Author: stragglingstu

A effort getting up the 400m steep track out of Saughie Rig farm after a big breakfast of bacon/eggs/haggis/black pudding and hash browns. But some of us made it.

A cool day …

Had to fix our own breakfast in Wetherall. Left the house clean and tidy and off. Fine weather for the first hour or so then back to cold, windy ( thankfully as a strong tail wind) and occasionally wet.

Good …

A secret: While we were eating our late lunch while cowering in a bus shelter from the wind, rain and chilling temperatures I looked down from my roast beef and cheese with Bramston pickle roll at my sodden, CTAWA sock …

HALFWAY!!!!!!! To John O’Groats

Highly recommend the Bulls Head in Milnthorpe; comfortable, excellent dinner and breakfast, very helpful staff (barman-do-everything a young thirties guy married to a Brisbane girl).

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LEJOG DAY 16 Blackpool to Milnthorpe (near Lakes District), 52 km, 435 m.

Had to get going early to get the Fleetwood Ferry across the Wye. If we missed the 500m ferry crossing it was a 25 km detour around …

Big sleep in till 8 am, wash the bikes, adjust my gear cable ( barrel adjuster had been moved out of the screw as the cable stretched and wouldn’t go back in).

Then a walk up the Promenade, along two …

The ‘quaint’ Park View Hotel and BnB (without breakfast in St Helens was memorable – helpful staff lady eventually let us put our bikes in dining room as arranged, room was cramped but clean and bathroom spacious. The Bird I’th …

Cold, windy and occasionally wet.

Across the Mersey at LIverpool (that river stinks!!!) and through pretty uninteresting suburbs to an uninteresting suburb at St Helens. A bit of overgrown Google Maps bike path on the way from Liverpool proper to …

LEJOG DAY 12 Ironbridge to Witchurch 51 km, 413 m.

Not a quick start today. Some listened online to a friend’s funeral in Perth, others straggled out to get milk and organise their kit.

Pretty basic ride today starting with …

Easiest day to date, short/flat/tailwind. One scary roundabout coming into Worcester, a few light sprinkles of rain and a short delay getting the keycode but still in digs before the rain came.

Lovely (relatively) big apartment occupying half the first …

Nice early finish today. In at the Beacon and Railway Inn below the Haresfield Beacon (look up Spanish Armada) and the railway at the bottom of the beer garden and carpark. Not a bad place. Early Victorian I would say. …

Talk about relaxed! Took till after midday and rising hunger and caffeine deficiency to get us out of the house.

We eventually caught an Uber to Brunei’s suspension bridge followed by a walk to the ‘floating dock’ (dock basin isolated …

That was a Biggie! Longest, highest day yet, only one significant hill up to Mendip Hills but it was 400 m finishing in 250 m at >1:10. Heroes all! Especially the one who had been a bit under the weather …

Warning to those visiting Bridgwater: Close it and lock it! Advice from. guesthouse manager in Bridgwater. Also, don’t approach the Hinckley Point nuclear power station or the commandos from the nearby RAF base won’t bother landing their helicopter, they will …