We got up at 7.30, and had breakfast at around 8 of friut, cerial, a fry up, toast and coissants – all quite amazing really!

Set off at 9.15 and headed for Hawick. The weather was nice and terrain not too tough so we arrived in Hawick for lunch, where we found a Greggs, bought some bread and ate bread and jam in a park.

We stayed around Hawick for a while, allowing Tom to rest his knee, and knowing that we had plenty of time before the youth hostel opened. As an experiment, tom put his pedal tops on his spd’s and tried cycling for the rest of the day in his normal shoes.

We got to Broadmeadows youth hostel at just past 4 after pushing our bikes half a mile up a forest footpath. Youth hostels always are on the top of hills!

The volunteer warden, Iain was very friendly and let us in to have showers etc. There was noone else booked into the youth hostel, although later on a woman did turn up bringing the total to 3.
For tea we had pasta + sauce, and although it didn’t taste of much there was plenty of it!

We decided to continue the pedal experiment tomorrow and so swapped our entire pedals around – so now I was using the spd’s and Tom was using the toe clips.

We were fairly tired and so headed off to bed at 9.30.

Distance: 49.9 miles [12.7 mph average] (Cumulative: 492 miles)

Tom had got the train to my house in Denton last night, and so me and Tom could continue together. The last part of the trip (Edinburgh to John O’Groats) was going to be the hardest to finish off at a later date, and so we decided to skip a bit in the middle for now, and come back to it later. Manchester to Penrith is a 2 day cycle ride which we hope to complete later in the summer.

We got up fairly early, and got the train from Manchester Picadilly to Penrith, in the North Lakes.
On the train we found a newspaper that somone had left, so we started the tricky soduku – and it was tricky. We made a few mistakes and had to backtrack. The 30 minute wait on the station at Preston helped us to have enough time to complete it.

We arrived in Penrith at 12.40, and looked at the ruins of Penrith Castle, and took some pictures before setting off.

After about 9 miles we stopped outside a farm at the side of the road and had some lunch. We then continued another 9 miles and got mixed up in the one way system at Carlisle, but it did enable us to find the last bank machine that issued English money.

Then we continued onto Gretna Green and Sprinfield and started looking for a b&b. Because Tom felt fine continuing and we didn’t spot any cheap b&b’s we carried on along the A7 and stopped off at Canonbie. After asking at a few b&b’s and a friendly local, we found a place selling hot food and a b&b for £20 each.

At the b&b they made us feel very welcome, giving us shortbread and coffee on arrival and showing us the house. After revisting the place selling hot food we ate fish and chips and headed back to the b&b. There we played ludo for a long while and watched some TV before heading off to bed fairly late.

Distance: 47.7 miles [12.8 mph average] (Cumulative: 442 miles)

From Ilam Hall we got up at 7 and set off at 9. There was a very large hill at the beginning of the day, but once we got onto the Tissington Trail we managed a decent speed.

The surface of the Tissington Trail varies a lot, from loose fine gravel to farily solid mud, and you notice that the surface affects your speed and the noise when you are cycling along the flat.

Me and Hazel had cycled along the Tissington trail a few years ago, and had managed to go the wrong way down it for a few miles before we realised. We made sure we couldn’t make that mistake again by starting at the beginning of the trail.

Once we had come to the end of the trail, we continued on route 68 round Buxton, and then stopped for a while to eat lunch. We continued downhill for about 5 miles on the A5004 which was nice – speeds of greater than 30mph for no current effort! It came to an abrupt end aproaching Whaley Bridge when the valve ripped off my front inner tube, causing me to lose steering and front brake and me to leave the bike for the road.

Unharmed and undetered, I replaced the inner tube with a spare and continued into Whaley Bridge where we picked up the canal to Marple, then onto Hyde.

For a day that we thought was going to be short but hilly, it was surprisingly flat because of the route we chose. This meant that we got back before 4, so I could have a shower and go round to my brothers house to watch to football and celebrate his 4th wedding anniversary.

Distance: 50.4 miles (Cumulative: 394 miles)

We got up at 7, knowing we had to be at Birmingham New Street at 10 to meet Caroline.

