LEJOG Days 11 & 12

Day 11: Lancaster to Carlisle - 54.51miles 3471ft of climbing

We had a gentle start to the day with a 12 mile ride to Kendal. Once again Google Maps didn’t quite show just how steep the hills we’d be climbing were!  Thanks Mr Google😁

In Kendal, we’re rode to Hansen’s Ice Cream parlour to meet Karen Gee, better known online as Cycle Sprog who wanted to interview me! (Ok, and mum dad as well😂😂). 

Karen bought is all a lovely ice cream. I went for my usual chocolate and mint, dad had a gorgeous raspberry ripple and mum had white chocolate and Stilton. Yes, Stilton!! That horrible smelly cheese that only my dad and grandparents eat!!  Mind you, it was pretty nice and you couldn’t taste the Stilton much. Mum got all the bits and gave them to dad😁

We spoke to Karen for about an hour then she led us to the end of town and the road to Shap. It turns out dad knew all about the Shap Road as it’s a famous cycling climb but he’d kept it secret😡😡. It was pretty scary looking up from the bottom but actually, although it was a continuous slog, it wasn’t too bad. It certainly wasn’t as bad as Devon! We broke up the climb into two haves as well as mum caught us up half way and so we had a lunch stop.

Thanks Aunty Natalie for the homemade flapjack!

The only real issue was the strong headwinds which made the downhill bit that we’d been looking forward to so much a real pain. As we crossed over the top and started down we struggled to get to more than 20mph!  The wind died a little as we got lower thankfully. 

Me finishing one of the last and highest climbs. over 3000ft climb in the first 20miles of the day!

We descended through Shap and into Penrith. Mum had found a campsite outside Carlisle which made the distance just over 50miles, almost all of which was on the A6. Thankfully this has quite wide lanes (but no cycle lanes) and wasn’t too busy and passing drivers gave us plenty of room. 

With 8 miles to go we turned onto quiet country lanes. I think in that entire distance we saw one tractor, one runner and one dog walker!  But most importantly, what we did see was a family of horses including two foals!  They were sooooo cute and came over for some grass but were very easily spooked. 

Then Dad got our first puncture for the trip... He also needs to try and get his bottom bracket sorted in Carlisle tomorrow as it's creaking a fair bit!

Today was a fun day. The hill (sorry mountain!) wasn’t as bad as I thought, the headwinds were annoying but a lot of the time the sun was out and it was really nice to meet Karen (and eat the ice cream🍦of course) as mum has spoken about her a lot and read me some of her articles. She's now written one about me which is really cool! Read it by clicking on the link below - Cycle Sprog is a really brilliant website for all things to do with cycling with children so you will find lots of other good stuff on there too.

More stops to stroke and feed animals!

http://www.cyclesprog.co.uk/get-cycling/lands-end-to-john-ogroats/


Day 12: Carlisle to Abington (in Lanarkshire) - 68.3 miles, 2753 ft of climbing

Lovely campsite, but there was frost on the grass this morning. It didn't have a toilet block either... weird!

We got up an hour earlier this morning to get to a bike shop in Carlisle when it opened. The bottom bracket (the bit that goes through the frame and joins the two pedal cranks. Apparently🙄) on dads bike had started making some odd noises a few days ago but yesterday it was really sounding bad. 
The bike shop would have to order the part in which would take a day but dad hoped they could do a temporary repair. Otherwise he would have to send the part to a shop further up our route and maybe ride mum’s bike which is a bit small for him!  
On the way to Carlisle though we passed two more bike shops. Dad said “come on, no harm in trying” and the second one had the part and could fit it!  Yay!  So we went for a second breakfast in a cafe opposite and an hour later dad’s bike was as good as new. Even better, because we’d got up early, we weren’t far behind. 

Second breakfast as we waited for Dad's bike to get a new bottom bracket

Carlisle

So we rode north towards the Scottish border and eventually passed the big “Welcome to Scotland” sign. Cue photo opportunities!

One foot in each country!

Selfie!

We then rode into Scotland, in glorious sunshine and blue skies and up some lovely roads and bike tracks up the valley next to the motorway and railway line. 

