Cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats

By Susie Danby

Four years ago was when I first heard about the ultimate challenge for cyclists, that is ‘Land’s End to John O’Groats' or otherwise fondly known as ‘LEJOG’. The challenge intrigued me and the thought of exploring the length of the country on a bike sounded fun!

Long gone were the days of excessive student holidays and the opportunity to take two full weeks off work eluded me until this summer. Jumping at the chance and dragging Mark along with me, we started the manic two months preparation, which involved planning the route, booking the accommodation and trains, preparing the bikes and kit and squeezing in a few training sessions. Prior to this event, we had never cycled further than 52 miles in one day and therefore the thought of cycling an average of 75 miles a day over 13.5 days, fully loaded with all our kit, was a daunting task!

The trip itself started on the 31st of August as we travelled by train via London to Penzance. The weather throughout the journey stayed dry until the minute we got off the train and started our cycle, when the rain began to pour and the wind gusted around us. A short cycle ride to Land’s End, a few photo’s and then looping back to Penzance saw us arrive looking like drowned rats, slightly apprehensive that this was how the weather was going to continue throughout…


The next day was a leisurely 55 miles to Golant and hence a visit to the beach (it was sunny!) and a swim (compulsory!) in the sea was in order. From then it was 80 miles to Exeter, across Dartmoor. This was easily our toughest day with relentless steep, long hills in an effort to climb onto the moor. Exhausted and hungry, we tucked into an ‘all you can eat’ Sunday roast in Princetown before making our way off the moor to Exeter.


From then on the ride got easier and as we headed northwards, with a southerly wind and flatter ground, we found ourselves chomping through the miles as we headed from Chedder to Hereford (skirting Wales), to Chester and then onto Slaidburn. This was a lovely place, especially after having just cycled through the very unpleasant industrial towns of Runcorn, Leyland and Preston. Slaidburn consisted of very hilly, quiet countryside and combined with a gorgeous sunny, warm evening was quite delightful.


As we pushed further north we went through Carlisle and then Gretna Green (no we didn’t get married!!) into Scotland!


Via New Lanark and Stirling we made our way onto Glencoe, which again combined with a gorgeous evening, was stunning. Having climbed up some steep winding roads, we then glided down through the Great Glen with mountains towering either side...heaven! Our journey then took us along Loch Ness and up via the Dornoch Firth to the remote Betty Hill on the top coast of Scotland. Beautiful beaches and stunning coast line saw us cycle along the coast through Thurso and onto the final stop...John O’Groats!


We arrived at our destination to the warm welcome of my parents and a bottle of bubbly...tired but extremely pleased, we had achieved our mighty challenge...


The stats saw us cycle a total of 980 miles in 13.5 days, burn over 50,000 cal and ascended 46,565feet (over 1.5 times the height of Everest!).

We were also keen to raise money for charity at the same time and therefore opted for our employers chosen charity of the year, which was ‘Sue Ryder Care’. As well as being an extremely worthwhile cause, they have a facility in Peterborough and all money’s raised by ourselves would be matched by our company. We raised a total of £2075 (doubled by our employer to £4150) for charity.