If you haven’t read the earlier posts, you will not know that by this stage Tom had problems with his knee, and so was having a few rest days in Birmingham.

From Wins’ parents house we cycled to Bournville train station, where we picked up the canal and cycled into the center of Birminham. We met Caroline at Birmingham New Street train station, and continued on the canal towards spahetti junction.

When the towpath got too off-road for my road tyres, we left the canal and headed in slightly the wrong direction along some roads, until we met a small town and were able to find out where we really were. The 4 miles to an inch atlas that we were using to navigate was not really meant for navigating round canals, and so they were not well marked on.

We had lunch near the entrance to Sutton Park, then continued on small B roads towards Rugeley. From there we headed for Uttoxeter, and then found small roads leading to Ilam hall.

Caroline left us near Mayfield because she lives on the other side of Ashbourne to where we were staying, and me and Hazel continued to Ilam Hall youth hostel.

Ilam is situated down a very large hill, and so it was easy cyling down towards it, but the thought of getting out the next morning was not a nice one.

Once at the hostel, we made a pasta & tuna bake type thing, and then had a look round the hostel and chapel nearby.

Distance: 65.6 miles (Cumulative: 344 miles)

We got up at 7.30 and had breakfast from the last of Will & Heph’s breakfast cerial, bread etc. Tom’s knee was feeling much better, and so we set off around 9.30.

The weather was very warm so we made sure we put plenty of sun cream on.

When we arrived in a Glouster, Tom bought a knee bandage, but a few miles later he found it made matters worse and removed, it.

We continued onto Tewkesbury, at which point Tom was in too much pain to continue, despite taking painkillers. He got the train to Birmingham to meet some friends who we were staying with for the night, and I cycled the remaining 40 miles alone.

i stopped at Evesham for lunch, then continued very fast up the duel carrigeway upto Kings Heath in south Birmingham.

Despite my lack of a sense of direction, I found Wins’ parents house without any problems, and once there Wins and Hazel made me some food.

After eating, we played the Great British Train Game or something, which somehow I managed to win.

It was decided that Tom would stay in Birmingham for a few days to let his knee rest, and get medical attention if neccessary. Meanwhile, I would continue to my parents house in Manchester with a couple of other friends, Hazel and Caroline.

Distance: 63 miles (Cumulative: 278 miles)

Thanks to Hazel and Wins who cooked us food, and to Wins’ parents who let us stay for the night.

We got up as usual, and had porridge for breakfast. This time we decided to be civilised and so ate it ouf bowls rather than straight out of the pan.

We set off at 9.30, and cycled to Wells – Britain’s smallest city apparently. I should have got a photo of the cathedral, but we didn’t go past it, so here is a picture that someone else took.

From there we cycled on to Bath, where we found a park and had lunch. We had a go on the swings and zip wire, and there are plenty of picures in the photo gallery.

After playing, we set off out of bath towards the Stroud on the A46.

Towards the end of the day Tom was complaining about his left knee hurting, so we had more stops than planned, and took it slowly, knowing we had plenty of time.

We arrived at our friends house at 5.30 where we were staying for the night, and Tom spent a while with an ice pack on his knee. After tea of spag bol we had showers and were also able to check our emails on the very slow dial up connection for the first time since we had set off. Thanks to all those who have sent me emails offering their support.

We looked at the route for the next few days, but between Manchester and Edinburgh the youth hostels are not well placed for 60 miles days.

Distance: 65.5 miles [14.6 mph average] (Cumulative: 215 miles)

Thanks to Heph and Will, who let us stay for the night, fed us, and did our washing for us.

We set off from Exeter with a clean set of clothes, a good fried up breakfast inside us and fairly decent weather. We stopped for lunch just outside Ilminster, where we had a fairly long rest sat on a bench.

The afternoon of cycling was fairly easy, with some downhills included in the package.

We arrived at Street Youth Hostel at 4.30, so sat outside playing with soggy cards on a bench until the hostel opened at 5. Then we made some decent food comprising of pasta and sauce, and met some cyclists who are also cycling e2e4e that we had also met in Golant youth hostel a few days earlier.

