This time last week.....

Well this time last week, we were in Bettyhill with only ONE day to go. It's amazing how time flies. 

I've had a full-body massage today with Jen, felt like a new woman - she always manages to find the knots!!

The Scottish adventure continued when Geoff arrived last Wednesday and whisked me off to a five-star hotel in Wick for 2 nights - LUXURY!

Champagne cooling!!

Ackergill Tower in the background, lovely.

On Wednesday we just wandered around Wick; we managed to find the quirky local museum, which had the most fantastic display of old B&W photos of life in the town and surrounding area, around the turn of the century (20th Century!!). 

Thursday saw us getting the ferry over to The Orkneys. The ferry was only meant to take 40 minutes, but for some reason took over an hour - issues with the tide I presume. Anyway, we still managed to see a fair bit, plus the weather was kind to us. The highlight for me (and Geoff) was Skara Brae - a settlement dating back to 3100BC.

In the two pictures above you can clearly make out a built-in mantle-piece/storage unit (nothing is new!!??), the fire, and 2 beds. The round huts were connected by tunnels, so that in bad weather, if you wanted to visit your neighbour, you didn't have to go outside..!! A truly amazing place. I'm sure the info said it was occupied for over 150 years, but no-one knows why the people left the area.

The Orkneys were really interesting - there are no trees on the islands, I didn't quite "get it" when the guide said it, but as I was sitting on the coach looking at the country-side  I suddenly realised THERE ARE NO TREES!! It does affect the scenery dramatically.

So, now that I've got your attention, I'm going to bore you with some data - although these are all approximations, as I kept losing some of my data, boo hoo! 

IN 18 DAYS WITH ONE REST DAY:

TOTAL MILES CYCLED = 1042 miles

NUMBER OF CRANK REVOLUTIONS = 345,000

(number of times pedals turned)

NUMBER OF CALORIES BURNED = 28,900cals

TOTAL ELEVATION CLIMBED = 71,484 feet

Or put it another way:

Average daily calories burned = 1,700 cals

Number of times Everest climbed = 2.4

Average daily mileage = 62 miles

Even after cycling 1042 miles, I have managed to put on 4lbs!! BUT, it is all muscle. How do I know? Because my waist is the same as when I left, and my thighs and calves are bigger!! Jen says my thigh muscles are definitely bigger - she should know, she massages them twice a month!

I have managed one bike ride since getting back - 35 miles to see my Mum & Dad - my bottom was sore and every-time I stopped, my thighs groaned!!

Off out on Thursday with Jen - to Jodrell Bank, nice and flat; but we are discussing going to do Mam Tor, near Castleton (not as bad as Winnat's Pass, but not for the faint-hearted  either).

Keep you posted.

  

Last Day – Bettyhill to John O’Groats – July 19th, 2016

I’m actually writing this the day after we finished, ‘cos we were just so busy celebrating yesterday evening that I ran out time to write this blog – sorry!

I’m here in J O’ G waiting for Geoff to arrive, everyone has gone, I’m on my own – it’s a very strange feeling – I haven’t been on my own for 18 days. I can’t get on the internet and the mobile phone signal is poor, so I don’t know where Geoff is….

But enough of that, what about yesterday, I hear you cry.

We set off from Bettyhill in glorious sunshine – the sky was blue with the odd fluffy cloud in the sky. I didn’t have to wear my heavier rain jacket, my lighter gillet or plastic bags on my feet, underneath my overshoes, to keep out the rain for as long possible, marvellous! Such a treat that the last day should be brilliant sunshine - it will colour the memories and make every day a sunshine day!! Haha!

The first 15 miles however were a different story, HILLS- there is always a sting in the tail! Plus, I’ve worked out that it takes at least 15 miles for my legs to get going, so they simply were not working well at the beginning, they were painful actually; but once the 15 or so miles were up and the terrain levelled out a bit it was good cycling. We stopped in Thurso for lunch and then on again. A few more hills to climb and a couple of brilliant descents, lovely scenery all the way; we could see the Orkneys very clearly. The landscape changed to cattle and sheep farming with really flat fields and therefore roads!!

