End-to-End Bike Trip

Planned Route is from Land's End to John O'Groats (SW England to NE Scotland)
Map of UK

I'm putting the newest messages/photos at the top, so you'll need to scroll down to read previous updates.
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Bike Trip Dates:

• July 18 - Train from London to Penzance, biked to Land's End

• July 19 - Biked to St. Ives, Cornwall

• July 20 - Took train from St. Ives to Gloucester

• July 21 - Biked to Tenbury Wells

• July 22 - Biked to Church Stretton

• July 23 - Biked to Chester - stayed two nights

• July 25 - Took train from Chester to Preston, biked to Lancaster - staying two nights in Lancaster

• July 26 - Lancaster

• July 27 - Dumfries

• July 28 - Dumfries

• July 29 - Balloch, on the bonny banks of Loch Lomand

• July 30 - Balloch

• July 31 - Spean Bridge

• August 1 - Spean Bridge

• August 3 - Inverness, then sleeper train back to London

• August 5-6 - Visit Iain & Helen

• August 6 - Proms Concert at Royal Albert Hall

• August 9 - return to Minneapolis, MN
   

September 2006: The photos are now all sorted, managed, and posted in 16 separate albums on Webshots. Jay did some damage to his sprained ankle over the duration of the bike trip, but is recovering fairly well by now after doing some serious therapy/treatment.
 

I spoke only briefly tonight with Jay; cell phone reception was bad because he and Doug are riding on the sleeper train from Inverness back to London. They biked a very taxing trip of 60 miles from Spean to Inverness today, quite hilly and some pretty dicey traffic situations. (They were supposed to go on Wednesday, but Jay had a migraine.)

When they arrived in Inverness, there were two festivals going on and no rooms except for very pricey hotels. Doug is very anxious to get back because of having to find another place to live, so they decided to call it "enuf" and head back to the city. If I get more details from Jay in the morning I'll add them here, otherwise that's it for the "blog." We tried the phone three times tonight and got cut off every time in just a minute or two, so I'll try him again in the morning when he's back in London.

On Monday Jay & Doug bought train tickets to Ft. William, but they ended up getting off the train in Spean Bridge (pronounced Spee-an, in two syllables...). Ft. William is actually a bit south, so they figured they didn't need to backtrack. They arrived in Spean Bridge about 4 pm and it had rained the whole day. It rained all of today as well, so they stayed in Spean, venturing out only to take a 15-minute train hop to Ft. William to shop for a rain jacket for Jay.

Jay says that Spean is a "cute little town," very touristy, no real shops outside of tourist fare and a convenience store (thus the trip to Ft. William). Apparently fishing is a big tourist industry in this part of Scotland, so they figured they actually saw more non-Scots on holiday than they did actual Scotsmen.

Tomorrow they plan to bike from Spean to Inverness, approximately 50 miles. Getting closer to John O'Groats! Jay walked a bit too much today so he was icing his ankle when I spoke to him, but biking still isn't bothering it apparently.

Note: I got the name of the band right (sorry about the misspelling in Sunday's post) and found their website (scroll down to Sunday 07-30-06) - go have a look and check out the live performance online.
 

Jay called me at about 8:00 pm UK time today in the middle of a concert they went to at the folk festival in Balloch, Scotland - the noise was unbelievable, especially coming through a cell phone! When I held the telephone about a foot away from my ear, I could tell that the music was really fun - lots of drums and, of course, bagpipes! We decided to talk later when it was a bit quieter.

Later tonight I called Jay back, and they had just gotten back to the B&B so it was much quieter. The group I'd heard earlier was called Clann an Drumma, a Celtic group (the name means "Children of the Drum" - they originate from Glasgow, Scotland). Pre-kilt, was Jay's description of their togs, almost like the Picts. "I know now why the Romans built Hadrian's Wall!" he said. The boys in the group didn't show up to give the scheduled free performance at the pub because, according to the word about town, they'd spent a couple of drunken days in Edinburgh. But, they did make it to Balloch in time for their paid performance to which Jay and Doug had purchased their tickets.

The boys in the band played the drums and bagpipes like nobody's business. Apparently they are quite a hot group in the UK and in addition, spent the summer of 2005 touring the US, playing at Celtic festivals across the country. As far as I could tell from Jay's description, there was Scottish folk music mixed with modern rock, and the crowd went wild.

Tomorrow's weather predictions are for heavy rain, so Jay and Doug will take the train again, this time to Ft. William. From there they plan to bike to Inverness and then on to John O'Groats. According to Jay, the Scottish have provided a lot of really great bike trails, many of them created out of old railroad beds - much like our Greenway in Minneapolis. The biking is definitely easier on the trails than it is when they are competing with car traffic. If it's still raining when they reach Ft. William tomorrow, they'll probably spend the night there and then they plan to do about 60 miles of biking on Monday. Jay feels good now, rested up and ready to go. He did, however, decline to dance with the two women who needed a male partner for the folk dancing - instead, Doug stepped up and did a magnificent job. I am looking forward to seeing the photos!
 

