Route Planning

I've been busy planning my route with a little help from other JOGLE (or LEJOG) blogs and a book called "Land's End to John O'Groats" by Phil Horsley. I also bought an atlas from Woolies for 99p (bargain!) which I've cut up and starting tracing my route onto which I can then take with me. So far I've planned my route for the first 2 days from Wick to John O'Groats, Thurso, Helmsdale and then on to Golspie. I've also started plotting the route via Mapmyride (links on the right) to check the distance and elevation for each day and help me plan my stopping points.

More Geographing

Yesterday I went on a 40 mile figure of eight loop starting at Hatton of Fintry and managed to bag another 40 Geographs on the way. That nearly doubles my total in a single day. The cycling was quite easy with only a few hills and a little head wind. However ,one thing I'll have to watch for on the JOGLE is lunch. Yesterday I pushed myself more than half way before having lunch and then wolfed down a bunch of carbs. All this did was make me tired and it took a long time to get back into cycling again. So the lesson learned is to eat slow burning carbs and stop more regularly for food.

Travel Booked

We'll that's my travel booked. Apparently there are very limited spaces for bicycles on trains, but you can't book a space more than 12 weeks in advance. However today I managed to book myself and my bike on a train to Wick using National Express East Coast Trains. Before I knew about the 12 week booking restriction and wasn't able to book my bike on the train, I was thinking of alternatives. One of which was to catch the ferry from Aberdeen to Kirkwall in Orkney and then catch another ferry from there to Scabster. Surprisingly this was about the same price.

As for the journey home, the cost of a train ticket from Penzance back to Aberdeen was extortionate but I've managed to get a good deal on a one way car hire instead.