As most of you already know we undertook the iconic cycle ride JOGLE (John O’Groats to Lands End) in June 2015 but this relates to the view from the van. Due to the fact that I broke two bones in my foot a few weeks before hand, it meant that I wouldn’t be able to cycle after all – a huge disappointment as it had been planned for over a year beforehand! As Nicholl would be driving a crew van, it meant that I would still be able to go but in the van instead and annoy her (or keep her company, depending on your point of view!). Not exactly what I had hoped for but I could still join in, at least to a degree. Before we left, I had thought that this would mean that I would have lots of time on my hands with not much to do – how wrong that thought turned out to be!

Before we all left home there had been lots of planning done for the cycle route, places to stop off mid morning, for lunch and then mid afternoon as well, if required. All the accommodation was booked and we knew when we would be able to self cater and for the evenings when we could not, then some suggested places to eat out. We had also identified food shops where we could purchase supplies on those days when we would be self catering. It had been hoped that it was all planned and nothing was left to chance, at least as best as we could. As it turned out, things were not quite as well planned as we had hoped!

As my foot was still in the aircast, Nicholl was the driver which left me to navigate. My standard position was to sit in the middle of the front row with my left foot up and balanced on the corner between the dashboard and the passenger door – I had been told to keep my foot elevated. As a team we worked really well together (I have missed her since we got back). The other ‘member’ of the crew was Doris – you might spot her in some photographs (our little mascot who normal was sat on the van dashboard).

Northern Scotland was decided barren with not many place to stop for refreshments and lunch. Quite a number of the planned stops were closed when the cyclists got there, so Nicholl and myself found ourselves having to find alternatives. Sometime that meant handing out cake from the  back of the van and other times we had to rustle up some sandwiches at the side of the road. As the trip went on we bought some flasks so that we could provide hot drinks (filling them with hot water before we left our accommodation in the morning). Our routine would generally involve meeting the team at the morning break to ensure that they got a drink and a snack, then driving on and meeting them for lunch and on most days we would then drive on again and meet them for the afternoon break.

One of the the things that we had to do was the food shopping, buying the necessary supplies for snacks/meals from the van and also the necessary ingredients if we were cooking for ourselves. We also did the cooking on those days when we were self catering.

Another task was the laundry. When we stayed at a Youth Hostel, they generally had facilities to wash/dry things so this wasn’t too bad. However when we reached England, we stayed at quite a number of Travelodges. This meant that we had to make a trip to a local launderette. Some days we had damp washing handing up from a line inside the van to get it dry.

When Andy developed bad toothache, we had to step in and search for dentists along the route and then ring around for one that could fit him in that day – thank goodness for Google and it was on a day when we did have phone service! Having found a dentist that agreed to squeeze him in, we had to arrange to meet up with the cyclist, pick up both the Andy’s and take them to the dentist. After seeing the dentist, we then had to take them back to the same place we had picked them up and drop them off again so that they could finish that day’s cycling. The whole team were involved that day in making sure that they got to the rendezvous point at the right time – they had to cycle very fast to get there! The other Andy had stayed with Andy so that he could cycle with him so he wasn’t left by himself.

Most days we arrived at the accommodation first and so had to book everyone in. We then normally unloaded the van and sorted out the baggage. This involved multiple trips, loaded up, between the van and where we were staying that night. There was luggage for 6 people to move!

We did manage to see a few places. On the first day, we visited Sandside Bay.

 

We also briefly visited visited the Singleton Distillery of Glen Ord. Neither of us like whiskey but Nicholl wanted to get some for Neil. The whiskey from Singleton is only available to buy in the UK at the distillery as they export it all to Asia. Apparently it was very nice!

Another place that we visited was Dunkeld Cathedral, which was lovely. The Church is still in use and the adjoining Cathederal is currently being renovated by Historic Scotland.

We had a bit of a look around Hereford before the cyclist arrived. We bumped into a couple of dear friends there (Clare and Andy) quite unexpectedly.

That same day we also visited Tintern Abbey.

One day we drove past something called Burrow Mump and we had to stop to have a look. It could be seen for miles as it was at the top of a hill. I wanted to get a picture of it, so started climbing up the hill to get a view of it but I was almost at the top before I could to see it. Unfortunately I put my foot down slightly wrongly and it was very painful (it was not long after I had taken my cast off and it set me back a few day unfortunately). Theviews from the top of the hill were very impressive!

In Perranporth we visited an ice cream parlour which made their ice cream on the premises – just had to be tired and very nice it was too!

We did get to see some amazing scenery along the way, covering a wide variety of types of roads – some motorway, some main roads and some very quiet lanes. Doris was very attentive to our routes, checking that we went the right way!

We had rather a long wait at Land’s End waiting for the team to arrive – that were much later than we had initially though due to the number of hills that they had to climb that day. We spent over at hour staring at the approach road waiting for them, then they surprised us by arriving from a different direction! It was a hot sunny afternoon and we spent quite some time there after they arrived – quite a number of people turned up for their arrival and it was greatly appreciated by us all. It made the finish special, so a big thanks that them all!

It was a great trip despite a number of hiccups along the way but they just make for good memories to look back on.  huge thank you to Nicholl for letting me tag along and annoy her (or help her, depending on your view point)! I think we all enjoyed the trip and were sad to go home and back to work.