Day 7 - Into the Highlands!

So the start of Day 7 started basically the same as any other day, wake up stupidly early to shower, coffee, breakfast get changed and leave and head for the hills!

The only new challenge this morning was navigating our way out of Glasgow, which although having a terrible reputation it is a lovely city. Its a bit like London in that there are bits which are horrible and neglected but then there are other areas which are developed and lovely and the people were very nice and friendly, some trying to race Nick, others shouting and all very happy to help with our navigational issues. After successfully escaping Glasgow we started to head towards Loch Lomond.

The views from the side of the road were amazing and for the first time in a while there were very few dark clouds in the sky and although still windy and chilly, the day was a nice enough day. We also struck some serious luck on the road along side Loch Lomond (the A82), it had a road surface which was less than favourable to bikes, however on the side their was a lovely super smooth path which was wide enough for a bike... made the morning fly by and before we new it, we were meeting Laura for lunch.

When in Rome...

The afternoon started off badly, massive hill after massive hill, with almost no downhill, it felt like we were going to keep on climbing forever! Finally, we reached the top. What then followed was possibly everyone's favourite moment of the trip so far, its started amazingly when we were just about to leave to start finally going down hill and Diegan fell over when his foot got stuck in his pedal, almost taking Frazer with him... everyone was in stitches and I almost could not breathe. We then composed ourselves and started going downhill for what seemed like an eternity, it was amazing, surrounded by the most amazing scenery and with very little cars we had an amazing journey down towards Ballachulish. Deffo one of my highlights of the trips so far.

(Reading this back it sounds like a very simple thing to get excited about when you read, but trust me if you were there... it was very special.) Photo shows it all...

Happy Bikers

After the long down hill, we had a swooping journey around Loch Linnhe into Fort William where we made camp and dinner and are getting ready for or penultimate day tomorrow!

In fact I am currently writing this blog at the camp site, laptop perched on top a washing machine in a WiFi hotspot, which also doubles as a washing room. Very very random!

Last thing I wanted to add was that I know I keep going on and on, but everyone knows the reason we are doing this... so please please please can you take a moment to donate any amount which you can... 213 people read this blog about day 6 yesterday, if everyone who reads this newest blog today donated just £1 then that would be huge! So please donate a couple of quid to help raise our total, I promise it really is a massive motivator for us!

Our just giving is http://www.justgiving.com/WAMDSAD-e2e

Thanks again,

Lynch

Day 6 - A long hard slog into Scotland!

Awoke for the start of day 6 at 6am, how apt. Unfortunately Nick was map reading this morning, so it meant that we did not actually leave Penrith until half 8 as we went on a 5 mile de tour and arrived back where we started an hour later. Not what you need on an already 116 mile day!

After Nick turned the map the right way around we started heading towards Glasgow! It was only 35 miles into our day that we finally crossed the border into Scotland! It was very exciting and another amazing milestone which we had overcome.

Unfortunately the remainder of the day was not so as enthusiastic. Firstly, it was very very windy, right in our faces. Which means that we were fighting into the wind all day, from the start of the day to the end. It then started raining very very hard, almost as soon as we crossed the Scotish border! Typical! We also had the reappearance of a few injuries, frazer grant and I had problems with our knees just from pure repetition and Diegan had a problem with his shoulders.

The other thing which we had not planned on today was that the roads in Scotland are as bumpy as anything and should be avoided on bikes at all costs. After a day of riding on them half of our group cnt feel their hands and all of us are walking slightly more bow legged! We spent most of the day on this road called the B7085, truly the worst road laid in history. Terrible!  

In the late afternoon the rain cleared up and we even saw this yellow ball of light in the sky for a short while and we made good time and eventually made it to Glasgow. Which is massive! Once we entered the city we thought we would be nearly done, in fact the hotel was still 5 miles away! So after a long journey dodging many taffic lights (“she’s a goer!”) an annoying some more traffic, we finally made it to the hotel, ate, met up with Laura (our new driver) and are now all tucked up in bed ready for another early start tomorrow!

Sorry today was not a very exciting day, we had a lot of miles to cover and did not stop very often due to the rain, maybe tomorrow would be better… only one way to find out! Come back and read tomorrow, internet and signal depending!

Please also don’t forget to give to our just giving page at, http://www.justgiving.com/WAMDSAD-e2e even the smallest amount will make such a big difference to our total and so many peoples lives! 

Thank you so much!

Lynch

Day 5 - Shap Hill / Last Night In England!

Today was a big day for our group of travellers, today we broke the half way point of our journey to John O’Groats, physically and mentally!

