Finito!

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Waking this morning we are greeted by our (soon to be not listened to when it comes to advice) host. During breakfast he advises us to go a different way out of town so as to avoid the hill which he says is rather steep. Following his advice we turn up a private road through some chalets which right away looks like a bad idea as the hills are vertical. Granted they are no longer than 30metres long each but they are vertical and Steve has to push the bike up and I have to stop after every one as my heart feels like it is going to burst out my chest. 15 minutes later we arrive at a dead end, and so we have to go back to the start and just go the way we would have done had it not been for the expert advice.

There were a couple of occasions people offered there local knowledge and on every occasion it led to worse things so if you are ever in the same situation - just follow your own instincts, these people have probably never been on a bike through their 'short cuts'.

SO, we go our original way which is no bother at all and keep on pushing towards Helmsdale. We past our first John O Groats sign which says 104 miles to go! This seems easy now!!

Have lunch in Tarin and book our train tickets home from Inverness (130 pounds each!!!!!) and then get on the road again, arriving in Helmsdale at about 6.30pm.

Once we have asked for our brekkie to be served at 7am we head on over to the local restaurant La Mirage which is a famous local, has been on tele and everything! The fish and chips are to die for I have to say, although the decor is slightly bizzare - lots of pink and white drapes, a wall colour that I can only describe as yogurt color, and a 10foot picture of the now deceased owner alongside David Seaman of all people!

Early to bed



And early to rise for our last day!!!!!!

After breakfast we see the reason for Steve struggling uncharacteristically (yeah right) at the end of the day yesterday. His brake was on half the time as the rear wheel was buckled. On closer inspection we see that one of the spokes has torn through the wheel and there is no way to fix it - he needs a new wheel. We decide to loosen the brake off, hope that the wheel holds and that there are no long downhills!

We make great progress, mostly due to panic pedaling - thinking that we wont get there in time to get our expensive train. As it happens we get to Wick at 11.20, have a coffee and bit o grub, and then set off to complete the last 16miles. Again the miles just fall off and we arrive in John O Groats at 1:24pm, 909miles and 76hours of pedaling time since leaving Lands End!!!! Relief is not the word to describe it. We are like mini celebrities amongst the normal crowds who have arrived by coach and car, people take pics, throw their money at us, and we are swamped by 20year old females.....ok....maybe not the last bit.

We don't have much time though so we have to pedal back up the hill to a hotel, change, drink a terrible cup of coffee and jump in our taxi to Thurso where we almost don't get on a train which only takes two bikes but thankfully no-one else decided that today was the day to cycle.

The train ride is sweet as. Moving along through the country without putting in any effort whatsoever is a delight and we make it to Inverness to our connecting sleeper train to London at 8:40pm. The bikes are on, we are in our cabin, and we head to the lounge cart as the train pulls out. A bottle of champagne and red wine later we are celebrating our achievement with the rest of the carriage and it almost feels unreal.

We wake and arrive in London. Steve is stopped by the dining cart attendant as he tries to escape without paying the bill, and tries to make it look like he had forgotten......a likely story! The bikes have disappeared and we are a little bit worried until we find that the train has doubled in size and we have just looked in the wrong guards van.

Walking out of Euston we are back in London. It is busy, people are rushing around everywhere, but Steve and I are glad to be home. It has been a truly awesome experience, one that we shall have with us forever. Our sense of the country and what it has to offer has been illuminated. There were tough times but we got through them, we met some great and bizarre people, but all of them enriched our experience.

We ponder what we have done and how we must now get back to normality again before a hug and goodbye and thanks, and then for the first time since we started Steve goes past me and into the distance whilst I look down and see a huge piece of glass in my now flat tyre, having not had a single puncture between us on the whole trip. Welcome home.

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Comments

[daniel]

You did it!
Congratulations and well done to both of you.