The Final Update

The Jogle has been well and truly Jogled now. All our injuries have healed and we have moved on to other things in life. Steve is training for the Loch Ness Marathon, Dave is looking after his newborn daughter and wife, Dr Stephen is leading his hectic Scottish life and I (Nick) have gone full time as a Driving Instructor, putting the nursing to one side for the time being. Also the Justgiving Site is no longer taking donations so I thought It would be a good idea to give a final update on our fundraising for anyone who still comes to this now desolate place on the internet.

In the end, adding together all on and off line donations we raised Just over £2000. Considering our initial target was £1000 we were pretty pleased with this, so once again a very big thank you to everyone who supported us. May you live long and prosper.

And I Thought We Were Tough….

It took us 9 days to complete the jogle. Not bad for us oldies. So Marvellous Mimi aiming to do it in 12 days is not that amazing is it? Well it is because she is aiming to do it without the aid of a bicycle!

Mimi is aiming to run the jogle in under 12days 16hrs and 23 minutes to try and set a new record and to raise money for Beat, an eating disorder charity. This is a really astonishing thing to try and do so please drop by her blog and offer some encouragement.

Memory Remembered

Memory Remembered by Justin Lowmaster

The wizard Tatch was forgetting things. He knew that the books and papers were around somewhere, but his memory was fading and his azure spire held so many bookshelves and so many books, without remembering exactly where they were, he simply had little hope of finding them.

Above is the start to Justin’s short story about a Wizard with Alzheimer’s. Click on the link and check it out. Many thanks to Justin for his continued support of the Alzheimer’s cause!

Justin ope of finding them.

Thank You!

We have had a wonderful adventure of highs and lows on our way to raising a healthy lump of cash for The Alzheimer’s Society. Many people have helped us in our preparation, and during the ride who deserve a big thank you. We also have to thank the many people who have donated to the cause and/or commented on the blog to offer support. So here is our thank you speech:

Pete Ferlie of Iron Bridge Runner for going above and beyond the call of duty delivering us to the start and providing insults and support as required. Also for supplying nutritional supplements. Thanks Pete!

Nik Heathman Of Amba Marketing for saving Steve’s bacon when he broke a spoke in Exeter. Nik lent Steve a wheel and rode the 1st 10 miles of the last day with us. Nik also has been a big help with offers of support and advice in the run up and also in suggesting Nick go up a cup size….

Richard of Richards Bikes for supplying Dave with his mega deals.

Dr Steve for creating this blog after Google did the dirty on us and took down our blog just as we left. Also for towing us through the wilds of Scotland at an unnatural speed. Our average speed dropped by at least 2 mph after he left us!

Alison for letting Nick out to play and for providing us with such a welcome on our arrival in Stroud.

Claire and the whole of the Marks family for letting Dave out to play and providing us with a brilliant end to our adventure.

Kate for letting Steve out to play. I bet you loved life with out him Kate!

All the folk who have commented and been supportive on twitter, podcasts, the blog and at home and in the workplace. Too many of you to list so thankyou all!

Updates.

If you scroll down you will notice that the posts for days 6 and 7 have been padded out a bit. They now include the misery and drugs involved in a tour of North East of England.

The clip below was taken on the train back from Penzance. It is clear that the JOGLE has taken its toll on the participant’s mental state…..

Exeter to Lands End 140 miles

The final day was always going to be tough. It was a planned 141 miles with some evil hills. Added to this Nick had not been able to walk properly since Kendal. He was having to cycle with his left foot pointing down all the time to minimise movement of his Achilles tendon which was in a pretty poor state. Dave was also carrying a niggly achilles and sandpaper knees and Steve – well he had his ego to drag along.

Dave planned the route in his head about 3 mins before we left and we knew we were in good hands when he declared he didn’t know where to go in Oakhampton. Never mind I have a map says Dave. Only trouble is it was a map of Cornwall and we were in Devon! After some supportive team spirit and muttered we love you Dave comments we decided to wing it for a bit on Daves best guesses. When we got a mobile signal nick was able to confirm with the GPS maps on his N95 that all was well and Dave did not need to be tortured. Yet.

