Lands End to John O'Groats


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Day 6
Walton to Bath - 27 miles

We cycled into Glastonbury for breakfast. The Glastonbury Backpackers provided us with a huge breakfast, and in return, we mopped the floor in the bar.
We didn’t want to leave Glastonbury. With the absence of the festival this year, it had a really great laid back feel with everyone just hanging around, seemingly waiting for next year.
We then pushed the bikes up to Glastonbury Tor. (We couldn’t leave them at the bottom, because we didn’t have a lock). Rod, the unofficial guide, told us about the history of the Tor. It was something to do with Jesus or King Arthur, we forget which.
As we were in the neighbourhood, we thought we should call in for a cup of tea with Michael Eavis, the legend behind the Glastonbury Festival. He wasn’t in when we arrived at the farm, but we hung about like 2 freaky stalkers and finally got to speak to him. He showed us a huge metal wheel that 2 people had tried to push from Lands End to John O’Groats 20 years ago. They got to the festival and never made it any further, and the wheel remains on Michael’s farm. We filled our water bottles and were given some energy bars.
From there, we cycled onto Bath where we presumed it would be easy to find a student’s floor to sleep on. However, we’d not taken into consideration that the students were not back for another month.
We decided that beer was more important than a bed anyway, so called into The Bath Tap in the hope of getting a beer. The Bath Tap turned out to be a very funny gay pub, and we had a fun evening chatting to the regulars. A special mention goes to Adam, who was the only person that we met on the entire trip that said we wouldn't complete the trip. (We hope you're reading this Adam!)
It was 11.15pm by the time we had found somewhere to stay. Max, a kind student, agreed to let us sleep on his floor as long as we promised not to mug him. We promised. Max lost his voice on the way home and had to mime to us for the rest of the night.

Day 7
Bath to Newent - 50 miles

In the morning, we called into the Bath Police Station to see if they had any bikes that they were trying to get rid of. It turned out they had a load of stolen bikes that had not been reclaimed, and were going to ship them to Africa. We swapped the pink bike for a big touring bike, as pink bikes are all the rage in Africa. We kept The Falcon, as it could only just about cope with the paved roads in Britain, and wouldn’t have stood a chance in Africa.
We then took The Falcon and the new bike (The Horse) to Halfords for some minor repairs (wheels falling off and no brakes, that kind of thing). Halfords also donated one cycle helmet, which we figured if we kept alternating would reduce our chances of a serious injury by half.
We got lost leaving Bath and headed south by mistake. We then got lost again and ended up taking a 5 mile detour on a horribly busy road. Di from the Post Office in Nettleton piled us high with sandwiches and chocolate and we made much better progress in the afternoon.
We arrived in Newent to discover that it was the busiest weekend in the town’s calendar. The Newent Onion Fayre attracted 10,000 people to town, for some reason, and all the beds in town were occupied.
They were unloading a trailer load of onions in the town square, and we offered to help. One of the men, Rob, was a local farmer and he said we could stay with him if we helped.
We were expecting to sleep in an onion barn, but were given an amazing guest room in Rob's house, and in the evening we went to a BBQ down by the river, hosted by his parents.
As luck would have it, our visit coincided with the Severn Bore. For those that don't know (we didn't), the Severn Bore is a wave that surges up the river om particularly high tides. It's a very rare occurance and the one we witnessed was supposedly the biggest in 25 years.
It was an incredible thing to witness, and combined with the pool-table size BBQ which we helped cook, it turned out to be one of the top highlights of our trip.