Then with 10 miles to go it started hitting me that I was nearly there – I kept praying that:

· the bike held out, with no punctures, plus I’ve been nursing my gears since the start really!! (I tried to get them sorted in Stirling, but failed)

· my legs and bottom held out!! (sudocrem and “fanny fondant” - as Sarah & I started calling chamois cream in the end – are fantastic for sore BTM’s)

·  the motorists behaved themselves – we’ve had a couple of near misses as a group, and I’ve had a couple of times where I felt cars/vans passed just a little too close for comfort really

I actually started to cry a little bit at one point when I began to realise how close I was to completing this challenge that I’d set myself; when I started to realise how “strong” I was in all sorts of sense of the word:

• strong base level of fitness, at nearly 60 years of age (September is the big-60-birthday)
• strong muscles in the legs
• strong enough to get up every day and pedal, even when my legs said “NO!!"
• strong enough to cope with cycling in the downpours with wet-through everything!! (I mean everything!)
• strong enough to climb every hill the 1030 miles of road through at us, 25% in places!
• strong enough to FINISH!!

I think it was the realisation that I’m not passed it, physically or mentally, that made me cry a bit. It was something that Alex, our fantastic 83 year cyclist, commented on the other night at dinner. He said it was marvellous to be accepted as an equal in the group, and not as some doddery old bloke. I think I understood what he meant with 10 miles to go.

So there it is, I’ve done it, I’ve achieved it. 

Harry (in his 70’s!!) worked out that we’d cycled 1030 miles altogether.

Many thanks to my fellow LEJOG-gers for getting me through it, especially to Sarah, my room-mate - such a lot of laughs - hysterical or otherwise!! And many thanks to Chris our tour leader, who sorted out the route, the hotels and other things besides (mainly to do with bike-shops and cake shops!!).

WONDERFUL!!

WELL DONE IT ALL TWELVE OF US!

BILL

HARRY

LIZ

SARAH

ROBIN

ROGER

ALAN

SIMON

ALEX

KEN

JOHN

JANETTE

Tain to Bettyhill, 71 miles

Well, what can I say.. despite the rain we have all had the most fantastic day.

The rain stopped about 11-11.30am, when we were in Lairg, having an early lunch. This was necessary because we were about to enter the back of beyond with very few places to stock up on calories. We climbed up to a place called Crask (896 feet) and then sailed down into the valley to a place called Altnaharra by Loch Naver. 

The photos above don't really do the scenery justice - it was stunning, as was cycling alongside the River Naver.

Left the River Naver behind to see a sign for John O' Groats - the first sign!! Hurrah!! It says 55 miles, but I'm sure we are doing more than that tomorrow as most of are going to Durness Head, the most northerly point of the UK mainland, before John O'Groats.

I arrived in Bettyhill about 3.30pm, to see the Atlantic Ocean!! The last time I saw the Atlantic was at Land's End - 16 days ago, and here it is again!! 

Amazingly this is the view from our hotel window.

So, last day tomorrow, it is quite incredible, Land's End seems such a long time ago.

We have to be vigilant tomorrow - that's when the most accidents happen apparently, at the end of the trip, when people are relaxing and getting de-mob happy!!

Bye for now!

Nethybridge to Tain, via Inverness

Another good day in the saddle - although my legs did rebel for most of the 70 miles, especially on the hills, which weren't too bad when I think about the Peak District hills.

It's 10.25pm - dinner was incredibly slow but good. So this is it I'm afraid - short and ??? sweet.

Saw two red deer today and a red squirrel; sadly the red squirrel was dead - road kill - NOT nice.

Met two shetland ponies in a field together - very naughty ponies; fighting each other over the grass! And then a horse and a pony further up the ride, who were disparaging about the grass I was offering them!

