On saturday morning we had a few jobs to do, checking round and stuff, then went off site for a swim in the local ‘Tropical leisure pool’. It was nice (apart from the monkey) but very expensive – £4.60 for a normal swim, and no such thing as student discounts.

After showering we ate the lunch we had brought and then headed back to site for out afternoon jobs. The ‘A team’ (Me, Andrew, Abby and Andy K) had the job of showing people to their tents. So armed with tent lists we told people where to park, welcomed them and showed them to their tents.

The numbers of boys on week A was fairly low, and so there were only 2 boys in my tent: David and Laurence. They were both well behaved. The other leaders that I had in my village were Andy Pandy and Daniel.

The week went by very fast. I found my attitude very cynical, especially towards the camp leadership and I was starting to see how inconsistant people were. Enough of the negative…
There was still a lot of fun to be had though. Bouncy castles, trips to the beach etc all came as part of the package. But I think the most fun was in practical jokes directed towards a perticular leader. Included sending amusing postcards, cable tying tents up, leaving underwear in the lost propery boxes with someone elses name tag on, asalting cups of tea etc.

There were lots of things that happened, and I did not keep a diary or take many photos. However, all the pictures that I did take, together with Paul’s and Andy Pandy’s are on the photo section of this site.

I set off from Manchester on 25th July and headed for Cromer on the train. After spending £50 on a ticket, I headed for the train which was quite busy.

The train journey was long, with only one change in Norwich. I had 5 hours to kill on the Manchester to Norwich leg and so I played with my laptop, designing bikes and read a book.

Once on the local stopping train to Cromer I was much happier because the end was in sight! I stepped off the train at about 4.30 and phoned camp to request either a lift or directions to the campsite.

I was told they might be a few minutes in getting round to pick me up, so I stopped in the station pub for the most expensive pint of coke I have ever bought – £2.80.

Jo Sale shortly arrived and picked up me and my massive suitcase and headed back to the campsite. They were in the middle of a job and so I got stuck into helping. I felt a bit bad because I had come late, and most of the tents were already up!

After tea there were more jobs to do, like painting the tent pegs bright green.

The next few days went by in a flash, and there were lots of jobs to do, but there were four of us ‘younger’ kids that tended to do stuff together. Me, James, Abby and Andrew.

On Thursday we went down into cromer and chilled out on a pub patio and listened to silly tunes on James’ phone. Apparently James and Abby got a ticking off for going to the pub, though noone spoke to me.

Days get mixed up in my head, but we spent a while marking and painting the football pitch, and also spent hours picking up sheep poo.

On Friday we had the morning off, and we went down to the beach. After walking for about a mile down the coast, we washed ourselves in the small beach shower at Cromer and headed back. It must be noted that James was intending to wash his feet….but pressed the wrong shower button and got his head. Very funny. As we were walking back through the Teen Camp field, it started tipping it down, so we sheltered in their dining tent for about 30 minutes until the torrent had subsided.

On friday afternoon the Mr Holliday came with a digger and dug the pits in the rain. His poor little cab kept steaming up.

Woke up late and had a nice breakfast in the B+B.

Set off at around 9.30 into nice weather.

Cycled the fairly flat 20 miles to John O’Groats where we took loads of photos, and ate ice creams.

After filling in the visitiors book we wrote lots of post cards to people and ate lunch.

There were lots of people starting and finishing cycling and so we talked with quite a few of them.

Bought some items from the gift shop and waited for a while on a bench near the harbour.

Set off at about 4.30 for Duncansby head, took a few photos then headed off-road to see the stacks.

Continued back to the youth hostel where we did some washing and had showers.

After making and eating dinner of golden rice, we played cludo and scrabble.

At 11 we were booted out of the common room by the less than friendly staff at SYHA John O’Groats, then shortly went to bed.

Distance: 27.0 miles [14.0 mph average] (Cumulative: 858 miles)

We set off at around 9.30, with some hot weather neccesating plenty of sun cream.

The terrain was fairly flat as we followed the coast towards Helmsdale. However, once past Helmsdale the hill became severe and there was a steep climb for about 4 miles, a steep decent and then another steep climb.

Once out of the Berrisdale Briars we continued on towards lathreonwheel, where we stopped for lunch.

Jam, crackers and flapjack later we set off again and decided to find a b+b in about 10 miles. 10 miles came and went and we found nothing suitable, and so we continued onto Wick where we found a nice B+B for £20 (down from £25).

There the lady made us feel most welcome, and we had showers, relaxed for a while then went to Summerfield to buy some food. Quiche, crisps and reduced sandwitches fitted the bill, and were ate in a local park.

We went to bed fairly late after playing a long game of monopoly.

Distance: 56.3 miles [14.0 mph average] (Cumulative: 831 miles)

We were up at 8, and had breakfast of porridge again.

We were not sure how far we were going to get after the trouble Tom had with his knee at the 32 mile mark yesterday, so we just packed our bags and set off north.

We had our first stop after 22 miles, and again at about 45 miles for lunch. It seemed that it was the stops that Tom’s knee disliked so we made fewer stops than we might have otherwise had done.

The weather was a bit patchy, with some sun and a few blobs of rain.

After about 50 miles we decided that we should stop, and so looked at the B+B’s in the next town, Golspie and found a nice one.

After showering and watching some TV, we played some games then went to bed.

Distance: 54.8 miles [14.6 mph average] (Cumulative: 775 miles)

Got up around 8.30, and had a slow start to the day.

