LEJOG 2012 End to End Review…

LEJOG 2012 End to End Review…

The Start!

10 days of cycling, 974 miles ridden – we have both completed the End to End Challenge!!

Richard – Loving the helmet hair!

We have smashed the £2500 target we set, and, once we’ve included the offline donations, in the next few days, we’ve hopefully raised over £3000! We would like to thank everyone for their generosity. Ty Hafan, LATCH, Macmillan and Welsh Air Ambulance will be very pleased.

Andrew, Ben Nevis in the background

Below are just a handful of the highs and lows we experienced through the 10 days of cycling;

5 Good Moments:

• Having a giggling fit in a café just north of Lancaster, we need to grow up!
• Finishing early on Day 5, and then having a few too many beers… Oops!
• Waking up at the foot of Ben Nevis – amazing view.
• First day of cycling through Scotland; having photos taken next to the ‘Welcome to Scotland’ sign before cycling past the spectacular mountains and lakes.
• The last day of cycling with a mighty tail wind whilst chatting with everyone then finally arriving in John o’Groat’s, drinking champagne and having a giggle with the guys – sweet as!!

Worcester Cathedral

Shutter button pressed too early! lol

5 Low Moments:

• Running out of energy (bonking) whilst cycling up a massive hill in Dartmoor on Day 1. This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t given all of my energy drinks and bars to Jon when he bonked 5 miles previously. That’s the last time I share!!
• Torturous hills of Cornwall and Devon on Day 1. I don’t think we recovered from these hills until Day 4!
• Camping with rainwater flowing through my tent!
• Getting lost around Bristol – frustrating at the time but quite funny looking back.
• Cycling all day in the wind, rain and cold weather on day 7, with 18 miles to go we had to take a 20 minute ferry ride from Gourock to Dunoon. It was so  uncomfortable but very amusing, we were shivering onboard the ferry taking it in turns using the hand drier attempting to keep warm. Lol

Welcome to Scotland!

Cycling from Land’s End to John o’Groat’s has been an amazing experience, the highs and lows over the 12 days will be something I shall remember forever. I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to have a crack at Land’s End 2 John O Groats or a  similar challenge and help raise money for charity in the process, a very good feeling.  We also made some new friends; Enda from Killarney, Ireland and Jon and Wayne from Taunton. We will keep in touch with them and ride together again in the not too distant future…

Thank you everyone who has made a donation, if you would like to make a donation, please donate here.

Thanks Andrew & Richard

John o Groats, we made it!!

Cycling update 1

Fri update…
With 740 miles in the bag, we have about 270 to go. What a week we’ve had, the murderous hills of cornwall and devon a distant memory.
we had a cracking few days cycling from bridgnorth to cumnock, no rain, a nice tail wind and relatively rolling roads. Perfect!
yesterday (thursday) we woke up to heavy rain and icy winds, we cycled 55 miles to gourock then had a ferry across the water to dunoon, then cycled 20 miles to strachan. Cold and soaked to the bone we decided to upgrade ourselves to a lodge, wooohooo! Dry night for us!

richards broken his bum and insists he needs medical attention!

Whilst having our photo taken at the scotland welcoming sign we got
sponsored £5 from a mr and mrs bungay.

We have almost completed a massive cycling challenge, made a couple of new friends, raised a nice amount of cash and had a great time. Thanks all for your support. C u all soon

Land’s End 2 John o Groat’s Route

Land’s End 2 John o Groat’s Route

Andrew & Richard’s End to End Challenge part 1

Hi all!

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. My work buddy Richard and I have planned a cycle trip that spans the length of Britain, Lands End to John of Groats. It’s just under a 1000 miles and it will take us 10 days to complete. We begin our journey on the 4th May.

We are raising money for 4 deserving charities; Ty Hafan, Latch, Macmillan and Welsh air ambulance. We would like to give a big thanks to our employer Guardian Global Technologies, they have supported us and helped make our trip possible.

Today, along with Kerry and Richard from the Guardian charity committee we visited Ty Hafan. Christine gave us a guided tour of the excellent facility and showed us the extraordinary work they do. It has such a happy, positive atmosphere providing care for terminally ill children and their families. Trully amazing. Please visit their website for more information. Ty Hafan.

Ty Hafan has amazing views over the channel and many lovely gardens,  we took the opportunity to take some photographs of myself and Richard wearing our new charity cycling shirts posing in front of my most prized possession, a shiny Trek racing bike! Hopefully a photo will appear in next weeks glamorgan gazzette along with a write up outlining our master plan!

Andrew and Richard Ty Hafan

Its only one week to go until we start our journey and I don’t mind saying, we are bricking it! It’ll be a long slog but our efforts will all be worth it when we get to the end. Having completed the challenge I plan to have a few beers, smoke a cuban cigar and bask in the glory of completing one hell of a cycling challenge. Sweeeeet!

If you can, we would love it if you could sponsor us. We aim to raise £2500   Donate

Thank you all very much.

P.s. Every couple of days during our journey I shall post a blog. Please have a read and leave us a message of support, we gonna need all the help we can get!