We found a little village to meet mum for lunch and also had another visitor. Uncle Oliver had driven up from Chester. He came for lunch then headed back to the lakes for some camping and hiking. Cool!  Hope he has nice weather too. 

Meeting up with Uncle Oliver

Dad and I then had a discussion about how far we should ride that day. We found a couple of campsites and decided to ride to the one that would take us in. Mum drove there while we started cycling the 38miles (we’d already done nearly 30!!). 

The last of Aunty Natalie's flapjack - she says she is going to send some more up with the twins

But the weather was so nice, the distance flew by. We were riding up the valley, big hills on either side and the sun was shining. A lot was slightly uphill, very gentle but apart from a few miles here and there, the tarmac was pretty smooth and we flew along. 
Along the way I got to feed some Friendly Shetland ponies and most of the lambs we saw were tiny. Karen yesterday had said that the further north you go, the later the lambs arrive and that certainly seems true to me!

Dad added up our milage today...so far we have cycled 639.38miles AND we are in Scotland... which is a really big mile stone!

Celebrating in the campsite after cycling a massive 68.3 miles (on top of big miles over the last few days)!

LEJOG Days 9 & 10

Day 9: Stoke-on-Trent to Rivington - 61.31miles 1975ft climbing
To get away from the pub car park this morning, without loads of climbing first thing (and to get back onto our planned route) we had to head back towards Stoke on Trent so actually found ourselves, thankfully briefly, heading back towards Land’s End😂
We turned onto a lovely tow path and managed to make pretty good progress, especially once we’d turned back in the correct direction!

Once off the tow path (and into Cheshire at some point, yay!) we found our way along national cycle route 55. This took us along the Whitfield Valley And Biddulph Valley, miles of old railway track in (mostly) great condition.

This took us through Congleton and before we knew it we were passing the huge houses of Alderney Edge (apparently it’s where the footballers all live😂). It was great smooth tarmac though, got a lovely high speed and at one point, mum passed us in the camper van, horn tooting! 

Here comes mum! tooting and waving

Lunch in the camper

The banner's looking great on the back of the van - Mum's bike does have it's uses - she's not had time to use it herself yet!

Wrong turn dad! (google maps again! - great bike path)

We met her in Wilmslow for lunch then headed off. It wasn’t long we saw the aeroplanes taking off from Manchester airport (including one of dads!) and then we saw a tram, which confirmed we were in Manchester!

We took a slight diversion to Ken Foster Cycles in Chorlton as Auntie Natalie had arranged a quick gear tweak for my bike (they’d been slipping a bit and I was struggling to change gear). Ten minutes later (possibly the quickest service in history!) we were off. It was a simple job apparently, because I’d had new gear cables before the ride they’d stretched a bit and just needed a bit of adjustment). 

Our next battle was to find somewhere to cross the route of the Manchester marathon but a good old canal tow path took us under the stragglers (rather then than me😟). We followed the Manchester ship canal for a while before eventually joining the Roe Green Loop Line (think it’s still cycle root 55) which is miles and miles or smooth and lovely cycle track on a disused railway line. It was lovely!

Manchester tow path

This eventually brought us to Bolton, which was not lovely. At all. At least, not the bits we cycled through😫. We have never seen so much broken glass on the roads and cycle track. It’s a miracle we came through without punctures. Dad suggested the local had been scattering the glass around like seeds in the hope they’d grow into bottles. There was so much, it’s plausible!

The moors were beautiful

Beautiful sky at the campsite as dusk was falling

Thankfully though, we left Bolton behind us and cycled through Horwich which seemed very nice. Mum had found a campsite in a place called Rivington. Unfortunately the last 4 miles were uphill - Rivington it turns out is on the edge of the moors north of Bolton. It was pretty spectacular when we got there though!








Day 10: Rivington to Carnforth - 50.32miles 1614ft climbing

Tried to make a prompt start today but was struggling to get up! We were meeting a friend of Auntie Natalie, Cheryl Law (professional viola player, cyclist, climber - so much in common!) but first had to get down off the moor. This went well initially until Mr Google decided to take us through woods on the banks of the huge reservoir, on tracks suitable only for mountain bikes😟.

