|
 WHICH
WAY ROUND?
I decided to go from south to north for a number of reasons.
1. Great
Britain has a south westerly prevailing wind so by starting at Lands End I will
hopefully
have a warm, gentle breeze to help me on my way. Then again we are
talking about British weather here...
2. From the experience of other
end to enders it is clear that the hills in Devon and Cornwall
are worse than the highlands of Scotland. The hills in the south
west are generally shorter and sharper than those in the highlands.
In Scotland it is easier to just use a low gear and climb at a steady pace
whereas in Cornwall and Devon you are constantly going up and down.
I would rather get these hills out of the way in the first couple of days
whilst my legs are still fresh.
3. It is quicker and easier for me
to get to Lands End than John O'Groats. This should ensure a
smoother start and on the way back it doesn't matter so much if me and my
bike don't end up in the same place at the same time.
PLANNING
To start with I read diaries written by other people (from
this great site)
which was really helpful because it allowed me find
out what places other people had found nice to cycle through and
also where people had had problems. I then made an initial route
using Microsoft AutoRoute Express to give me a basic idea of where I would
ride.
I then transferred this route into Memory Map, first onto a 1:250,000 scale
map and then to fine tune the route I used 1:50,000 scale maps. In
Memory Map I flagged places, buildings etc. that I would like to see and
then tried to adjust the route to encompass them. This inevitably
made the route longer but the aim was not to simple get from A to B as
quickly as possible but to see the country.
Memory Map is great for route planning and I was able to view elevation
profiles of the route to see how much climbing I had to do. I took
these elevation profiles with me and found them really useful as I knew
when a really big hill was coming up and I could adjust my effort
accordingly.
THE
ROUTE
I have chosen fairly scenic route that
avoids the main roads where possible. The down side of this is that
it makes the route longer and I will be covering 1074 miles in 12 days. However, I do not see the point in just
doing the shortest distance possible if it means riding on busy roads all
of the time and missing out on all of the fantastic scenery that Britain
has to offer. In my opinion too many people pick a short route to
make it easier but with a little extra training a longer more scenic route
makes the trip much more of an experience.
|
The Planned Route: |
The Actual Route: |
| - Day
1: Lands End
- Perranporth (70 miles) |
- Day
1: Lands End
- Bosastle (121 miles) |
|
- Day 2: Perranporth - Elmscott (76 miles) |
- Day 2: Boscastle - Minehead (86.3 miles) |
|
- Day 3: Elmscott - Klive (75 miles) |
- Day 3: Minehead - Welsh Bicknor (116.4) |
|
- Day 4: Klive - St Briavels (82 miles) |
- Day 4: Welsh Bicknor - Bridges (67.9
miles) |
|
- Day 5: St Briavels - Bridges, Long Mynd
(72 miles) |
- Day 5: Bridges - Preston (104.2 miles) |
|
- Day 6: Bridges - Preston (104 miles) |
- Day 6: Preston - Carlisle (94.2 miles) |
|
- Day 7: Preston - Mosedale (76 miles) |
- Day 7: Carlisle- Edinburgh (90.6 miles) |
|
- Day 8: Mosedale - Edinburgh (114 miles) |
- Day 8: Edinburgh - Caputh (74 miles) |
|
- Day 9: Edinburgh - Caputh (66 miles) |
- Day 9: Caputh - Fort William (96.3 miles) |
|
- Day 10: Caputh - Fort William (95 miles) |
- Day 10: Fort William - Inverness (63.6
miles) |
|
- Day 11: Fort William - Inverness (85 miles) |
- Day 11: Inverness - Tongue (88.7
miles) |
|
- Day 12: Inverness - Tongue (88 miles) |
- Day 12: Tongue -
John O' Groats (70.8 miles) |
|
- Day 13: Tongue -
John O' Groats (70 miles) |
|
Click on the thumbnails to view a larger image of the route that I took.
Elevation profiles are included in the Diary section.
Day 1: Lands End - Boscastle |
Day 2: Boscastle - Minehead |
Day 3: Minehead - Welsh Bicknor |
Day 4: Welsh Bicknor - Bridges |
Day 5: Bridges - Preston |
Day 6: Preston - Carlisle |
Day 7: Carlisle - Edinburgh |
Day 8 - Edinburgh - Caputh |
Day 9: Caputh - Fort William |
Day 10: Fort William - Inverness |
Day 11: Inverness - Tongue |
Day 12: Tongue - John O'Groats |
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