The train took Jay & Doug to the banks of Loch Lomond today - a small town called Balloch. To their enjoyment, a huge folk festival is taking place with lots of people and music everywhere. When they went to book a B&B everything was full, however - that is until a NEW B&B called to register just as they were standing there. So they took one room at the place and just after they arrived another couple came and took the second (and last) room. No more rooms in Balloch this weekend!

The festival sounded fun - when I talked to Jay there was a lot of noise in the background, and then Doug arrived to say that the fire department had just been called to the pub where he was about to order a beer. The sound of a fire truck's siren over a cell phone is a horrible thing!

The bad news is that Doug just got word today that his landlord is selling his house, and so they will probably have to cut the trip short - Doug needs to get back to London in the next few days to find a place to live. They will either bike or train for a few days longer in Scotland, then take the train back to London.
 

E-mail from Jay - they are in Dumfries, Scotland and planning to spend the day touring castles!  MAP

Phone conversation late pm - yesterday they rode the train for a ways and then biked 40 miles; unfortunately the biking and the heat took its toll on Jay and this morning he still felt dizzy and nauseous. So, they are spending the day in Dumfries, Scotland. They didn't tour any castles because of the way Jay was feeling, but they did get to a small airplane museum. When I spoke to him, they were sitting in a park on a small river, and planning to take the train again Saturday.
 

When I called Jay this afternoon he and Doug were sitting on the banks of the Lune River, just across the street from their B&B in Lancaster. Jay was getting his dog-fix from a beautiful plush-coat German Shepherd who was very friendly. The dog looked a lot like Siegfried, our German Shepherd a few years ago.

Map showing Chester, Liverpool, Preston, Lancaster and Penrith è
 

The "boys" arrived in Lancaster Tuesday night after taking the train from Chester to Preston, then biking from Preston to Lancaster. Doug had a small fix-it stop when they had to take off the wheel on his bike and repair, but it was done in a matter of about twenty minutes. Jay had some trouble the first few days with the luggage rack and found another one with an extra "T" that seems to work better, especially when he hammered it into place and bent the metal around (it hasn't budged since). The original one was coming loose and causing balance problems, so it got tossed.

Part of the goal of the trip is to see the sights, not at all to make good time, and so they decided to stay there for an extra day and be tourists. They took a tour of a castle originally built by the Normans; visited a cathedral and a memorial, and they biked to the coast to a small village. Jay is still finding walking a bit difficult, so they are biking between places instead of walking. His ankle is healing, however (so he says). Tonight they actually ate pizza for supper at a small Italian restaurant, and they pronounced it very good. Other nights they've been eating standard pub fare or Indian food and have mixed reviews, mostly good.

Tomorrow, Thursday the 27th, the plan is to take the train again into lake country and avoid hills - Originally Jay had said he was taking the train alone and Doug was planning to bike, but it sounded tonight as though they are both taking the train. I may be wrong, in which case I'll find out when I talk to him on Friday. The destination tomorrow is Carlisle or thereabouts, taking the train to Penrith and then biking the rest of the distance.

Jay said that the weather has been almost perfect - they have been extremely lucky. The only problem that he's had is that it's stuffy everywhere they spend the night - he saw his first ceiling fan tonight in the restaurant. The windows in the old buildings are difficult or impossible to open - apparently everywhere they have stayed has been in the 200-yr old vintage, complete with electrical wiring and plumbing all installed on the exterior of the walls, not inside the way we do in our modern houses.

Jay found an internet cafe this morning and sent a very brief message, but he hasn't been able to transfer any pictures from his camera into an email for me. He says that he's taking a lot of them, however, including "door" pictures to make me happy - he's also recording some details/thoughts on a little voice recorder he picked up just before he left Minneapolis. And, it's Doug's job to keep track of all the pubs that they stop in along the way - he has a pub guide to help with that very important task!

Tune in again this weekend for more updates!
 

Jay and Doug arrived in Chester (MAP) on Sunday after putting in a 60-mile trek; they spent two nights there and played tourist all day Monday along with a friend of Doug's who showed up in Chester on Sunday as well. Tuesday morning they were planning to take the train from Chester to Preston to avoid Liverpool and then continue biking from there. They may split up for a day while Doug bikes some particularly hilly roads and Jay takes the train again - Jay invested in a pay-as-you-go cell phone ("mobile") so they can stay in touch if separated (also he can send me his own text messages now).

Sunday, 07-23-06:

Text message from Jay - Made 60 miles today.
 

Background Info...
It was about 28 years ago that Jay and Doug biked from Minneapolis to St. Louis, MO. This trip should bring back a few memories, although the location is different and the bodies are older! They camped during that first bike trip, but this time around they'll be staying in B&B's, hostels, etc. (but carrying camping gear if they end up needing it). 

