By Harry Mottram. One moment I was cycling along on a sunny Saturday lunchtime and the next I was in hospital covered in cuts, bruises and suffering from multiple fractures. My preparation to cycle from Lands’ End to John O’Groats had been going so well until that fateful May Day in Gloucester when a car ploughed into the back of my bicycle catapulting me into the air at 40mph onto the tarmac. No braking, no skid marks, just a driver who wasn’t looking where they were going who had nearly killed me. The crash set my plans back by two months meaning LEJOG as it is known would have to take place in August and not June.
The idea of cycling from one end of the country to the other only came to me when my old school friend Neil Chapman casually mentioned he’d done it twice.
“What?! Twice.”
“The first time I did it solo before the days of the internet,” he said, “I bought Ordnance Survey maps for the route and as I left each area I posted them back home to lighten the load. I stayed in Youth Hostels as then there were a lot more of them and they’re cheaper than hotels.”
The second time he explained he did it with his girlfriend on a tandem, hiring a van in Scotland to drive back with the hire bike to his home in Shropshire.
“I’m impressed,” I said, and without thinking I decided there and then – on my second pint – to cycle LEJOG. Planning began immediately – first grilling Neil on his route and how long it took him. He said it was a mix of minor roads and cycle paths but he couldn’t remember much more other than he had stopped at Pill. It’s a village near the mouth of the River Avon near Bristol and frankly it seemed off any obvious route. Although what I soon learned was there is no one route with some cyclists travelling from Cornwall to London and then northwards, others through Wales and some seemingly taking the most circuitous routes in order to ‘do’ Dartmoor, Cheddar Gorge, North Wales and even The Angel of the North – let alone the various options north of Hadrian’s wall.
The record to travel the 874 miles (1,174 miles the scenic route) or so miles is under 48 hours – cycled continually through two nights and two days with barely a toilet break let alone sleep. Usually, it takes an unsupported cyclist about two weeks give or take a few days with an average of about 80 miles a day but if the rider has a team (or partner) to carry his or her clothes to the next hotel or B&B in a car or van and supply food and drink when needed then a much shorter journey is possible – even as little as a week as on a light weight racing bike 125 miles a day is easily attainable.
I had no such thoughts, with work deadlines I needed to do it all in about two weeks with about two or three days to get home to Somerset from Caithness.
The attraction was the prospect of seeing so much of England, Wales and Scotland from the vantage point of a bicycle. Stop when you want, cycle through the centre of towns and cities without any worries about parking. Observe the odd game of village cricket or football, stop at a car boot sale or watch outdoor theatre productions. The list was endless, but I soon found out that without fail an interesting event like an agricultural show or a carnival procession would take place the day before I arrived or the day after. That aside the countryside more than makes up for the tiredness and aching limbs. Cycling through Devon there are hills, but they afford some of the most glorious views in Albion.
In John Hillaby’s account of his walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats, first published in 1968, he decries how landowners have tried to keep walkers from their property despite the existence of footpaths. And he rails against the way the land has been increasingly built on, developed and in the case of the Tees Valley flooded to create a new reservoir.
However, he writes: “Yet many parts of Britain are still inexpressibly beautiful. The sense of airy suspension, the racing cloud shadows of the Brendons, the Quantocks and the Long Myndd, the sweep of the Pennine Way from Fountain Fell to Keld and the Border between Ettrick and Tweed contain content. No woods that I know of can match the Forest of Dean nor the dales the limestone cliffs below Malham.”
Completing the journey by foot gives a greater variety of routes from footpaths and mountain tracks meaning it is possible to see more of the country – but obviously taking at least a month do the journey. And if you are carrying a tent, sleeping bag and clothing it’s more like an army exercise in fitness and organisation.
Cycling though has a long history with the first recorded in the 19th century when bicycles began to have gears and inflatable tyres. In 1882 Alfred Nixon of London completed the journey on a tricyle in two weeks while several people had walked the route before since two walking guides were published in the 1860s – so presumerably the journey had been trudged several years before.
I’ve read a number of accounts of cyclists who have done ‘LEJOG’ and they tend to split into two types. Those who cycle self-supporting or with friends or a partner or relative – mixing camping and staying in bed and breakfast. And those who have support from a team if semi professional or a partner or mate who drives a van or car carrying all their clothing from one hotel to another. That to me seems like cheating – but I guess if I had the cash I’d do the same. One thing you can’t really do is to undertake the journey on an ebike since you’d need to recharge at least a couple of times a day – and I suppose if you had a few weeks to spare that is possible.
And so on Thursday, 8th August, 2024, I will cycle up to Yatton along the Strawberry Line from Axbridge and catch an early train to Penzance – and begin my version of LEJOG.
It’s a personal mission to see more of England and Scotland by bike, lose weight and get fit – plus I am also raising money for the Axbridge Blackberry Carnival and Cheddar Cheddar Bank. If you wish to donate visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/harry-mottram… And in Bath it is for the food bank and Bath Mentoring Plus. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/harry-mottram-Bath Thank you.
Rapscallion Magazine is an online publication edited by Harry Mottram
Harry is a freelance journalist. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc
Email:harryfmottram@gmail.com
Website:www.harrymottram.co.uk
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