Day 8
Newent to Ludlow - 46 miles

We were woken at 6.30am. We loaded and unloaded a trailer full of veg, and then helped build a beautiful display of onions. Wurzel from Motorhead was the guest of honor, and he played a few songs. It was all very surreal. Unfortunately, we had to leave the fayre before the onion-eating contest began. George fancied his chances too.
We were given a huge bag of fruit from a greengrocer, and we headed off towards Ludlow. Bromyard was the most unwelcoming town we passed through. We were possibly looking our most skankiest, but we struggled to find food anywhere.
We arrived in Ludlow at about 7pm, right in the middle of a food fair. Like Newent, all the pubs and hotels were fully booked. We knocked on a door on a back street that said ‘Accommodation’. A smiling elderly lady, named Monica Davenport, answered and we explained our dilemma. Within minutes, we were having tea and biscuits and she was telling us all about her fascinating life.
We then met a couple called Andy and Alison who took great interest in our trip, and filled us full of enthusiasm. They bought us a beer, and the restaurant gave us a plate of paella.

Day 9
Ludlow to Ellesmere - 45 miles

We cycled over to Andy and Alison’s hotel, as Andy had offered to give us his kite-surfing helmet. We were offered breakfast at their posh hotel, but had already filled up on Miss Davenport’s toast and marmalade so had to decline.
We were due to meet our family for lunch in Shrewsbury, and it was 10.30 before we left Ludlow. We pushed on and hardly stopped before lunch. The road climbed gradually to Church Stretton, and then descended for about 15 miles through a valley all the way to Shrewsbury.
We met up with our family for lunch and, after a bit of persuasion, we were able to get our meals for free whilst everyone else paid for theirs. After a nice long break, it was time to get back in the saddle.
We cycled another 20 miles after lunch, on fairly flat and easy country roads.
We passed a narrow boat marina on the way into Ellesmere and we decided to try our luck at spending a night on a boat. Neil, the marina manager, offered us one of his rental fleet that was sitting unused. It turned out to be one our most luxurious nights accommodation on the entire trip: 2 bedrooms, a fully fitted kitchen, 2 bathrooms, lounge, TV and hi-fi.
As if that wasn’t enough, Neil brought us a bottle of wine and some beers. Some chips from the local chip shop, and stale bread from the co-op provided us with chip butties, and we sat on the deck chatting to Neil and talking about how we were going to become boaters when we went home.

Day 10
Ellesmere to Up Holland - 58 miles

As if he hadn't been generous enough, Neil appeared in the morning with plates of toast and jam.
Soon after Ellesmere we unknowingly crossed the Welsh border. George heard a sinister hissing of air, and then saw a huge thorn poking out of The Falcon’s front tyre. We had no puncture repair kit, or pump. We walked to a nearby house, but they couldn’t help and asked us to try next door. Peter, the man who answered the door, kept laughing at us for some reason, but lent us a pump and repair kit, and within minutes The Falcon was fixed.
It turned out to be the only puncture that either of us received on the entire trip, and it is quite fitting that Wales made its mark on our journey. If it hadn’t been for the thorn, we would’ve passed through Wales un-noticed, and would not have experienced the Welsh generosity shown by Peter.
We passed through Chester at lunchtime, and had a Subway for lunch courtesy of Craig, the South-African manager.
After 10 day’s cycling in a pair of thick woollen suit trousers, George started to feel like he needed to find something lighter and more cycle friendly to wear. We followed a signpost to Frodsham Leisure Centre, which turned out to be a part of Frodsham School. Mr Smiddy, the PE teacher and former weightlifter, provided us with a school t-shirt, rugby shirt, sunglasses for Ben, socks and a pair of ridiculously skimpy shorts. Compared to the suit trousers, they were a blessing and George now felt like a finely tuned athlete. Mr Smiddy was a real character, and we both felt like we were back at school, as he told us off for being unshaven, and for not folding our new t-shirts correctly. Sorry sir.
The rest of the day was pretty horrible. We cycled though the industrial towns of Runcorn and Widnes. Crossing the Runcorn Bridge was one of the most challenging bits of the whole journey. The Horse was so big that its handlebars took up an entire lane. There appeared to be a footpath on the other side of the bridge, but to get there we would’ve had to do a Frogger style crossing across 6 lanes.
We stopped at The Lancashire Manor Hotel, which was the first place we came across in miles. We managed to get a room, and they kindly offered us dinner and breakfast too. Jaime Lea, the waitress, gave us a couple of beers too.