Day Twelve

Bettyhill to John o'Groats

Awoke at 7 to the beeping of an incoming text from North Scotland's Mobile Bicycle Repair Man: "Sorry, can't help you: I'm on holiday".

To add insult to injury that dastardly woman from 'Misery' appeared to have broken into our room in the night and taken a hammer to our legs.

We hobbled around the hamlet of Bettyhill in the early morning mist assessing our situation. Our situation appeared to be thus:

1. The nearest bike shop is 30 miles away in Thurso and apparently they're very unlikely to leave the shop and come out to us.

2. Bettyhill consists of The Bettyhill Hotel, a shop, a post office and a couple of houses. Everyone seemed genuinely concerned about our predicament with lots of teeth sucking, but generally were pretty unhelpful.

3. The people in the shop said that Hamish (no joke) across the road is a real whizz with bikes... but unfortunately he's in hospital.

4. The post office said there is a newspaper taxi that comes from Thurso 'some time this morning', which could take Em (but not her & her bike) back to Thurso, so she'd have to get the spare part, somehow get back here and hope we could fix the bike ourselves with no tools.

5. There is a bus once a day to Thurso, every day except Thursday. We've lost track of what day it is but according to the law of Sod we deduced it must be Thursday.

6. The hotel manager can take Em + bike to Thurso but not until 3pm, making Em's ETA in JoG sometime after dark.

It seemed our only option was to attempt to cycle the bike in top gear for 30 miles to Thurso - not an attractive option given the monster hills ahead of us and the state of our inflamed tendons!!

The situation was finally resolved by Em sweet talking the guy at the bike shop in Thurso to leave his shop & drive 60 miles to fix the bike - result!! We are astounded by just how remote it is up here in the north of Scotland & how unprepared they seem to be for End2End cyclists!

So at 11am we set off along the Northern coast of Scotland (unbelievably again into strong headwinds) to complete the final 50 mile leg of our journey. We were on a real high with the thought of finishing (or maybe it was just the combination of painkillers?) and, with glorious sunshine & breathtaking scenery along the rugged coast, it was a fantastic day to end on. We rolled into John o'Groats in the late afternoon, hardly able to comprehend what we had achieved. What an incredible feeling to actually finish this - at times we really didn't think we'd make it.















Thank you to everyone for your constant support and encouragement - can't wait to see you all and tell you the stories we didn't have room for on the blog!

Vital Stats:

Total miles cycled: 996 (some clever navigation kept it sub 1k)
Total hours in the Saddle: 85
Max speed: 46mph
Calories burnt: c.150,000 (=calories consumed!)
TTT:5.5
Low point: Climbing for 3 hours on the morning of day 7 in driving rain and agony as it dawned on us that not making it was a real possibility.
High point: Setting off from Bettyhill today in glorious sunshine, bike fixed - knowing we would make it.
Total raised for Save the Children: £1,325 (and counting...!)


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Location:Bridge St,Wick,United Kingdom

Day Eleven

Inverness to Bettyhill

TTT= 5.5

Disaster strikes! If you thought our efforts up until now were heroic, read on!

Longest day today, meant to be around 120 miles although the B&B owner in Inverness (the first hero of the day) helped us cut out 20 miles by showing us a more direct (but slightly hillier) route.

Of course this meant not following the Garmin route, and we are useless without a computer, so we spent a fun hour in Inverness doing U-turns.

Emily was in a world of trouble with her strained Achilles and was wincing and yelping with every turn of the pedals, so continuously getting lost wasn't her favourite game.

Ollie, in the second act of heroism of the day, took most of the weight from Em's panniers to take the pressure off her tendon.

This still didn't stop Emily taking a nasty fall on the A9 on some sharp gravel - broken and exhausted, she was such a forlorn sight at the side of the road that 2 different motorists stopped and asked if we needed a lift anywhere! It took a lot of effort to decline!

We had a fast journey through some very remote countryside towards Bettyhill - fast because we couldn't stop for fear of being eaten alive by midgies! Attempting to eat a club sandwich while hurtling down a single track road at 30mph was pretty exciting!

We stopped briefly at Shin Falls to watch the Atlantic salmon leaping for their little lives - ahh.