From the youth hostel, there was supposed to be a blue butterfly walk, where you follow blue posts on a 5 minute walk around the surrounding countryside to see some rare blue butterflies. We followed lots of blue posts, and found a walk much longer than 5 minues that seem to go anywhere, and we didn’t see any blue butterflies. We did however get our ‘indoor’ shoes dirty.

Later in the evening we played cards, and ate some cerial that someone had left before heading off to bed fairly early.

Distance: 81 miles [12.8 mph average] (Cumulative: 149 miles)

This was the biggest and probably the hardest day, going via Liskeard, Tavistock and Okehampton.
We set off at 9am from Golant Youth Hostel after getting up at 7 and eating a breakfast of porridge oats out of a large pan.

When we set off, it was raining lightly but we soon got very wet because the rain had got harder. We found that the uphills were not too bad because at least you were kept warm, but the downhills were very chilly because of the wind, rain and thin layer of wet clothes that clung to our bodies.

After about 40 miles we had crackers and jam for lunch in Tavistock in a bus shelter. There were a number of old folk in the shelter who were quite chatty and offered advice in terms of route to Exeter. The bus station also came complete with a much needed toilet and ‘hand’ dryer – very userful for making the feeling return to limbs.

Out of Tavistock, we had a decision to make – either 35 miles over a foggy wet Dartmoor or 40 miles along A roads and duel carridgeway. We chose the latter because it involved less climbing, and visability should be better.

The A road was up and down all the way and the traffic very fast, but the gradients were not too steep so we could keep up a decent speed.

The rain subsided after lunch, and visability improved, although it was still very wet. I managed to get a few photos of the scenery, looking towards dartmoor.

We arrived in Exeter at about 6pm, and went to Sainsburys to buy some food. After stocking up with sausages, bacon, pitta bread and Jam we headed for our accomodation – Globe Backpackers, Exeter.

The People in Globe Backpackers were very friendly, but the rooms were not spacious. We had massive portions of pasta, tomato sauce, sausages and bacon for dinner, and then headed off for bed.

Distance: 59 miles [13.2 mph average] (Cumulative: 68 miles)

We got up at 7.30, and ate ‘unlimited’ breakfast cerial and toast at Penzance Youth Hostel. After getting ready, we set off at 9.30 and had a couple of snack breaks before lunch at Tesco’s. The terrain is much hillier than I expected – I thought that Cornwall was on the coast, the coast being at sea level, the sea being flat an’ all, therefore Cornwall should be flat?

After lunch we continued towards Golant, stopping off at a Social club in Tywardeath to watch the England vs Equador (1:0) match – not a bad game. England having a few good 5 minutes, and their boring patches too.

Finding Golant youth hostel was harder than we expected because the instuructions that we had must have been copied down wrong, and so a 0.7 mile distance should have read 1.7 miles. We took the ’scenic’ route and arrived there a bit tired. We attempted to make some food, but a portion that said on the packet ‘Serves 2′ should have really said ‘Serves 1/2′ so after eating what can only be described as an appitiser, we went into the hostel restraunt and ate a proper cornish pasty. The chef got my order wrong, so after eating half the slighly wrong meal, he gave me another plate of what would have been correct – so I got 2 plates of food. Now I am not one to complain about free food.

We were pretty tired, so after washing our clothes and finalising the route for tomorrow we headed to bed.

Distance: 9.0 miles [20 mph average] (Cumulative: 9 miles) 

After eventually packing all my stuff in a couple of panniers, I cycled the 7 miles to Manchester Picadilly. Caught the 11.54 train to Birmingham New Street, where I was meant to mean Tom – but due to a navigational error on his part he missed his train. I got the train to Penzance anyway – a pretty boring 5 hour train journey. I really should have taken a book to read.

Once there, I cycled to Penzance youth hostel and then back to the station to wait for Tom. Whilst waiting I took a few pictures, which you can see in my gallery.

When Tom arrived at about 8.30 we cycled the 10 miles to Lands End, and there took a number of pictures, signed the vistitors handbook and then headed back to the youth hostel in the dark, rushing somewhat because we had to cycle 9 miles in 10 minutes as the hostel closed earlier than we had expected.

We did arrive before the youth hostel closed, and left our bikes in the damp bike cellar.