Lejog epilogue
It's all over! We're sorry about that but Cumbria's not a bad place to come back to and we've still got the whole summer ahead.
Thirty five days of cycling (some do it in ten or less!) and only one bad day (next to the last day) and even that wasn't too bad. We never imagined that in the first four weeks we'd be blessed with unbroken sunshine. It was amazing. We didn't know whether we'd be capable of cycling day after day but cycling in the sun was fun and it gave us confidence to believe that we could. It could have been so different in howling wind and rain!
We'd started booking accommodation in January and it was all completed well before the journey began. Each day was simple. Get out of bed, have some breakfast, ride bike for thirty miles or so to the next night's accommodation. There were no major decisions to make or hesitancy about what shall we do today. It was a break from reality. But we were achieving something special for us. When Rosie first mentioned it (yes, it was her idea!), I thought we'd never be able to manage that. How wrong I was.
Some statistics:
Distance: 1040 miles
Ascent : 58,295 feet
Hours cycling: 130 approx.
I was thinking of having a best bits section but there are so many it would take too long. I'm going to look back through the blog sometime and relive them.
It was good to meet up with a few people: Roger Davies and his wife Janice at Hereford (I'd not seen Roger since 1968); Glenn and Toby at Adlington (we stayed the night there), Zoe, Glenn's wife, Rosie's niece, was not there as she was in London to receive an award; Kim at Kendal (my cousin's daughter) who drove us from our accommodation to do our shopping (a life saver!); Anne a neighbour who rode out to the other side of Shap in her bike and encouraged us home; Kevin, Katy and Pete who saw us on our ongoing journey after our stay home; David who rode up Hartside with us; John who met us at the top of Hartside and bought us all an ice cream; Helen (our daughter) and Andrew, Isla and Tom who we stayed with for a night in Northumberland.
The bikes have been great throughout the whole trip. They've been like well oiled machines! We each had one puncture but simply replaced the inner tube. Many thanks to Pete across the road for bike checking and maintenance before the journey and at our stay at home halfway through, also to our Sam for his help and advice, and to Mick for showing us his method of bike cleaning including his honest assessment that my bike was the worst he'd ever seen in terms of cleanliness!
A big thank you to Sam and Louise who drove us and our bikes to Land's End and met us at John O'Groats to bring us home. That made everything so much easier
It's been great to get encouraging messages from people. The donations to the Gofundme page have been staggering. The present total is £2470 so big thank yous to all who have been so generous. Kampala Children's Centre is also very grateful. The fund will stay open for a while if anyone else wishes to donate.
On the morning we left Puffin Cottage (there's a sign to say that there are no puffins here) we had a look round the petting farm and met donkeys, sheep, pigs, rabbits as well as two friendly dogs. At the shop we all bought puffin bobble hats before we left. Rosie and I also bought a lejog fridge magnet. We'd looked for something like it at the John O'Groats touristy shops but they just sold a load of tat!
Before driving home we lingered in the area to drive to Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of Britain and we did actually see puffins there.
The drive home was long but quite smooth. We got to Penrith about 7.30pm and had a meal at Wetherspoons just for old time's sake!
Thank you to all who have been reading this, my first ever blog. I have had some favourable comments and no negative ones (yet!). I've enjoyed doing it. I shall enjoy looking back at it during spare moments. Thanks again to Louise for editing and producing the videos at the top of each page.
I really think that's all unless I do a page of photos sometime showing memorable moments. We'll see about that!
