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peter_v
Just finished a 9 day unsupported 1600km Lands End to John O'Groats with the girlfriend.
I liked the compactness of the official Deloitte Ride Accross Britain but was put off by the huge cost (£1600 - £1.00 for every km), the fact they camp every night, and don't really like mass organised events.
So, I found the GPX files for the 2012 RAB online and booked a series of £20.00 travelodge rooms, YHA's and B&B's, booked trains (£39.00 sleeper tickets = bargain), filled the Carradice and began to win at life.
My thoughts on the ride were as follows:
What an amazing and hilly island we live on. The route pretty much follows B roads and the route master also organises lots of sportives so no main roads but pretty much seeks out every hill in the land (15,000.00 metres in total for the trip)
With the exception of the first day where it rained nonstop, we largely had the weather gods on our side with a tail wind on 8 of the 9 days (but a savage 30kph headwind on Day 6).
The first 2 days in Devon and Cornwall were certainly the hardest with some steep climbs of up to 20% (Anyone know Cothelstone?!?)
The climbs on Scotland went to greater elevation but were generally much more gentle in getting there.
Seen just about every type of animal as roadkill (realised that I've still never seen a live badger but plenty of dead ones)
Crossing the Severn Bridge, crossing the Manchester Shipping Canal Toll Bridge, Cheddar Gorge, Shap Fell, Cumbria, and coming up through the Scottish Highlans are also hugely memorable.
Riding was all fairly easy in the scheme of things but it's quite relentless having to chop 100+ miles every day back to back with luggage for 9 days. Day 3 & 4 were mentally the toughest.
Route was as follows with embedded strava files. The ride with GPS files can be found on my profile here:
Day 1 - Lands End to Okehampton
Day 2 - Okeampton to Bath
Day 3 - Bath to Ludlow
Day 4 - Ludlow to St Helens
Day 5 - St Helens to Penrith
Day 6 - Penrith to Bothwell Bridge
Day 7 - Bothwell Bridge to Fort William
Day 8 - Fort William to Bonar Bridge
Day 9 - Bonar Bridge to John O' Groats
Get out there and go on an adventure before you're too old to do so. What a fucking magical trip. Major bummer to be back in London.