Lands End to John O’Groats

April 10^th – 27^th 2000
By Gareth Burton and Max Wallace in aid of the Sam Gawler Trust

All smiles, raring to go, proudly towing our little red and yellow bike shopping trailer, we set off from Lands End.   It was lunchtime, the sun was shining, and with the knowledge of the Lands End to John O’Groats record having recently been broken (i.e. some bloke had cycled the full 1000 miles distance in one and a half days) things were looking good.  However as we noticed the hours beginning to fly but the miles not, we had to accept that the venture was to be a little more than a ride in the park.  On arriving at Newquay five hours after we had anticipated, there were no signs of any campsites, but we did manage to find accommodation in one of the many buzzing surfside hostels. Once shown to our rooms we had time to reflect on the past day and maybe question if the trip was achievable as first thought.

Four weeks prior to embarking on the most gruelling and agonising few weeks of our lives to date it had just been small talk over a couple of pints. “Lands End to John O’Groats – The Great British Bicycle Challenge” – what an idea.  Three weeks cycling through (or rather up) the beautiful British countryside.  What a great way to spend our Easter holidays.  “How about a tandem?” “Yeah – it’ll be a right laugh.  Shouldn’t be too difficult.”  If we had ever known!

The following day we awoke to rain, but spirits were high again and we were ready for the day ahead.  All went well up to about midday where we had to tackle our first bike problem which cut the day short.   With hope of finding a bike shop the next day we set up camp, only to find the tent was missing pegs.  But with the help of a nearby wall we managed to get to bed with the thought that we had seen the last of the problems for a few days.  The next day we got the bike repaired and purchased some pegs.  This led to a couple of good days cycling.  The next days saw us make some excellent distance working up through the country, crossing in and out of the Welsh border, swiftly through Manchester, through the Lake District and eventually to Carlisle, the border of England and Scotland.  On arriving in Scotland we really felt that the trip was going to be a success, and felt that we were beginning the home straight, even though the mathematics clearly showed that we were only just past half way.  But this feeling of a light at the end of the tunnel seemed to really help and the distance marks on the map just seemed to get further apart.   The days to follow proved to me the most enjoyable and productive of the trip, spending the days talking and laughing with the miles flying by, we were blessed with good health, great weather and next to no problems with the bike. The next big milestone of the trip was arriving at Fort Augustus, the small town at the base of Loch Ness.  We were now in the “High Lands”  and John O’Groats was signposted from here onwards.  Our camp was situated within viewing distance of the great Loch, which with the rain closing in for the night was as eerie as its legendary reputation.  The next day was spent following the path of Loch Ness all the way to Inverness.  This is where the bike broke once again.  This time it was the back wheel which led to having to buy a new one – an expense we could have done without.  We were disheartened but relieved it had happened so close to Inverness.  We pushed on to the campsite for the night.

The following day, the penultimate of the trip, we awoke early with the intention of reaching Wick, a town just twenty miles south of John O’Groats.  This would make the final day a lot shorter than we had experienced over the past week, with some days clocking up as much as eighty miles.  This day was going to show both Max and I how very hostile Scotland can actually be, with torrential rain and gale force winds.  We had no choice but to follow the coastal road all the way to Wick.  There were points where we were going down near vertical hills and coming to a standstill due to the strength of the weather coming directly off the North Sea.  Much to our disbelief, thinking things could not get much worse due to the crawling pace were going at, the back tyre split making the bike unrideable.  We were stranded at the roadside, still miles from Wick, with the evening drawing quickly in.  We phoned the local bike shop to ask what time they closed, and were told it would be in the next half-hour.  Our only chance was to hitch a lift, but being two lads, an eight-foot tandem and a four-wheel trailer we knew that we were quite limited on what could pick us up.  But then from over the hills, with a halo over its bonnet, came an angel in the form of a gentleman in a black pick-up truck who stopped and obliged by driving us to Wick.  Just for the record this gentleman was from Salisbury and had only just moved to Scotland a month before!  We were delivered to Wick within the half hour and the bike was fixed once again.

Final day, and we were taking no risks and were up and away for 5:30 to make sure we kept to our timetable.  There was low cloud coverage, but the wind and rain had died completely.  We rolled into John O’Groats at nine in the morning on Thursday, April 27^th. 2000 – over the moon with happiness and relief that the End-to-End Challenge was bagged!

We raised £680 for Sam through the bike ride.  And what kept us going throughout our journey was the knowledge that every pound raised was going to help Sam on his journey to recover.

Gareth Burton