About 10 miles later we had a splendid egg sandwich, In a place I can’t recall, before heading into Launceston. Then Dave had another blank expression so we found a News Agent and had a butchers at a map of Devon. It was more revealing than the one of Cornwall so we headed back the way we came for a bit of a battering on the A30.

From here on in though Dave got it all spot on and we had a tough ride into headwinds and ridiculous Cornish hills untill we ended up in Portreath at Dave’s In-Laws, Dawn and Graham. We had a fine reception there from the whole family and were served some very tasty tea and cake before heading down the last 35ish miles to Lands End. Dave had opted for the longer and hillier coastal route which we all initially thought was a bad idea however, Dave got it right, the scenery was spectacular and it made for a beautiful ride in to the finish.

We reached the Finish at 21-15ish and were greeted like superstars by Claire’s (Daves better half’s) family. There was a ribbon across the line and streamers and champagne and even beer! Great stuff and a huge thankyou to the Marks family for making the finish so memorable.

After photos etc we headed back to dawn and Grahams for a shower and a feast fit for royalty. A wonderful end to this fantastic trip.

The end!

On Saturday evening, Dave, Nick and Steve successfully completed the 9 day cycling trip from John O’Groats to Lands End. Many congratulations!

The final push

Today is the final day of the Jogle adventure.  This last day is going to be longest and hilliest of the stages with 141 miles and 12876ft of ascent!  The weather is forecast to be sunny intervals with a fresh head wind.

Route map: Exeter – Lands End 141 milesAscent 12876ft Descent 12864ft

This has been a significant and extremely challenging effort in aid of a very worthy cause. It is not too late to donate!

7 days down, only 2 to go

The Joglers arrived in Stroud at 8pm on Thursday evening.  They were very tired and required frozen peas to soothe sore Achilles tendons.

Undeterred, they left this morning to battle into the wind towards their goal.  Only two days to go!

Day 7 Whitchurch to Stroud

Day 7 involved more A roads, a killer head wind, aching knees and scarey truck drivers. The day was mostly a case of “lets get this over with” but there were some high lights including this delightful bun stop in Iron Bridge just south of Telford.

The climb out of Iron Bridge was also delightful with some great hairpin bends.

After this the roads were pretty anonymous until the Malverns with the exception of some amazingly aggressive and inconsiderate Truck drivers around Worcester. The Malverns to Gloucester was more enjoyable probably because Nick was on home ground and riding on familiar territory. It wasn’t long then untill we rolled into Nicks drivway to be greated by two very excited young boys and Nick’s Wife Alison who had put up welcoming banners and bunting and generally made us feel pretty special. Thanks Ali.

Day 6 Kendal to Whitchurch 130 miles

This day was always going to be one of the least pleasant. We left the beauty of the lake district to grind down through a mass of link roads, dual carrage-ways and city centres. We charged through Lancaster making our 1st planned stop in Garstang. Both Nick and Dave had Achilles problems at this stage and a visit to the chemist came up trumps.

The Brufen gel in particular helped stopped the pathetic whingeing from the older JoGLERS.

The ride then continued to Preston where we had our 1st real problem with inconsiderate driving. A bus Driver sat on our wheel trying to pass where it was not possible, resorting to honking his horn to try to intimidate us out of the way. He then over took and cut in dangerously close to Nick. We politely gestured to him that maybe he could have handled himself better and continued on south.

We arrived in the out skirts of Warrington after about 80 miles and then stopped at a Harvester in the middle of some road works for soup and a roll. As you can see we were already feeling jaded with the misery that is this part of the world on a bike.

We then took a detour around Runcorn as suggested in a JOGLE guidebook somewhere. This was not a better decison and we soon wished we had just blasted down the A49 to our destination. Runcorn is literally surrounded by a bike unfriendly dual carriageway so we decided to cut through the middle on the Spur Road. Unfortunately we had trouble locating it. After 30 mins faffing about we managed to use the GPS on Nicks phone to put us straight and allow us to escape the delightful place that is Runcorn.

