John O’Groats to Land's End

For my 2002 End to End I decided to follow a more conventional route and to look for some company on my ride. I decided to base my route on a combination of the various CTC routes, with a few changes to take in some of the Scottish islands, and adapted to travel from north to south again. An advertisement for a companion on the ride which I put in the CTC magazine was answered by Barbara, and together we set off at the end of August.

The rain was already pouring when we got off the much-delayed train at Wick, and it was well into the evening by the time we reached John O'Groats and dark by the time we stopped for the night at Thurso. By next morning the rain had stopped, but the wind had picked up and was blowing fiercely from the west, precisely the direction in which we were headed, and we soon found that the morning's ride was going to be very hard work. We finally reached Bettyhill by early afternoon, and were mighty glad to begin heading south up the sheltered valley of Strathnaver.

The route I had picked was the same as for the previous year as far as Fort William. From there we crossed on the Corran Ferry onto Ardnamurchan and made our way out to Kilchoan to begin our ride down through the islands. From Kilchoan we took the short ferry crossing to the incredibly pretty town of Tobermory. From Tobermory we headed along the east coast of the Isle of Mull to Craignure, starting off on a very narrow singletrack road and ending up on a more modern stretch, with even a short length of dual carriagway.

From Craignure we caught an early evening ferry across the Firth of Lorn to Oban, with some wonderful views of the sun setting over the islands. After an overnight stop and some bike maintenance the following morning, we headed south along the very hilly road to Lochgilphead, from where we followed the shore of Loch Fyne to Tarbert, with its busy fishing harbour. From Tarbert we made our way through horizontal driving rain onto the Kintyre peninsula, turning off over bleak moorland to reach the ferry terminal at Claonaig; a demanding hour and a half's cycling. By this time we were getting used to small ferries, but Claonaig surpassed anything we had experienced so far, with only a slipway and a bus shelter to welcome passengers!

From Claonaig the ferry took us to Lochranza on the Isle of Arran, from where we were faced by a big climb up through Glen Chalmadale, followed by an exhilarating run down to Sannox on the east coast of the island. From there it was a pleasant run along the shore past pretty Corrie to Brodick, with a pause outside the town to watch the seals basking on the rocks.

From Brodick the largest ferry we had caught so far took us across to Ardrossan on the mainland. We followed the National Cycle Network route 73 from there to Irvine - a route of decidedly mixed quality - and then headed off through the Ayrshire countryside and on through Sanquhar to Dumfries, trying to avoid as much of the busy A76 as possible. From Dumfries we took the quiet coast road along the Solway Firth through Annan to Gretna, and so into England. We had to use a short length of the horrendously busy A74 before we could escape onto the lanes once more on our way to Carlisle.

From Carlisle we took the road through the Eden Valley, passing through the villages of Armathwaite, Lazonby, and Langwathby, before crossing the busy A66 and heading south over the fells to Tebay. From there, unlike the motorway, which runs along the floor of the Lune Gorge, we had to climb high up onto the side of the hills on our way to the attractive market town of Kirkby Lonsdale. More climbing over the fells followed as we made our way through the Forest of Bowland to Slaidburn, where the rain came on in earnest. Looking like two drowned rats, we struggled on as far as the outskirts of Blackburn, where we gave up for the night.

The following day, the ride past Winter Hill in the direction of Bolton was the last bit of truly open countryside we were to encounter for a while, as we made our way through the conurbations of East Lancashire, and across the Manchester Ship Canal into Cheshire. After the hills of the previous couple of days the flat countryside came as a welcome change, although less welcome was the fact that accommodation was very much more expensive in the area.

The countryside and the towns through which we passed became steadily more attractive as we headed south through Nantwich and into Shropshire. Market Drayton was holding a market, of course, and it was difficult to wheel our bikes through the packed streets. From there we cut across country, using one of the CTC routes in a reverse direction, passing through Much Wenlock, Ludlow, and Leominster. After bypassing Hereford, we followed the beautiful Wye Valley, through the delightfully-named Hole in the Wall, to Ross-on-Wye.

Deciding that the main road down the southern end of the Wye valley might be too busy, we opted instead for the quieter, albeit hillier road through Coleford, in the Forest of Dean, to Chepstow, with its impressive castle ruins. There we crossed briefly into Wales to reach the old Severn Bridge, which we crossed on the cycle path. From the English side of the bridge it didn't take us long to get into Bristol, the only problem being that we lost our way once we arrived there! Finally, and completely by accident, we found ourselves on the right road to take us to the Clifton Suspension Bridge and out into the Somerset countryside.

Our route south from Bristol was a mixture of main road and deserted counry lanes. We felt we'd done quite enough hill climbing, so we skirted round the end of the Mendips and across the Somerset Levels to Bridgwater. From there we followed the main road for part of the way to Taunton, joining the cycle way on the canal towpath for a break from the traffic. From Taunton we stayed on the A38, which was fairly quiet by that stage, through Wellington and Sampford Peverell, and then by quiet roads into Tiverton. The final stretch of our route to Land's End was to be through North Cornwall, and so we made our way through Crediton, Hatherleigh, and Holsworthy, and although we used mostly secondary main roads we found little traffic on them.

From Holsworthy we took to the lanes through a succession of small Cornish villages, following sections of the Sustrans West Country Way for much of the time, before crossing Bodmin Moor. Our way down from the moor was to be by the Camel Trail cycleway, which we joined near Wenford Bridge. This took us to the little hamlet of Grogley, from where we followed tiny country lanes across country to St Columb Major and on to the coast at Perranporth. The final leg of our journey took us through Portreath and Hayle and then, with time running out, we opted to head straight for Penzance and along the A30 to Land's End, where we arrived tired but very exhilarated after 1,067 miles and 17 days cycling from John O'Groats.

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