And now for the disaster. 10 miles from Bettyhill, just after passing "The Remotest Hotel in Britain" (don't get me started on the grammar), Emily's rear gear cable snapped. Ollie attempted to mend it but we couldn't bear the midgies and it had started to rain (of course), so we found a nearby village hall to shelter in, turned on the disco lights, and pondered on our dire situation. The nearest bike shop is 40 miles away in Thurso and it's already 6.30pm. Ollie steps up again and offers to ride Emily's bike the last 10 miles, stuck in top gear, up some very big hills. So, riding each others' bikes we finally arrived in Bettyhill at 8pm, with all our injuries now beyond repair but thankfully 5 minutes before last orders for dinner at the only place in 'town' that does food.

No idea how we're going to get to JoG tomorrow, but we're going to do everything in our power to finish this!!


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Location:Thurso,United Kingdom

Day Ten

Braemar to Inverness

Another fab, sunny day in Scotland, marred only slightly by Emily having a very painful and swollen Achilles tendon (perfectly mirroring Ollie's injuries but a day or two behind - she is now closely watching his developing pains so she knows which muscles to stretch!

Our Cycling Britain book recommends taking 3 days to cover today's 85 miles, with the first described as the 'toughest day of the lot'! It was no surprise, therefore, that we had a particularly demanding morning through the heart of the gorgeous Grampians which involved 7 big hills, 3 of them monsters - they made Ditchling Beacon on the London - Brighton look like a small knoll!

On the way up the (1:4 gradient) Lecht Pass, Emily was gasping in the cold mountain air so hard that she was coughing for the rest of the day! We'd love to try them again one day when we're not dragging 25kg of weight each, and nursing 800 miles worth of aches and pains! Didn't get off and push though, and various tourists and walkers at the side of the road cheered and clapped, which spurred us on!

The downhills were absolutely awesome and worthy of some very loud whoops!

Stopped for a coffee at Tomintoul, where we resisted the temptation to visit the Whiskey Museum - although a shot of single malt may well have helped us!


Onwards to Inverness, through some fantastic countryside, passing by spectacular rivers and waterfalls. Had an amusing moment when Emily took a sneaky photo of a man in full Scottish national dress, only for him to come over and say in a broad New Orleans accent "so how far've y'all cycled today then?". Gotta love American tourists.

Slightly nervous about our 100+ mile day tomorrow, but our more immediate problem is what to have for dinner tonight as Emily can't walk more than about 5 metres. Anyone have the number for Domino's in Inverness...?


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Location:Muirfield Ln,Inverness,United Kingdom

Day Nine

Dunfermline - Braemar

TTT = 4.5 - a nasty tumble from Em caused by her taking on some of Ollie's weight (due to broke spoke) & subsequently being unable to control the balancing point of her bike! Appropriately though it was right outside Dunfermline A&E!

We Heart Scotland. Had a fantastic day today, with stunning scenery, babbling brooks, scorching sunshine, cute kids in cashmere cardigans...(somebody please stop me)

The broke spoke problem was solved by setting off very early, Emily taking on some extra weight, and cautiously making our way to Perth (occasionally truing the wheel along the way) where Ollie got a brand new wheel fitted to prevent further spoke mishaps. While the wheel was being sorted we had a rare opportunity to actually stop and walk around - Perth is a lovely, lovely town.



The afternoon took us into the Cairngorms, involving absolutely stunning mountain scenery, a very difficult 10 mile climb up Glen Shee (a ski resort - meaning 'Valley of Peace' in Gaelic) then a fantastic 10 mile descent down to the river and into the lovely village of Braemar, home to the Highland Games, which unfortunately we will just miss by 6 days - Ollie does so like to toss a caber or two.

We had a particularly Scottish moment when we cycled past a high hedge and about 100 inquisitive grouse peered out to see what was occurring. Och Aye!

Things we have learnt about Scotland:

1. It's not a myth about the midges. We briefly stopped to stretch half way up Glen Shee and were, in the words of Queen Victoria, half devoured!

2. Scotland has an abundance of wildlife which we've encountered on the roads - grouse, rabbits, hedgehogs, badgers, squirrels, frogs - we've even seen a few living examples of these...

3. Contrary to popular belief, Scotsmen are not tight - one nice chap in the street gave us a tenner for Save the Children! It would, however, have been more meaningful if he hadn't given us funny money (we can always play Monopoly with it!).