Then it was a blast down the A533 to join the A49. We were relieved to find the A49 because this should take us down to our destination in Whitchurch. GPS batteries were dead by this time so It was a case of heads down, bums up and ride like the wind. We were really flying too at this stage chain ganging like pro’s and averaging 19mph+. Not bad for tubby middle aged guys. Unfortunately we were so into blasting home and imagining the food awaiting us that we didn’t notice the A49 was now the A51 and we were heading in the wrong direction. Doh!

We finally realised our error with 118 miles clocked up. Day light was fading fast and we had 12 miles still to go to get us to where we should already be. Suddenly there was no conversation just the sound of hard breathing and pedalling as we mashed the pedals desperatley to get to the B+B. Fortunately it was worth the effort. A mighty fine B+B owner stood in the road to welcome us and finish our longest day yet.

Stats:

130 miles

13hrs start to finish

Average moving speed 13.6mph

Route before GPS battery went flat is here.

Bag size vs gear size

Bag size

Each Jogler had a different approach to the amount of gear they took as is illustrated by the following photograph.  Both Dave, Nick and Steve had opted for the Topeak bags and racks.  Nick had the smallest panniers as he only had to carry a toothbrush and a couple of inner tubes, while Dave needed the medium sized bags for the tubes of sun cream and travel wash.  Steve on the other hand opted for the extra large panniers as he was carrying the spare bike and workshop stand.

Gear size

Interestingly, the size of pannier was directly related the to the size of gear favoured by each Jogler.  Nick with the smallest bags had the lowest gears and favoured twiddling away in the small ring.  Dave correspondingly favoured mid-range gears to go along with his mid-size luggage.  Predictably, based on bag size alone, Steve preferred keeping his chain on the big ring and small sprocket for most of the time.  Could this be a new record?  The first person to cycle end to end completely in the big ring!

The following video illustrates the different pedalling styles…

Google and other problems defeated!

If you have been following us intrepid JOGLER’s you may have noticed first our Blog disapear and then a total lack of updates.

Unfortunately Google made a false positive on our site as a spam blog on the day we left. This has certainly cost us sponsorship money for the Alzheimer’s Society as we had most people, including the papers and TV pointed to the Blogger blog. We would not have been able to sort this out at all if Not for Steve “The Engine” Evans who setup this WordPress blog for us before towing us through the wilds of Scotland. Thanks Steve!

As for updates we have not had access to a mobile signal or to be honest time to do anything other than ride eat and sleep. and eat, and er… eat.

Dr Steve has left us now to resume his respectable life in Scotland but will try to update the blog with tales of his adventures with us through Scotland.

Day 5 Dumfries to Kendal

1st day with a head wind today on boring A roads.

Gretna

The first stop of the day was at Gretna.  The bakery served great food.  It was tempting to order everything on the menu!

England

Penrith

Another coffee stop, this time at Penrith.  The A6 between Carlisle and Penrith went on forever.  It was good to have a break.

Shap

The day was saved by a fantastic climb to 1400ft at Shap summit on the A6 and the awesome descents that followed with speeds well in excess of 40mph. Great stuff!

Kendal

We had a great end to the day because the Hostel has turned out to be the best so far, ensuite facilities and friendly, helpful staff. Highly recommended.

This is a short clip of our thoughts before we went for a curry and a pint!

Day 4 Loch Lomond to Dumfries

This day was a complete contrast to yesterday. Beautiful sunshine, clear skies and no wind.  No wind meant we could see clouds of midges, but fortunately by the time we had breakfast at the hostel a breeze had started which kept them away.

The road from Rowardennan to Drymen is quite hilly and badly surfaced.  We were very fortunate to see a rare Pine Martin make a brief appearance on the road.

Glasgow

Negotiating our way to the Clyde Tunnel in Glasgow was tricky.  We had to keep stopping to check the map.  Once you find it, there is a tunnel for cyclists and pedestrians that takes you safely through the tunnel.  We were all glad when we got to Barrhead and the road started to climb up into countryside.