Not a moment too soon either. Wear and tear has started to hit bodies as well as bikes now, mainly on the knees and shoulders. Muscles not very often used in the shoulders and lots of repetitive motions for the knees are causing some problems.

Edes made us all have a laughing fit about a town we passed through called ‘Haweswater’ Saying “ I wouldn’t trust the water from there” (It is amazing what will make you laugh after 5 days in a bike!

We then cycled straight through Kendal, the home of the famous mint cake, where Grant had a run in with a particularly annoying Audi driver and of course we bought some mint Cake too all try!

Talking of cars actually, you may be interested to know that whilst I really do hate stereotyping… BMW drivers have for long been known as the worst drivers etc etc, well from this trip we can say so far that this is sooooooo true! BUT, they are not alone, the white van men are up there as well and I am ashamed to say it, as I drive one myself, but Honda drivers are not doing too well either. Just a massive side not for you all!

Shap Hill was next for us on day 5, it is a 15 mile hill just after Kendal which saw us climbing for nearly an hour and half! But what views… I know in yesterday’s blog it sounded like I was bashing the north a bit, but it is beautiful. We passed through some lovely towns and even some of the cities and they are all typical old quaint and refined. But then pedal a few more miles and you end up in areas I was scared to signal with my left hand in case I brought in my hand and my watch was gone! But anyway I digress, the views from  the top of the hill were amazing.

SHap hill also for a lot of us was a technical half way point as well, it’s the hardest hill on the ride and once we had done it we felt that it was all down hill to Scotland from there!

Tonight we are staying in lovely hostel (but no wifi) called FellFoot hostel which is well worth a stay if you are ever in the area, or just crazy enough to be cycling through.

Another long day tomorrow! So bed and up at 6am, my body clock does not know what the hell is going on anymore, I think its given up!

Tonight is out last night in England, from around 11am, we shall be in Scotland! Hope everyone brought their passports!

Please also remember that this week is pay week, so if you have not given anything to our just giving site, then maybe this week is the week to do it!

The address is http://www.justgiving.com/WAMDSAD-e2e

Thanks so much,

Lynch

Day 4 - The long ass day!

Day 4 was a particularly long 120 mile day from Pershaw to Warrington, we left Diegans aunts house stupidily full of amazing food at 8 in the morning and didn’t arrive at the hotel until 9pm! Long old day indeed!

It was just a long kind of falt kind of boring long day really, most exciting news was that we got 4 punctures, the first we have had for almost a day and a half. I got one one on some terribly serficed A road  without realising for about 2 miles (“this road seems stupidly bumpy”) Diegan had 3, one 2 miles from finish in Warrington city centre when it started raining and getting dark!.

Nick had some family friends come visit and were cheering us on at the side of the road when we passed

We passed the time chatting and playing games and had fun trying to act like proper cyclists and riding in trains keeping very close to each other! Scary stuff but when it works it is very cool.

By the end of the day I was starting to get a little tired and pissed off with cycling, but a quick stop in Over soon sorted this problem. We stopped outside of a petrol station for a sausage roll and no sooner had we stopped a woman dressed in a dressing gown popped out of her house and shouted something almost incomprehensible back through the door and walked out, we were finally in the north! Other northern attributes that I had only heard of before today started happening all around me as we travelled further and further. I saw things such as a car on bricks, a man wearing a flat cap (without it being a joke) and so many pie shops my stomach hurt from laughing at each one we passed.

Finally arrived in hotel at 9, too late to make or go out for food, so ordered in pizza and went to bed!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Day 3 - Leaving The West Country

Day three, an enjoyable ride from our campsite in Bridgwater onwards and upwards into the midlands. We got all of a mile up the road before we pulled into a lay by for Bacon, Sausage and Egg baps from a truck stop. During this stop we realised that we had a problem with Lynch's brakes. When we say problem, we mean that they didn't work a great deal. Oh well, on we went.

The morning was dry and windy but thankfully the rain held off. We made good time to Bristol, conquering our first grade 4 hill of the trip and racing down into the city with a new top speed clocked by Grant at 52mph. It was Bristol were we got stuck... 2 hours of waiting in a quaint little second hand cycle shop called 'Jakes Cycles'. If you ever in Bristol then go here! It's the best place in town. They didn't try to sell us anything we didn't need, they insulted all the major branded cycle shops and went above and beyond what we had asked to fix two of our bikes and get us back on the road.

The afternoon consisted of just one road. the A48 for miles, a short stop for food and a new driver as Mummy Stops pased on the keys after an outstanding job and looking after us and feeding us, All through Gloucester and down into a little historic town called Tewkesbury. where we then navigated our way up into Wick (Pershore) for our sleep stop at Aunty Diegans house. They fed us until we were bursting, laundered our clothes and gave us several warm beds for the night, we are eternally grateful!