Reservoir on the Moor

Dad was enjoying it (well, he does love getting off road and muddy) but even he had to get off in places. A tourer bike is not designed for that sort of track! And we lost count of the number of stiles we had to lift the bikes over. 

But eventually we made it to meet Cheryl in Chorley, a lot later than planned however. Sorry!
Our route today was due to finish in Lancaster, but as we’ve done slightly more than needed for the last couple of days, dad wanted to get a little further. We rode a combination of lanes, tow paths and quiet roads this morning. Yet again, some of the tow paths proved unsuitable but luckily Cheryl had a cool app called Komoot which showed us the way without the worst bits of tow path (dad - take note!!).

Lovely park in Preston

We passed through central Preston which seemed lovely - there was a lovely park we rode through which was amazing. We then joined an A road for most of the journey to Lancaster but although busy, it was fine. The only issue today, in glorious sunshine, was the pretty strong headwinds to battle. Mum had found a car park next to a canal (NOT ANOTHER ONE!!) for lunch. We actually got there after two o’clock having ridden nearly 40miles before lunch! It was cool to ride with Cheryl, she was really lovely and riding in a three is easier. When it’s just dad and me on the road, I ride first so he can keep an eye out and force the traffic to avoid us but in a three, I ride in the middle). Cheryl had a had a physio appointment however that afternoon (I didn’t mention the broken back and leg from climbing😫😫) so after a quick lunch she shot off to the railway station. Thanks Cheryl, lovely to meet you and thanks for riding with us. And thanks for all the chocolate👌🏼😂😉

Mum bought me a chocolatey treat in Sainsbury's

Dad and I continued up towards Carnforth. Lancaster, like Preston was lovely (cities do look much nicer in the sunshine!). We crossed the River Lune (dad thinks!) on the most amazing Victorian (dad thinks!) aqueduct. If was pretty spectacular! We rode around 10 miles on an excellent canal tow path and didn’t see a single lock. We did see some pretty amazing houses and the area was really beautiful. Dad reminded me how lucky we’ve been with the weather though. We spent a soggy week in the Lake District last summer and it rained almost continuously!

Freaky life-sized people along the canal!

Just before we reached mum on the campsite in a tiny a couple of miles from Carnforth, we came across a dog agility club. It was amazing to watch. The border collies were the best naturally, we often look after my Nanna’s border and she’s so intelligent. I really miss having a dog, ours died in February. Mind you, he wasn’t intelligent!! Dad really misses his walks and runs with the dog too so we’re looking forward to looking after Jess again in the summer. 

LEJOG - Days 7 & 8

Day 7: Tewkesbury to Kidderminster - 44.89miles 1598ft climbing
A lovely sleep in the Weatherspoon’s pub in Tewksbury followed by an American breakfast (bacon, sausage, hash browns, pancakes, maple syrup etc - yum!!). 

I love pancakes!

We got our bikes ready to find my mum’s friend Jules’ parents (they live in Tewksbury) waiting for us outside the hotel. That was a lovely send off and we began our ride north. Unfortunately my legs were tired this morning so I was struggling with the small hills we found. 

Uncle Andrew left us yesterday and Auntie Natalie joined us today, having driven down from Manchester with the family. Uncle John took their two daughters off for the morning with a plan to meet in Worcester. 

Auntie Natalie and me stuffing our faces!

We continued riding through the lovely Worcestershire countryside (having left Gloucestershire, yay!); lots of country lanes and the occasional tow path but all very pleasant. It soon became apparent though that Auntie Natalie doesn’t like hills. More particularly, she doesn’t like going down hills! Very weird, that’s the fun bit! Dad and I would tuck up and go as fast as we could while Auntie Natalie would come down at a snails pace and frequent get off and walk! She does live in Manchester which is pretty flat I suppose!
We arrived in Worcester which seemed very pleasant and found and set about finding a cafe called Foley’s, recommended by Jules’ parents. Don’t be put off by the outside (a bright orange box attached to the cricket ground). You go inside and the whole back wall is a panoramic window overlooking the cricket pitch, with a big balcony too. Pity the only thing going on was grass cutting but it was pretty amazing. And the food was great too!

