"Wow! What a fantastic ride" I wrote in the End-to-Enders' book at the bar at John O'Groats. The barman was far more interested in the TV, showing the progress of Colin Montgomerie, the Scot who was doing rather well in the Open at Royal Troon.
So now, I've been there, done that, and got the t-shirt.
Would I do it differently another time? Well ... yes. Undoubledly, my biggest handicap was the amount of weight I was carrying. Around Cambridge, that's not too much of a problem because it's relatively flat. The rest of Britain isn't, and my average speed of 10.3 mph was a couple slower than I had wanted. For somebody with a sedentary job, I'm in reasonable shape, and I don't think I could have done much more to improve my fitness.
The biggest scope for cutting down weight would be to not take any cooking or eating equipment. I enjoyed my porridge and coffees in the mornings and hot meal in the evenings, but it would be possible to eat out more often and make do with cold food and drinks in the tent. That would also have saved a lot of time spent cooking and washing up.
The full panniers offer quite a lot more wind resistance than having none, but I think I would still use the four, to have the weight distributed. And the bar bag was essential for keeping valuables in, to take with you when leaving the bike unattended.
Something I would advise anyone else would be to take longer than I did, and have more time to stop and look around on the way. At 50 miles a day instead of the 72 I did, the journey would have taken 19 or 20 days, and there would have been much less pressure to keep going into the evening.
A summer weight sleeping bag was not warm enough for camping in Britain in July. Overall, I was disappointed in the quality and the quantity of camp sites in England. Scotland was better. I shouldn't think there's anything to be done about it, because the provision is probably driven by market forces, and the weather. But every town you visit in France has a municipal site as a minimum, that is clean, pleasant and well run. It's a shame we don't have that here.
This certificate is something to put alongside my one for 25m breaststroke.
And these web pages are just to stop me forgetting what it was all about.
Wow, what a fantastic ride!