Cycled through Inverness and over the bridge and then followed the coast line to Tain - saw 3 huge Oil Platforms in the Firth of Cromarty (thank you Sarah!!). Beautiful scenery. 

Anyway time for bed; hopefully a more interesting blog tomorrow - too tired tonight, sorry. We have another 70-miler tomorrow. Penultimate day tomorrow, WOW!! Almost there.

Sleep tight.

Day 15, Pitlochry to Nethybridge: 70 miles

Today has been really good, AGAIN!!

We did 70 miles today, climbing up  through the Drumochter Pass on national cycle route 7; according to Strava we climbed 1504 feet, but the gradient was so gradual I didn't notice it!! The only thing we all commented on was the head-wind - hard work!

Then after a lunch stop the wind changed direction - at last behind us!! So before lunch av speed was 10 mph and after lunch I managed 13 mph!!

34.9 % % climbing	46.8 % % flat	18.3 % % downhill
02:14:43  Climbing time	03:00:52  Flat time	01:10:54  Downhill time
7.1 MI/H Avg climbing speed	13.1 MI/H Avg flat speed	12.3 MI/H Avg downhill speed
15.8 MI Climbing distance	39.4 MI Flat distance	14.6 MI Downhill distance

Had some good views today:

Happy days!!

Stirling to Pitlochry

What a wonderful day!

The rain stayed away until 10.30am and then gradually built up to a complete deluge. But despite all that the cycling was glorious! A bit of uphill at the start out of Stirling (23% in places!!). Managed to fall over - I stopped for a car and then set off again on a hill - and WHACK! over I went, grazed my knee and damaged my pride! I need to practice my hill starts, this is twice now.

We had a couple of downhill stretches, fast, fast, fast. Such a shame the weather was awful because the scenery would have been wonderful - long sweeping valleys, large full, fast, flowing rivers. 

After lunch I joined Bill (from Vancouver, Canada) and Roger (from Liverpool) and we flew along, 17 miles per hour - so fast that I arrived at the hotel at 3pm, the earliest I've arrived anywhere the whole trip. 58 miles in 5 hours!!

Brilliant!

Days 12 & 13 Abington to Stirling, rest day in Stirling

Today's blog is going to be short and sweet because I'm writing it a day late and I'm at the point where the day's are merging into one!!

We set off from Abington full of the joys of spring after the previous day's miserable end.

The road was smooth and the scenery pleasant.

Lovely scenery

Just to prove we are in Scotland - HAGGIS LASAGNE

We passed through 3 closed roads - one of them we had to be escorted through as pedestrians, never had to do that before.

Needless to say I got left behind (again). We had a choice of routes, one on the garmin "gismo" and one from the Falkirk wheel where you had to find your own way on to Stirling. The benefit of the Falkirk Wheel route was that it was FLAT; whereas the other route was hilly. Anyway, I opted for the hilly route - I could just see myself getting lost, and knew it wasn't worth it.

Anyway, despite the hill climbing (16% in places) I had a really good day. Although I did get wet through - I was on the edge of a shower cloud all afternoon. I even stopped and wrung my socks out at one point!!

On the ride into Stirling

Fast forward to the evening and I met up with an old nursing friend, Nicky and her husband, Tony. I worked out that Nicky and I have known each other since the early 1980's, 30+ years, amazing!!

It was good to see them and tell them about my trip so far and catch up with their news, but by 9.30pm I was flagging and had to say "Night, Night". 

Then today, Thursday - WE'VE HAD A DAY OFF!!

Time to lie-in! Time to visit Stirling Castle! Time to have a lager with lunch! Time to have a massage, (legs, neck and shoulders)!! And on top of all that - lovely weather, blue skies, just perfect.

I'm a bit worried that it is going to be difficult to get going again tomorrow. Anyway, we'll see!

Bye for now.