LEJOG 2024 - a reflection

So it's been a week since we finished our trip, so we figured it was time to take stock and reflect on our adventure.

Positives: Tracy was pleasantly surprised at how much she enjoyed the trip and that her body coped with the mental and physical demands over so many days, although her bottom is not so sure. Dan was pleased and surprised that we didn't fall out.

Cake.

Another one of the highlights was the people that we met along the way - certainly the LEJOG jerseys helped spark conversation. We wish that we had two each, so that we could have worn them every day. We do regret not taking pictures of the people that we chatted with, since they were such an important part of our days. 

Hula hoops.

Our favourite places included Cornish coasts and villages, the hidden Luxulyan valley, top of the Mendips, the Wye valley, the Yorkshire fells and the Scottish Highlands, during the 5 minutes that it wasn't raining.

Writing the blog was also a highlight of the trip. Thanks to everyone who followed our story and commented either on Facebook or the blog itself. We really enjoyed doing it and the motivational messages that we received, seemingly reading our exploits became part of many people's routines. Cheesecake is still a cake though. 

Negatives: Tracy claims that my incessant toilet stops were infuriating - about five for every one of hers. If she wants to discuss slowing us down...

Tracy got saddle sore. I didn't, not sure why. Might be saddle height, luck or the fact that I used udder cream.

At an average of 65 miles each day, there wasn't enough downtime - it was an enjoyable ride, but we didn't really get to do anything else each day. Next trip will be more of a sight-seeing tour connected by riding.

Other bits: The national cycle route was fabulous- mostly traffic free and takes you to some beautiful places. Worth checking out locally. The only times that we had issues on our route was when we had to divert from them, sometimes you can't avoid the A roads (looking at you Scotland). However, if you plan your timings, you can mitigate. We hit the busy part of the A9 at Dornoch on a Sunday afternoon, hoping it would be quieter then. The Highland festival that we passed probably didn't help with traffic though! Best laid plans and all that...

The subject of busy roads brings up the subject of the kill count - dead things spotted on our travels. The list includes:

27 birds (various types)

2 foxes

2 deer (one very flat)

1 badger

1 stoat/weasel (not good on deceased mustelid family classification)

1 frog (inflated)

1 sheep (not Shaun or shorn)

1 Hare (or v large rabbit)

2 Rabbits (or 3 if one disguised as hare)

5 squirrels (squiggled)

2 hedgehogs

1 rat

1 mouse (indeterminate type)

1 mole (smaller than you expect)

Weather makes a massive difference - we started in a heatwave in Cornwall and finished with thunderstorms in Scotland. In hindsight, we probably shouldn't have left the storm shelter behind in Bristol, saying "we won't need that". We started early almost every day - it makes such a psychological difference getting the miles in before lunch. The day we didn't, was the nightmare day 12. We knew that the bad weather was coming in, but prioritised a lie in and breakfast, due to our late finish the night before. We should have stuck to our plan and been guided by the weather forecast, rather than our desires.

Hostels - do have useful facilities that we were rather poor at using. We did use the drying rooms in Scotland, but not the self catering kitchens. We could have saved some money by cooking ourselves rather than having to eat out (such hardships). We also discovered that the availability dates for English hostels were released later than Scottish ones. We could have used more of them if we had booked later.

Would we do this again? - absolutely!

Loved the cycling and need to reduce the miles a bit, but in the future, we are looking at cycling:

Slovenia

Croatia 

Ireland 

France

Yorkshire/ Lake District

Pacific cycle route

Whatever our next adventure is, we will be blogging it! 

Thanks for following our adventure. 

Dan + Tracy