How – start and finish

It’s details like this that matter!

It’s no good planning to hike 1,500 miles if you have no way of getting to the start – and even more important, back home again at the end!

I considered all possible ways of getting to the start and back again at the end.   For my 2005 bike ride, I’d taken the train down to Penzance and then flown back from Wick at the end.   I was quite happy to do that again this time, but firstly, the family wanted to see me off and then to meet me again at the end.   And second, projecting in advance exactly when I would finish – and therefore have a chance of getting reasonably price tickets – was impossible.

Flying back from Wick after my 2005 bike ride. Convenient but expensive and I don’t think BA operate that route any more

The other feature of “LEJOG” is that, by definition, the ends are a long way from where anyone lives.   The closer you are to the one, the further you are from the other.   So however you do it, it’s expensive and takes a long time.   I met a cyclist in Altnaharra who was doing the north to south route and he’d come up from London by train.   It had taken him the best part of 24 hours of continuous travelling, and he admitted he was exhausted before he even set off!

So in the end, my wife drove me to the start at Lizard.   We stayed the Sunday night in a B&B at Lizard, then on the Monday morning, 24 March 2014, I set off.   You can read about the journey to the start by clicking here.

And for the return journey, we just reversed the process – my wife drove up, over three days, to Dunnet Head and picked up the pieces when I finally made it over the finishing line 79 days later, on Tuesday 10 June 2014.   We stayed that night at a very nice hotel in Halkirk before starting the long drive home, over two days, the next morning.

Read other notes by clicking the link below the line
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