And Finally………

I would like to thank the many people, without whose help the ride would not have been possible.

Jobes Cycles in Hull who provided such fantastic advice and service as well as providing spares for the ride.

Swift Caravans for the loan of the motor home. It became our home for three weeks and was a great asset to us throughout the whole trip.

Haven Holidays for helping us raise £1,000 on their sites as well as providing us with free overnight accommodation. Also a big thank you to Blair, Nick, Andy and Andy, and especially Linda who rode with me on various legs of the route.

To Keith  Naylor from the Royal British Legion, Tony Taylor from the Waterrow Caravan Park and my son in law Paul, many thanks for riding with me on various legs. Your company (and donations) were much appreciated.

To the Trustees and the staff of the Sailors' Families' Society who backed me 100% throughout the project.

To the many people en route, too numerous to mention, who contributed towards the appeal. It really was most heartening to get not only contributions but encouragement as well.

To all the friends, family, acquaintances, colleagues, who said I was mad but still put their hands in their pockets.

But most of all to Ian and Christine, my back up crew, who not only provided everything I needed but also kept my spirits up when things got tough. They were fantastic and it would have been so difficult without them.

Hints and Tips.

If anyone reading this is contemplating doing LEJOG then go for it. I certainly had a lot of misgivings before setting out especially if I was up to the physical challenge but I did a lot of reading before I set off.

I joined the Cycling Touring Club and found the forums very helpful. There are some regular contributors with a lot of knowledge and wisdom, not only about the route but how to go about the planning, training etcetera. All very helpful.

I did a fair amount of training but nothing too extreme. The furthest I had gone was 83 miles before I set off and only managed one weekend when I did 180 miles over three days. But at least this showed I could do it.

The AA Close Up Britain Road Atlas, at one inch to a mile and a half, was very good. It also had many of the NCN routes on it and although I did slavishly follow them, I used them, even for some off road parts, and with one exception my Dalesman managed well. I found the NCN route avoiding the A9 from Dunkeld northwards particularly good and why anyone would cycle on the A9 itself is beyond me.

Do find a good cycle shop. The help I received from Jobes in Hull was second to none, not only with the cycle but advice as well.

I did eat well during the day and found Fuesli bars and bananas excellent for snacking and keeping the energy levels up. Christine’s cooking did the rest!

The motor home was ideal in every way and saved us a fortune in B&B’s as well as rescuing me when my chain broke.

If I were to do it again then I would wish to take a more leisurely trip and see more. Averaging 70 miles a day does not leave you much time for anything else other than riding and now that I have done it I would like to see more of the country rather than just churn out the miles.

I would also take a different route. Not many people do LEJOG via the East Coast and I would certainly like to do the West Coast of Scotland.

My LEJOG was part of the Sailors' Families' Society’s appeal to buy three new static caravans so we can provide more holidays to the disadvantaged children of seafarers that we support. I am pleased to say that we have now reached our £100,000 target, partly thanks grants we have received from the Royal British Legion and the Merchant Navy Welfare Board but also to the many people who have made donations during the ride.\

Thank you


LEJOG ANALYSIS