Tomorrow is a big one so off to bed now!

Frazer

Day 2 - Wet N' Wild Friday

Today was so wet that myself, Nick and Frazer felt utterly comfortable urinating into our own shorts whilst cycling instead of stopping and getting cold... It was seriously raining. All mother truckin' day. Still we covered our 93 miles for the day, camped overnight and, apart from some light trenchfoot, lived to tell the tale!

Other highlights include singing bohemian rhapsody, eiffel 65 and backstreet boys whilst cycling through villages, Nick shearing a gear clean off his bike (Although she did require some pretty serious attention, she now breathes once more), Debbies sandwich bar in South Molton, a crazy guy outside a funeral parlour asking who would be first to use their services, seeing your life flash before your eyes when you attempt to brake at the bottom of a 25% incline hill in the rain and who can forget the warm soothing sensation of wetting yourself.

There is also no video or photos from today as it was t wet to take any form of electronic device out to take any form of picture or video... sorry!


- Diegan

Day 1 – It begins!

At 6am this morning, the numerous alarms we had all set simultaneously sounded to inform us that it was time to start our Epic journey from Lands End to John O’Groats.

Only the day before, we had packed up Frazer’s legendary Previa with 6 bikes and 9 days of clothes and kit, countless spares and not forgetting 6 very important bikes and drove down to Penzance for our first night staying at the YMCA hostel. It was decided by everyone that we did not make enough jokes about this but regardless, as the alarms sounded we arose from our triple story bunk beds and went down for breakfast.

After a short drive from Penance to Lands end we got out nearly froze to death sorting out all of the bikes and then went to take our pictures by the legendary sign!

In the long car journey down, one of the topics of conversation was the dreaded puncture, the terror of cyclists the country over is even more perilous when on a road bike the with the thinnest slimest tyers ever. We each decided to guess how many we would have as a group over the whole trip. Many numbers were banged about by people, I think I said 20 and others said similar high numbers. Diegan said 5 and we all laughed! In the car park at Lands End, Diegan was attaching his tyres and got punctures in both, Frazer had a similar problem. That was three and we hdnt even started yet! We then finally started to leave and after taking the wrong turning in the car park (the first of many) my tyre decided to blow up in my face, literally down the road, still in sight of the Lands End sign! That was 4 and about 7 -10 miles later, my rear tyre gave way and we were at 5 already! Turns out I had blown mine up a bit to much and coz im such a fatty I had blown them!

After that our day was almost incident free... we had noodles on the side of the road, a few near misses with cars, a few wrong turns but finally made it to Bude after many hard hours in the Saddle!

All in all a good day and we are all looking forward to the rest of our trip!

Please also be aware that all if not most f these updates are being done from a phone as WiFi and 3g connection is very limited in the west country. All pictures as well as the many funny videos we have taken will all be saved and uploaded properly and tell a much fuller story of our journey. This blog is but a taste of what is to come!

Please also remember that we are doing this mad cycle to raise money for WAMDSAD and would really appreciate you joining our facebook group or giving us some money on our just giving page!

Thanks a lot! 

Lynch

6 Idiots Cycle from Lands End to John O'Groats!

Hey, its Lynch

In case you have been living under some form of rock for the last few months you may not know that me and 5 of my friends, (namely, Frazer Callingham, Nick Stopps, Matt Diegan, Mat Edes and Grant O'Donoghue) will be cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats from the 25th of August to the 2nd of September.

We have decided to write this blog in order to keep people updated of our journey, position and feelings along the way, as well as posting some pictures and hopefully some videos as well if we have time.

We obviously are not stupid enough to do this challenge without a valid reason and the charity we have chosen to do this insane cycle for is WAMDSAD. For those of you that dont know, WAMDSAD is a sports facility for the disabled and trains many young people how to play sport and have fun, but more importantly how to interact with people and how to act as part of a team as well as many others. All vital skills for young people, especially with disabilities.

We know that we hate it when people ask for money for lame reasons but we think that we have made this challenge suitably hard enough so that people will look at it and go, wow that's a toughy and pledge whatever you can! We also really feel that this is a very worthwhile cause and know that any money or awareness we can raise would be greatly appreciated.

So come on, put your hand in your pocket and send us whatever you can afford... Why not just donate 10p for every mile we cycle? Why not just hand over the change in your piggy bank? Or just hand us a tenner! Any donation large or small would be appreciated so much and its nice to know you care!

Many thanks to those that have already donated and if you want to help us along to our total please click on the link below and it will take you to our just giving page.

http://www.justgiving.com/WAMDSAD-e2e

Thanks, the end2end team!