Cafe overlooking the cricket pitch

After lunch we continued towards Kidderminster. We spent a lot of time on a lovely old railway line which was mostly smooth and relatively flat and then switched onto a canal tow path (lots of these in the West Midlands).

Mum had driven to meet Uncle John at an ice cream factory and then they all came to meet us. We’d found a Costa in Kidderminster and we’re selling in when John and the girls arrived, closely followed by mum in the campervan. This was the first time we’d seen mum driving it and she already looked like a pro!

Trixie the Camper van also named 'Doris' by my friend Evie!

Auntie Natalie and family headed off home to Manchester while mum drove to a pub she’d found where we could park overnight. Thankfully it was only a couple of miles away because we had to cycle!
A lovely pasta meal was waiting for us on arrival and our first night in the van and a beer for dad!👍🏼

Day 8: Kidderminster to Stoke-on-Trent - 64.84miles 2589ft climbing
Today was meant to be a relatively straightforward 52 miles to finish in Stoke-on-Trent. We dropped (quite literally, it was a very steep descent!) onto the canal tow path. This was quite pleasant at first but after a few miles became muddy and bumpy and our progress slowed right down. After a few miles it became almost impassible but we were able to ride a lane almost parallel to the canal and then an old railway track cycle path which were much quicker.   

Some of the less muddy Canal path today

We eventually ended up in Wolverhampton. I needed the loo so dad found the nearest toilet which was in a supermarket a couple of miles away and we had another diversion. Following the toilet break (and opportunity to top up the mini-egg supply😁) we hit the road, or more correctly, the canal path again. Wolverhampton seems to be criss-crossed by canals (dad says there are more in neighbouring Birmingham than in Venice. I’ve never been to Venice so I’ll have to believe him!). 

We had a couple more diversions this afternoon just to frustrate things. We arranged to meet mum at lunch in Brewood but had to divert off the canal path going directly there due mud onto the road and added our first lot of a extra miles to our day. At least lunch was waiting though!  The second came in Stafford which proved quite difficult to cross - google maps apparently doesn’t recognise a road as a one way street if there’s a cycle lane coming the other direction. So dad had to find a route around. Worse came later on though again as we were following a lovely cycle path north of Stafford which we found was closed due a housing estate being built. So we had to back track a couple of miles. 

Mud - Cycle path????

More mud and definitely NOT a cycle path google maps!

By this stage, mum had the camper in Stoke-on-Trent looking for somewhere we could spend the night. She didn’t have any success but did find the Rose and Crown Pub in Stockton Brook to the east of Stoke where we could park. 
This turned out to be a lovely pub bit and extra 7 or 8 miles for us to ride and (thank you once again google maps) took us over a completely unrideable moor. It was fun but by that stage we’d done more than 60miles! 

More stroking of animals!

Food was waiting for us when we got to the camper however and a long sleep!

Yum! Pasta is my staple diet this trip!

LEJOG Days 5 & 6

LEJOG Days 5 & 6

Day 5: Burnham on Sea to Bristol 39.6miles, 784ft climbing
 
We had a lovely cooked breakfast (although we’ve had so many recently, I’m starting to crave cereal!) in the pub where we stayed last night. Before we realised, it was half past nine so we got our things together and headed off. My Uncle Andrew (my mum’s twin brother) had driven down from London and was cycling from Bristol to meet us. We’d planned to meet somewhere near Weston-super-Mare but to get there we had to cycle out of Burnham (google maps seemed to want to take us along the beach, which we thought probably wasn’t a good idea) and get to the new Brean Down cycle track. It was lovely, very picturesque with an amazing ruined church on a cliff top at Uphill Park. Uncle Andrew wasn’t far away so we met on the sea front.

