The Route

There's more than one way to skin a rabbit, as the saying goes, and there's more than one way to cycle a long distance route.
The record for rider on a conventional bicycle is 44 hours, 4 minutes and 20 seconds, set by Gethin Butler in 2001 - I'm not sure that we could drive it that fast !!!!  The fastest on a unicycle was 6 days 8 hours !!!!

But we're not going for records, or should I say that we're not capable of setting records, so we're taking a leisurely trip and hoping to enjoy the scenery.  The shortest route works out about 874 miles, but that would be taking all the main trunk roads, with all the traffic and dangers that involves, but also - you would miss some super parts of the country on the way. 

The route we will be taking is roughly drafted out and shown on the map above, and avoids as many main roads as possible.  Lands End, along the south coast then up to Exeter, cross over into Wales over the Severn Bridge, head up through east Wales up to Chester, up through the built up sections of Liverpool/Manchester/Preston and on through Cumbria to Carlise. As we enter Scotland, we will be heading over to the West coast, cutting through Dumfies and Galloway, crossing over to the Isle of Arran, and up the far west coast up to Fort William.  Here, we intend to scale a mountain or two as well, just to give the legs a rest !! From there up past Loch Ness towards Inverness, then cut back inland a little to head right up to the North Coast and then head East along to John O'Groats.  All in all - it's looking like 1050 miles.

There - when written down it looks easy.  Things may change however, as we really didn't want to tie ourselves to stopping at any particular point, so if we're feeling strong, we could carry on a little.  Likewise, if we've had enough for a day, then we'll pitch the tent where we drop.

Why start from Lands End you say?  well the theory is that the prevailing winds are SouthWesterly, so there's a greater chance of having the wind at your back.  This is an important consideration, even if not guaranteed.  I found out today on a 50 mile ride then pain of having to cycle into a strong headwind.  Keeping even a slow pace makes the legs pump up as if you're on the toughest of mountain stages on the Tour De France.