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Location:Glenshee Rd,,United Kingdom

Day Eight

Langholm to Dunfermline

Thank you so much for all the messages of encouragement (and concern!) - they are really helping us to keep going! And don't worry, we're fine! We're keeping on top of our aches and pains with a combination of ice, massage and the Cycling Pharmacy that Emily has become :)

Anyway, today fate dealt us an unexpected hand which was probably a blessing in disguise. When we arrived at our B&B last night we realised that Ollie had been cycling with a broken spoke and a badly buckled wheel for goodness knows how long, which can't have helped his tendonitis! He hobbled downstairs early to fix it but realised he needed to remove the rear cassette and didn't have the tools to do it. Being a Sunday we were in a predicament, as the nearest open bike shop was over the hill in Innerleithen, and it was risky to try to cycle there because, with heavily laden panniers, there was a good chance another spoke would go and there is no habitation or phone reception in the wilderness between Langholm and Innerleithen! Also by this time it was 10.30am and, with 50mph (no exaggeration!) northerly winds and 80ish miles to go our ETA in Dunfermline was past midnight, assuming we made it to Innerleithen intact. With time against us, our only option was to accept a lift from the lovely couple at the B&B, who have done LEJoG themselves, to the bike shop. Ollie was downhearted but Emily assured him that we will more than make up the lost miles by cycling from Penzance to LE, and JoG to Wick, and if we hadn't we'd do a quick lap of Richmond park when we get home :)

Bike all fixed and ready to go at midday, we set off to Dunfermline feeling much better for having had a morning off. The fresh legs didn't last long, as we still had to cycle for 50 miles into headwinds so strong that we had to pedal hard just to keep moving - even on the downhills! The sleeting rain didn't help either! However it was a fun afternoon, with stunning scenery and a bumpy ride through the cobbled streets of Edinburgh (and the sun came out!), then an exhilarating ride over the Forth Bridge straight into the 50mph winds! Thankfully there is a cycle lane over the bridge - the road was so busy we wondered why more drivers don't use the First, Second or Third Bridges :)



Arrived at Dunfermline at 6.45 and, unbelievably, another spoke snapped on Ollie's bike about 20 metres from our hotel! With the bank holiday tomorrow and a very hilly 80 miles in front of us we haven't quite figured out our plan of action... Watch this space!

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Location:Whimbrel Pl,,United Kingdom

Day Seven

Sedburgh to Langholm

Emily, at 7am this morning: "If I woke up on any other Saturday morning feeling like this there is absolutely no way I'd decide that what I really wanted to do was go on a 95 mile bike ride. In fact, if I woke up on a Saturday feeling like this I'd probably assume I'd been horrifically assaulted the night before and go straight to A&E."

Despite this, after stinking out the hotel with Deep Heat we set off in the rain and strong headwinds to cycle another 95 miles through the peaks of Cumbria and into Scotland. The first 10 miles were similar to last night's final 10, except it was a mountain climb to Kirkby Stephen, the steepest, longest hill we've encountered so far. Emily was trying to cycle using only her left leg as her right quad had totally seized up, but this didn't go so well on the mountain road and she had to get off and push for a while as she couldn't get any power into her right leg to get the pedals turning. She somehow managed to get back on and Ollie helped her get up the steep hill by cycling alongside her and giving her the odd push (what a hero!) After nearly 3 hours and only 15 miles we started seriously discussing the possibility of Emily getting on a train. However after a coffee in Kirkby Stephen and some excruciating leg massage we carried on and managed to pick up the pace a little. Unfortunately the game of 'which bit will break next' threw up some tendonitis in Ollie's left achilles and again we started to consider a Plan B involving trains or taxis. We both soldiered on though, and after an excruciating but character building 12 hours on the road we arrived in the pitch darkness at Langholm in Scotland. Scotland!!!



Can't believe we made it this far, especially after we almost had to call it a day today. Well done us!


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Day Six

Manchester to Sedburgh

In theory it was a great day, generally sunny, one big uphill at the beginning and then mainly flat or downhill with absolutely stunning scenery going through Lancashire and the Yorkshire Dales. However, Emily had an increasingly bad day: at around 40 miles she started getting excruciating stabbing pains in her sit bones and had to don 2 pairs of padded shorts AND a fleece for extra padding!! Then with around 10 miles to go (after 80 miles) she started getting the same pain in her right leg that Ollie has been suffering for a few days, caused by increasingly tightening quad muscles, and couldn't put enough pressure on the right pedal to get up the hills! The last 10 miles were therefore pretty painful for both of us and took around 90 mins; we arrived in Sedburgh quite late at around 8pm.

Stayed in a pretty horrible motel that was a bit of an old man's pub, and the TV was broken, but by this stage you could stick us in a stable and we'd sleep like babies...


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