Meeting Uncle Andrew at Weston - Good to have someone else riding with us

We decided to have lunch in Clevedon so set off. The A390 was very busy but we were able to turn off onto the Strawberry Line (which I’ve cycled lots with my family and is lovely) to Yatton and then on back roads to Clevedon. Unfortunately the rain started and the temperature dropped and we all started to get very cold, even with our waterproofs on. So lunch in a cafe in Clevedon became a sandwich from Tesco’s and we set of to Portishead. The wind must have been behind us because I felt like we were flying along, dad was setting a good pace all the way to the M5 bridge. By this time I couldn’t feel my feet (I didn’t put my overshoes on!) just wanted to get home. So over the bridge, along the Portway and home!  I ran inside and jumped in the bath to warm my feet up. Then I had a shower!  Then I lay on the sofa, under a blanket catching up with my friends until tea. 
A shorter day, only about 40miles and less than 1000ft of climbing. But incredibly cold in the wind and rain so not looking forward to tomorrow. The forecast is rain all day  😫


Day 6: Bristol to Tewskebury - 48.06miles 1135ft of climbing

Today was a day I was really looking forward to but also really nervous about. More of that later though!
My best friend Evie got to our house at 7:30am. She’s a master at french plaits, which are perfect for when I’m riding so I’d arranged for her to come and redo my hair (and a gossip of course!). 
Dad and uncle Andrew got the bikes all ready, we said goodbye to the twins who we won’t see for about a week and then we cycled off to my school, Redmaids’ High School. Mum (who is also a teacher there) had told us to be by the gates at 8:50am OR ELSE!  Luckily we were and we were met by lots of other pupils and staff on bikes (some of them not really the right size, Mr Wyatt!), including my mum!  And then Oli Beckingsale, the Commonwealth and Olympic mountain biker turned up too!  He’s one of dad’s local heros (he’s a Bristolian, like all the best people😉) and he had a lovely road bike which uncle Andrew and dad were both drooling over🙄🙄. I could imagine my mum shaking her head and saying “men.....”. 

There was loads of noise coming from the front of the school building and after a few photos, we were told to cycle up the drive in a big convoy. We came around the corner and the WHOLE SCHOOL was lining the drive, despite the rain, all cheering and waving banners they’d made. I was really embarrassed but also incredibly proud too. 

The school has really got behind my ride. Loads of people had cycled in that day. They had a bike that made smoothies  and 4 spin bikes in reception. All day teachers and pupils were riding two of them to try and ride more than 247miles in a day which was our total for the last 5. Miss Owens-Powell, my drama teacher had come in at 7am and had already done 25miles before we got there!  
There was a huge Wallace and a huge Gromit character there (I think two of my teachers were inside, mum said they were all desperate to dress up!!) and a representative from British Cycling. It was really, really cool!

But, we had to leave all the fun and start our ride. We had one more quick stop first though. Mrs Wright, the headteacher of Elmlea Junior school (my old school) had invited us down to say a quick hello before we set off. We got there to find all three of the year five classes in the rain, ready to wave us on our way. My brother and sister are in year 5 so we got to say goodbye to them again, answered a few questions about our ride and then off we went. I think we all felt a bit sad to be leaving all the fun behind and to set off into the rain!

Dad and uncle Andrew had plotted two routes, a quiet road one and a busy road one. Usually we go for the quiet roads but it said it’ll would take nearly an hour longer so as the weather was so miserable, we’d go along the A38. It was a quite busy road but was fine. There was lots of water on the road so lots of spray though. It was hilarious at one point when a lorry drove past dad who was leading and made loads of spray. Dad disappeared completely but all we could hear was him laughing really loudly!! 
We got to Slimbridge and decided to find some lunch. We found a nice cafe by the canal. Dad had the biggest cheeseburger ever, though my hot chocolate was pretty enormous too!  

Dad's lunch was enormous!

So was mine!

Back to cycling - we tried the tow path but it was slow, bumpy and muddy so gave up and went back to the A38. 




This took us through Gloucester in the pouring rain, to Tewkesbury in the still pouring rain!  
We were booked into another pub. Uncle Andrew stayed for a coffee and some food then rode off to catch a train back to Bristol to then drive to London😟. They’ve put our bikes down in the cellar out of the weather, which is cool. Dad has turned the radiator up to max to dry the gloves and socks (the rain resistant leggings and the jackets dad left in Cornwall but which were returned to us kept us really dry). Still had ice cold feet though, despite two pairs of merino socks AND my overshoes. 

Oh - and mum said they absolutely smashed our 247miles at school today.