Afore we go....

So Alex is in fine fettle - bursting with energy although somewhat nervously awaiting gcse results tomorrow

Before I indulge in any personal reflections I would just like to record my admiration for my son who had the vision and the determination to carry it all off and so successfully.

I'm very proud of him. Job well done, Alex

And also a special thank you to my daughter who was such good company on the road and with whom I had so much fun

The boys did a great job of the cycling and have raised about £1700 so far which is tremendous

One or two closing reflections....

Cycling is fun. I would like to do something similar. Anyone fancy a spell as support vehicle staff??

There is so much of Britain to explore and enjoy outside London. It has genuinely rounded out my sense of our country; the beauty of the countryside and the continual variety of life of lifestyles as you roam from one end to the other. I'm well off London as a place to live and definitely not looking forward to returning

It is not easy staying in yha's but it gives you some wonderful experiences and chance encounters as well as some indescribable ones. I have a new appreciation of anything in the slightest bit luxurious. All round good for the soul.

Strangers are mostly to be welcomed , not feared. We met some very kind and thoughtful people and lots of help freely and willingly given

Road trips are great fun, even if you are are profoundly middle aged. Having a slightly mysterious itinerary and sticking to it is a good discipline and appropriately exciting (for the profoundly middle aged)

Teenage boys live life in the present. There's a lot to be said for it.

Blogging is fun and very satisfying if people are generous enough to read what you've written despite the terrible typos and lax grammar

So to all of you who looked in from time to time and got contact - a great big thank you.

And to everyone who donated so generously, thank you too

So until next time....

Toot toot

The last post

I always hoped, but never quite believed, that I would be writing this

The boys sashayed into John o'groats after just 41/2 hours cycling from helmsdale - known to be one of the most difficult patches of the whole ride - and a good 55 miles to boot

What a fantastic achievement by them, and so helped by just about the first day of brilliant sunshine that we have had all trip

John o'groats is beautiful but seriously remote and there is NOTHING there you would want to have anything to do with other than chatting to the sheep as you meander past up the coast line

So we did a super fast photo session and got back on the road.

After all that's what the blog is about

I shall be summing up my thoughts in due course (god help you all) but in the meantime there is a glass of champagne to be dispatched and a boy to help it along and a lovely support staff girl to make the jokes

Thank you all in the meantime for the fab support and sponsorship

Check in for one final go tomorrow.....

If you can bear it


Tooti toot toot toot!

Local Hero

.....could have been set here in Helmsdale. It has that end end of the line kind of feel.
Alex is humming the theme music as we bemoan the lack of both monopoly and scrabble in this clean but mirthless hostel that must once have been a frind's meeting house. And is about as noisy

It's been a long day, if only because the pouring rain this morning served to dampen our spirits rather effectively. It was a very short cycle for the boys who are now so proficient they managed to do 35 miles, in the rain, in just over two hours. Leaving an awful of the day left to kill. Time goes slowly in helmsdale

Isobel and I had another walk on the beach, although it is not nearly as beautiful here as in dornoch.

An excellent dinner last night with John shaw and his wife and two little angel girls. Steak and an excellent red wine. They have an enviable holiday set up here.

The sign outside says. John o' Groats 55.

I can hardly believe it.

Dunroamin

Toot too

Dank cells and cormorants

The last time I found myself in the corridor drying my hair was 1982. The young ladies of st hilda's college, oxford were deemed insufficiently responsible to have electrical sockets in their rooms as a result of which mornings in the corridor ressembled a cross between a tea shop and a hairdresser dryers, kettles and girls competing for joules and space

The cells in the yha at loch ness don't have sockets either and they make the accommodation at okehampton look good. Alex and angus room was a treat. Black curtains, no view, unbelievable lurking damp smell, further ripened by higher notes of smelly, cycling boy

They got on their bikes eventually looking a little dismal and tired, but at least it was not actually raining at that point. Thank goodness there are now only two days and less than a hundred miles to go. Heateningly the signs now advertise John o' Groats as a destination

The cycle to dornoch takes in three separate amazing bridges across various firths so I hope they enjoyed that. We are waiting for them to arrive of course

Meanwhile isobel and I had a fantatic walk in the sunshine a long way along the sands of dornoch. What a lovely little town. The sea reminds me of Norfolk at its remote and wildest best. For most of our walk we were shadowed by a bobbing cormorant called Bill. He seemed to be in his element popping up and down with the the little waves and moving purposefully and rather majestically towards some unknown destination. It would be hard to describe him as
anything other than having a ball. Not that I'm one to anthropomorphise or anything like that.

A bientot

Extraordinary juxtapositions

So here we are in a really crappy hostel with damp rooms and rubbish decoration
Yet
We finish our dinner, get ready to play monopoly, (alex having JUST beaten me at scrabble)and the view out of the picture window of the dining roomin the evening sun (que?) is breathtaking

Not only that, but isobel and my cell has a view directly on the loch too and it smellsmawful but what can you say? The view is fabulous

Who's going to win this game of monopoly?
Angus?
Alex?
Isobel?
Sarah?

What is the prize?

Haggis of course

Answers on a comment or an email

Winner gets the haggis and Respect. Man.

Toot tot

Loch-side at last

Alex and angus puffed in at about 5pm after another gargantuan effort of cycling through deluged. And smiling as ever - just.

The yha ia basic but is literally on the bank of loch ness so you can step down to a little beach and write your postcards in the company of midges, which is exactly what isobel is doing now. Ah no, it has just started pouring again so I guess she'll pop up any moment. Ah, here she is.

So only three days to go till we reach John o' groats. I wouldn't say it has gone quickly, but it has gone eventfully, and mostly in rather an exciting way. However I still can't believe that we're actually going to make it, so believe it when you read it

Pip pip

To the Inch hotel Loch Ness....a big thank you for the coffee and hot chocolate kindly donated on the house