Getting lost?

The scenery south of Glasgow was lovely.   At one point we arrived at Moscow.  Moscow?! Time to check the GPS…

Mabie Forest

Today was a very long day.  We had left Loch Lomond at 9am and we arrived at Mabie Forest at 7pm.  A total of 112 miles and an average speed of 15mph.  We now had to find our accommodation.  It turned out that we had to ascend into the forest for about 3 miles, 2 of which were along a gravel track.  None of it was well signposted, so we just had to hope that the directions we had been given were right.

Eventually, Margowan hostel appeared in the trees and we were able to get unpacked.

Mabie Hotel

We had a great meal at Mabie Hotel, just two miles back down the gravel track…

Day 3 Fort Augustus – Loch Lomond

Weather warning

The weather forecast for today was not good.  I didn’t really need the TV to tell me this as I could tell from the sound of the wind howling through the trees and the rain pouring down outside!

Fortunately though the wind direction turned out to be favourable with a tail wind for most of the day.  It did rain a lot, but by mid afternoon it had almost stopped.  It certainly put our kit to the test.

Cold hands

With a tail wind the cycle to Fort William was fast, but Dave and Dr Steve suffered from cold hands and we had to stop in Fort William so they could buy long fingered gloves.

Glen Coe

We stopped for soup and a roll at Glencoe Village.  Then it was time to start the ascent through Glen Coe to Rannoch Moor.  The scenery was amazing despite the rain.  The road was quite busy though as can be seen in the following photograph!

Loch Lomond

We successfully negotiated Rannoch Moor and stopped at the Green Welly cafe in Tyndrum.  A long fast descent from Crianlarich to Inverbeg meant that we arrived at Inverbeg at 5pm.  Overall, an average speed of 17mph for 108 miles.  All we had to do now was wait for the ferry from Inverbeg to Rowardennan at 6pm…

Inverbeg ferry

We were anxious that we arrived at Inverbeg in time to catch the last ferry to Rowardennan, otherwise we would have to cycle another 30 miles to the Youth Hostel.  As it turned out, we were in plenty of time as by 6.15 the ferry had not appeared!

As can be seen from the notice, the ferry runs subject to weather conditions.  After a few phone calls it turned out that the ferry would not be running due to bad weather.  Apperently the water was too rough on the other side of the loch, despite it being flat calm on our side!  It was now 6.30pm and we were getting cold.  The nearby hotel was outwith our finances and we didn’t relish the prospect of cycling another 30 miles to Rowardennan.

There was a couple also waiting for the ferry.  They had arrived by bus and were told that to get to the Youth Hostel they would have to take another 3 buses to get to Rowardennan.  A difficult task at the best of times, especially on a Sunday evening.

Who pays the ferryman

Fortunately the owner of the Rowardennan Hotel decided to come and rescue us and the ferry did arrive!

We loaded the bikes onto the ferry and then we crossed the Loch to Rowardennan.

Rowardennan

It was with great relief that we eventually arrived at Rowardennan Youth Hostel.  We were sharing a stuffy humid dormatory with four very considerate German walkers who were walking the West Highland Way.

A great meal at the Rowardennan Hotel and it was time to recuperate for the next days efforts.

Day 2 Helmsdale – Fort Augustus

Day 2 was a complete contrast weather wise, we had sunshine all the way and a tail wind. Good progress was made to Tain, just a puncture to Nicks supposedly punture proof Armadillo tyres to slow us down. We Stopped in Tain for a Pannini and coffee before setting off agin towards the ferry crossing from Nigg to Cromarty.

This route avoided lots of A9 misery and provided a nice change of pace as we crossed the .8 mile trip from Nigg to Cromarty. We then were able to take some quiet roads across the Black Isle.

About half way across a nature break was called for and we noticed a bike lying in the grass as we stopped. Then a man appeared from the grass too. He was dressed in scruffy baggy tracksuit trousers and very worn and flimsey plimpsoles. He inquired where we were going and when we proudly announced that we were cycling over 100 miles a day down the length of the country he said in a VERY broad accent “Is tha all? Ah do 200 miles a day to work.”

