The end is now.....

From the notebook of Matt "the purpose of a true journey is not the destination but the journey itself. On arrival you have changed, not just geographically but psychologically, physically, and spiritually" Matt had not been to JOG when he wrote this, but he is on the nail about it not being about destination because it is not the type of place that warrants a 920 mile cycle ride.
So as you have probably guessed, we made it to JOG this afternoon, after completing the final 80 miles from Dornoch. The roads and the views were spectacular, the weather was perfect, the sun shone all day, and the temperature was not too hot.

We need to say a big thank you to the following people

Rob, Claire and Dan for supporting us over the past 12 days

Our arrival comittee at JOG, Maria and Alix

All of you who have supported and sponsored us.

Matt's top cycling tip - when cycling with two middle aged men ensure they carry all their own kit and don't freeload your bag, said bags are also good for middle aged men to freeload lifts up steep hills.

For those of you interested in stats

The journey was 920 miles, took 11 days and 2.5 hours, the total time in the saddle was 60 hours and 13 minutes. We burnt 198000 calories
between us, there were 1.5 million pedal revolutions, 3.9 million wheel revolutions, and 1 million heart beats while cycling. We climbed the equivilant of Mount Everest 1.5 time a total of 13,500 metres. We had 11 punctures, one damaged chain and one damaged rear wheel. We drank 70 litres of fluid while cycling and 11 litres of red wine in the evening. Alan used 200 mils of udderlly smooth.

We hope you have enjoyed reading about our journey and please keep checking the site as we will post photos when we get back. The final word is Matt's tribute to A E Houseman

By hill of Clee,
Three cyclists tred,
Their journey northward bound,
On steeled beasts,
While westwinds roll,
O'er dense laid hedge and pollards old,
With gritted teeth and 'halations long,
They pass old Salop thru',

When seven days more have passed,
And journeys done,
The three will stand with drink in hand,
And think of miles gone by,
Then surely against all those memories golden,
The fondest will be,
The passing of old hill of Clee



Peace
Iain, Alan, Matt and Claire

Maria and Alix

To Inverness and beyond.......

So Le Tour nears it's conclusion, we are now camped at Dornoch a tantalising 80 miles from John o Groats. We have decided that we would rather finish it at the end of a long day, so tomorrow we head for the end of end to end.
We left Port Augustus this morning at the now usual 09:00 and spent the morning riding alongside Loch Ness, looking out for Nessie, with little luck. You can see how people could believe they had seen her, as the way the purple haze quality of light reflects off the water makes ripples in the water look like something in the water.
Through Drumnadrochit and up to Inverness, where we met Claire for lunch. We were joined by Maria and Alix who were also passing through Inverness. Matt and I took my defective wheel to a mountain bike shop where the 16 year old assistant told us he had no parts and couldn't fit it in for two weeks. He did however reccomend a shop round the corner, Fitness Bikes, where the guy was more than helpful and said that the stripdown and rebuild that Matt had carried out at the campsite last night had fixed it. Unfortunately for Karen and Claire there was a cyclo cross bike in the shop, a type of bike thay is missing from both Matt and my bike collections (really have to have one you see, because there are those days when a road bike is too focused and a mountain bike too slow etc etc).

So we left Inverness over a spectacular suspension bridge with a howling crosswind and carried on up the A9, across Black Isle, past the Dalmore distillery at Alness and the Glenmorangie distillery at Tain (for those of you who know me, you will know what an effort of will it took to pass without stopping). We arrived in Dornoch at 16:00.

Matt's top cycling tip - if the bike mechanic looks like he has recently inhaled from the type of cigarette that Bill Clinton definately didn't inhale from, don't let him touch your bike.

Something we didn't mention yesterday, we passed Loch Lochy, if that is translated into English does that make it Lake Lakey (we can testify it did have a very lakey feel to it). In the same Le Tour feel Loch Ness is now Lac Nees (needs to be pronounced in a very Monty Python French accent)

As this tour comes to an end, please post your suggestions for next years cycling challenge

Peace

Iain, Alan, Matt and Claire