After eating porridge for breakfast, we set off at about 10.

Met someone coming in the opposite direction on the cycle track along the A9 who stopped and asked for directions.

Followed route 7 for much of the day, which took us on a prettier but much longer and harder route than we had reconed on.

Went to tesco’s in Avimore where Tom got some more heyfever tablets.

Went through Carr-bridge and saw the Landmark waterpark and took some pictures of the bridge.

Continued on the A9 cycle route, which later left the A9 for a small town called Moy where we stopped and had lunch. At this point Tom was in a lot of pain, but the backpackers hostel in Inverness was booked and so we pushed on knowing that Inverness must be nearly at sea level and we were currently about 400 meters above sea level.

Tom took painkillers and continued on to Inverness at a fairly constant pace.

Arrived at Eastgate backpackers at around 4pm after shopping in Morrisions for some food.

Had showers then went shopping for some deodrant and some deep heat for Tom.

Cooked 1.5 kg of potatoes for tea, alongside some reduced chicken and losts of peas. After eating half of it we were both stuffed and so put the rest in bags for lunch tomorrow.

Sat in the lounge in the hostel I read much of the book ‘The best of Beano from the 50’s’ which was quite funny.

After Tom had finished playing cards with some Swiss guys we talked with a couple of American girls for a while who were over here for a friends wedding.

Went to bed after midnight.

Distance: 51.8 miles [13.8 mph average] (Cumulative: 720 miles)

Made a breakfast of porridge after getting up at 7.30, and finished off the jar of jam.

Today was the first day in a while that we did not have to apply suncream. The weather was damp although it wasn’t too bad but we had out coats on most of the morning.

The terrain was very difficult between 7 and 25 miles, and at points we were travelling downhill at 7mph despite peddling hard because of a very strong headwind.

We had lots of stops and ate loads of peanuts up until the 25 mile mark, when it became predominatly fast downhill cycling.

Arrived in Newtonmore at 3pm and stopped off at the local shops for supplies before finding Strathspey mountain hostel and eating our lunch outside.

After having showers we watched some TV, eat 250g of spaghetti each, as well as lots of saussages, carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes etc! Quite filling.

Played a game of ‘take two’ with scrabble letters before heading off to bed at 11pm.

Distance: 45.3 miles [13.3 mph average] (Cumulative: 668 miles)

We had a slow start to the day, got up at 7.40 and had breakfast of Juice, cerial, a fried breakfast and toast.

Set off at around 10am towards perth, where we had a short break in the park there. Continued on to Bankfoot, where we bought a few bits and peices from the local shop.

Shortly afterwards, we passed Waterloo and later arrived in Pitlochry at 1.30 where we ate lunch in the town center.

We needed the toilet, so followed the directions and ended up at a building charging 30p a go. I needed to get changed because my cycling shorts were starting to hurt, so had to pay what must be the most I have ever paid to use the toilet.

Found a Co-op, and bought some items for dinner before finding the youth hostel at 2.30pm and updating our diaries.

We then put our bikes away in the nick of time, before it starting puring with rain.

Had showers, then made some rice, tomato and tuna mix up for dinner.

Just as we had finished eating, 30 american kids filled into the dining room about to eat their evening meal. we just about escaped the noise.

A long game of monopoly that I really should have won, but didn’t, occupied most of the evening before heading to bed.

Our dorm slept 4 men – and one of those men must have been the world champion snorer, and both me and Tom found it impossible to sleep due to the noise!
Distance: 42.6 miles [15.0 mph average] (Cumulative: 623 miles)

After getting up at 8ish we had breakfast then looked on the maps and internet to formulate a plan for the next few days. We decided that we could do 40ish mile days and still make the train home that we had booked.

Janet and Peter later came home from church and made some dinner, whilst we watched the tennis.

After dinner we sat around for a while and eventually set off at 4pm heading for Kinross.

Coming out of Edinburgh we crossed the Forth road bridge – which was massive! We then continued on to Kinross where we saw T in the park – a music festival organised by the BBC. We started looking for accomodation, but because of the festival we had to continue further to Glenfarg, where Tom decided his knee had had enough.

After cycling round for a while looking for a local to ask, we found one who gave us directions to another house. After following the directions, we knocked on the door and were nearly taken out by a nice little dog with boundless energy. The owner of the dog made a phone call, and gave us more directions to a cottage about half a mile away where there were some spare beds.

After following the directions, we found the cottage and were welcomed by a larger dog and its owner, Sammy.

We had a mars bar for ‘dinner’, a cup of coffee and headed for bed.

Distance: 41.7 miles [11.3 mph average] (Cumulative: 580 miles)

We got up at 7.30, had breakfast of porridge and very strong coffee and set off at 9.15.

We made good progress for the first couple of stops, but then the ’scattered showers’ that had been forecast started so we took shelter in a bus stop. There we ate lunch and played cards, waiting for the rain to pass over. When it did we continued onto Edinburgh.

Tom’s knee was giving him a bit of trouble, especially when we set off after a rest but once he was going it wasn’t too bad, and so we managed to make it to Edinburgh for 2pm. There we locked the bikes up and put our stuff under the table of some friendly people and headed for the local cinema to see Pirates of the Carribean. Not a bad film but certainly not as good as the first.

Later we went back to Janet and Peter’s house, and had some very nice tea and watched some TV. After having showers and talking for a while, we went to bed at 11.30.

Distance: 45.8 miles [13.6 mph average] (Cumulative: 538 miles)