Initially I thought that he was bonkers but he tagged along with us for a few miles and rode like the wind, zooming up the hills, he made us look like old ladies on shoppers. He then showed us a nice little shortcut to Inverness before whizzing on towards Nairn. So if you see a scruffy Scotsman on a bike whose name is Barry do not underestimate him! Thanks Barry.

Inverness

At lunch time we met Dr Steve at the Kessock Bridge in Inverness.

Foyers

The south road along Loch Ness was very quiet and we had beautiful views, particularly when we got to Foyers where we had a quick stop.

South of Foyers

After Foyers, the road continued to climb upwards. Steve warned us that it was going to be very steep, but being a true manager, he managed our expectations very well and it wasn’t too bad! The road did seem to go on forever though…

Nick kept speaking on his mobile. Although it may have been an excuse to take a breather on the climb!

The view on the other side towards Fort Augustus was stunning.

The descent was even better. Sweeping bends and a good surface had us clocking up to 45mph.

Fort Augustus

Fort Augustus is a very attractive town on the Caledonian Canal. There are a series of locks here that connect Loch Ness to the Caledonian Canal.

After an excellent meal at the Lock Inn, it was time to recuperate.

Day 1 John O’Groats to Helmsdale

Pete Ferlie from Iron Bridge Runner very kindly flew up with us so that he could drive us up from the airport in Inverness to John O’Groats. We stayed in the Seaview Hotel the night before the off. This turned out to be a very pleasant stay with excellent evening meal and B+B.

John O’Groats is an eerie, bleak and windswept place, the eerie atmosphere was added to by the fact that it hardly got dark at all and was still daylight when I drifted off to sleep at 23-30hrs. Anyway a good night was had by all and after a slap up breakfast the next morning we were ready to assemble the bikes for the start of our journey. Watching Dave put his bike together was great entertainment for a while but after 30 mins we thought it best to tell him that the back wheel is the one with the cassette. Things went together more smoothly then.

After the assembly we lined up at the start line which is by a derilict old hotel and made a toast to Dave’s father. Pete took some photos and then we were off. It was very windy but at least the wind was a cross and not a head wind. To illustrate the strength of the wind, when we turned to the east so the wind was behind us I clocked 35mph on the flat without trying. If only it had turned to chase us south we would have been home in no time!

Pete packed up the hire car and took our bags home whilst we made our way fairly steadily to Helmsdale. On the way we stopped at the Lybster for a fantastic bacon roll. Heartily recommended.

Then it was down the spectacular coast road to Helmsdale. The weather was very changeable. The wind was constant but In the 20 miles before reaching Helmsdale we had freezing horizontal rain and then baking sunshine. Strange place.

Days Stats:

53.9 miles
4hrs 09mins
Av Speed 13mph Max speed 42mph
Max Hr 186 Av. Hr. 136

For my dad

All packed and ready to go.
I have somehow managed to end up with some very heavy luggage, but i think this is down to the energy drink and carbo powder i am carrying, so at least it will get lighter every day.
I am carrying the bare essentials, hopefully i won’t feel to cold walking around Scotland in my flip flops!
It will be good to get riding and have a feel for what we have let ourselves in for, it would be great to have some sunshine en-route as well.
I think my dad would have been proud of what we are doing and pleased that we can raise money to help others have more chance of fighting this disease in the future, hopefully he will be keeping an eye on our proceedings and wishing us bon-voyage.

Ready for the off

All packed and ready to go. This past few weeks have been a bit tense for me as I have been trying to pass my Part 3 exam to become a driving instructor.

Today I passed! Which means i can look forward to giving up the night shifts and start planning a new career on my return from the JOGLE. It also means I can enter the JOGLE on a high.

I will be off to Exeter Airport tomorrow to meet Dave, Steve and Pete from Iron Bridge Runners, then it is up to Inverness. Here we get a hire car up to John O’Groats and then B+B for the night before starting riding on Friday whilst the galant Pete returns the car and flies home. Cheers Pete!