We miss each other!! I had a text message from Doug today asking me to call (I tried yesterday but they'd gone to bed earlier and turned the cell phone off). It's good to hear Jay's voice and know that they are doing well on the bike trip. His foot still is swollen and bothers him, but not while biking - it's the walking that gives him trouble. But he is in good spirits and Doug says that he's doing fine traveling. This is what I found out about their trip the past couple of days:

I forgot to ask where they stayed Thursday night after leaving Gloucester; apparently Jay sent me a couple of e-mails that went to an old address (from our former ISP) and so I didn't get them....but on Friday they biked to Tenbury Wells, as he described it, a very charming small town. If you check the maps or go on Google Earth yourself, you can see that they are traveling up the west side of the UK, very close to Wales. This is a part of the country Jay's not seen in previous trips and he is finding the little towns very quaint and picturesque, very storybook-ish.

In Tenbury Wells they stayed at a B&B that is actually an old inn and was at one time a stable. The proprietor warmed up to them and spent some time showing them old photos of the town. Jay & Doug ate supper at an Indian restaurant that got rave reviews from them - Jay insists that it was the hottest Indian food he's ever eaten, and he loved it. Afterward, in the pub attached to the B&B, they met a gentleman who had been a mosquito pilot in WWII and heard some fantastic stories. He and his wife were dog lovers and so they all got along famously.

Today's trip was short, just 25 miles, from Tenbury Wells to Church Stretton. They had intended to go a bit farther to Shrewsbury, but they traveled through a more secluded area where they were unable to stop for lunch/tea or any sort of break so when they reached Church Stretton they decided to stay. Besides, they had encountered some pretty good-sized hills while biking and I think they just needed a break (and a pub!). After they booked their B&B for the night they discovered they had to bike up another very steep hill to get to it, so at dinnertime they walked instead of biking down the hill into town and then took a taxi back to the B&B afterward.

Tomorrow (Sunday) the plan is to bike to Chester (MAP); instead of biking through Liverpool, which could be a bit dicey, they decided to take the train on Monday from Chester to somewhere TBD just north of Liverpool. I will plan to call them again on Monday.

Oh yes, in case you'd like to check out the weather in merry old England, here's a website that our friend Iain sent to me:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/ukweather (just to prove that the English do actually discuss weather once in a while...). Also, I've been using Google Earth but you can go to the UK Google Map site at: http://maps.google.co.uk/ for searches, distances, directions, etc. Thanks Iain!!
 

Jay and Doug left London on Tuesday, July 18, taking the train to Penzance with the bikes and their gear. From Penzance it's about a ten-mile ride to Land's End, where they splurged and spent the night in the hotel. The next day was difficult biking with uphill climbs that were quite taxing - Jay's accident on the 8th undid a lot of the conditioning he'd been doing here at home before his trip, so the hills were a bit much for his level of stamina. Happily, the actual biking did not bother his injured ankle (walking bothers it, however!). They reached St. Ives, Cornwall, early Wednesday afternoon and called it a day, spending the night in a hostel there - when I spoke to Jay on the phone, the gulls were screeching and Jay had just had his ice cream cone stolen from out of his hands by a terrorist gull. A decision was made to take a train hop from St. Ives to Gloucester early Thursday morning, and then continue biking from there.

I'm not sure how far they got on Thursday afternoon, but according to Doug's text message today they biked 45 miles today (Friday) and are spending the night in Tenbury Wells - tomorrow they will shoot for Shrewsbury or farther if possible. I should be talking to Jay tomorrow for more details.

Map showing Gloucester and Shrewsbury
 

I got up early this AM (practice for tomorrow) and did a trial packing to see if everything I think I'll need would fit in the panniers. It didn't, but it was close. I'm going to shop today for a small bag of some sort that I can bungee to the rear rack.
 

Jay at Bushey Park with Deer

Land's End - Large view

Land's End - Close-up
 

The photos I've gotten so far were taken on Doug's cell phone - unfortunately, Jay's new little travel-size digital camera was completely smashed up when he fell a week ago, so he bought an inexpensive digital that takes the same kind of memory cards as the damaged camera.

* If you'd like to know more about the trip they're planning, there are some books and websites - Bike Britain by Paul Salter is the guidebook that Jay is using for a lot of good information.

This is one site that actually organizes tours:
http://www.bikeadventures.co.uk/supportendtoend.html

And this site is an account of a biker's End to End trip:
http://www.geocities.com/robainsley2/e2e/
 

Jay on Crutches - July 9, 2006
 

Unfortunately, while biking around London on July 8th, Jay went up a small curb at too shallow an angle and to make a long story short, he's on crutches now with sprained ankle & knee (see photo at left). He also banged up the back of his head but the doctor glued him together before too much blood escaped...the bike was OK, by the way.

Thus, the starting dates for the bike trip have been adjusted to July 17th or later. Stay tuned for more updates!