hedgerows, sheep, ‘Londis’, ‘Spa’, ‘No’ and ‘Vacancies’

B&B always offer a grilled tomato and only produce baked beans by special request.

Eating packets of sweets for the first time in years – Bon Bons and Murray Mints kept me going for many a mile.

My mobile only ringing in the few minutes I actually wasn’t cycling each day and my wife claiming it was her witchcraft.

Getting txts of support – even one a day can be enough to motivate you when things get tough

Pubs and cafes marked as being up lanes on handwritten signposts are always too far. We gave up on several but managed 8 miles off track once for a piece of cake and a double espresso

It’s a lot harder to go up hills with a bag on your back than without!

…And whatever you do, your bum will ache.

The highlight. As Kevin knows there is only one and it came on the last day. We had 80 miles before 5pm to make the trip in less than 10 days. Having gone 7 miles we did our normal stop to remove our jackets as we warmed up. ‘Where’s my bag?’ enquired Kevin looking at his bike – and not a lot else. He had managed to do the 7 miles with the bag still back at the B&B. I did feel guilty as I laughed.

PS – in hindsight, another highlight. In 1000 miles of cycling we never had one ‘incident’. We never felt in danger at any point and never clashed with anyone on the road.


What did I get out of it?

I love simplicity. So travelling in lyrca for 10 days and only having one bag was excellent. When we arrived for our flight home we were told our bikes wouldn’t be allowed on if not packed in boxes. One call to Halfords and a taxi firm resulted in two cardboard bike boxes ferried out to the airport with minutes to spare. It’s great what you can achieve when you’re travelling light and the travelling is the only thing you have to focus on.

You cannot concentrate your mind on much for long when you’re cycling, it’s as if life stops. I progressed nothing in my mind while I was away. You just focus on one thing and achieve it and that’s a great break from routine.