LEJOG (End to End) Day 2 - East Towards Swindon

Leg 2 - Sourton Cross (Devon) to (Royal) Wootton Bassett

The second day of our epic ride saw us travel in a North-Easterly direction from Devon, through Somerset and then on to Wiltshire.  This was a little bit further east than most LEJOG (End to End) riders would normally travel.  They’d be heading in a more directly Northerly route, perhaps up to Bristol.  However, when we’d started telling people earlier in the year that we’d be doing our Land’s End to John O’Groats ride in the Spring, we got a few offer for us to visit people and stay the night.  The liaison that pushed us further East than the usual route was with Cousin Karl and his family in (Royal) Wooton Bassett.  Not wanting to pass up a freebie and looking forward to meeting up with a family member that I didn’t meet up with often enough we made plans to take the Wiltshire detour.

We were now getting into the ride well and truly.  Whilst the first day was enjoyable, there was a certain amount of trepidation about where we were embarking on and whether we could manage it.  It didn’t fear the long distance riding, but I was concerned about the weight and the mechanical problems we may encounter on the way.  However, with modern technology such as GPS, the Internet and Smart phones etc. the whole thing seem lest daunting than it might have been in the past.  Yesterday, I had started to enjoy things, but today I was really looking forward to the ride.  We knew it would be long and undulating, but I was sure we’d get through it OK.  I was just hoping for fair weather again.

Paul Carries Out a Quick Luggage Check in Oakhampton

We’d roughly planned the route for the day and decided to leave without breakfast and make a brunch stop fairly on in the day.  Paul felt gassed up the day before, and we came to the conclusion that we may have been overdoing on the eating front.  As well as the numerous large meals, we’d been putting away more than our fair share of chocolate, snacks, cereal bars and gels.  All this washed down by a number of electrolyte sport drinks.  We also decided to leave the A30 behind and get on some slightly less major roads.  This turned out to be a good decision, as there was much less traffic passing by and we got to see more of the places on the route.  The road surface were still fantastic.  We were rolling along nicely without a single pothole in sight.

Another Lovely Smooth Road in the South East

We soon passed through Oakhampton and carried on up the road after a quick photo stop and pannier check.  We were going to bypass Crediton and head up to Tiverton for our first stop.  The route was very pleasant, but the roads were very undulating, as we’d expected.  There were no long or steep climbs, but there is very little flat road between each hill.  You seem to be going down a hill only to be immediately climbing up the other side.  However, as I’d mention before the road surface quality was brilliant and this helped speed us along.  We had a slight hold up in Bow, heading out towards Copplestone, for some road works.   They were resurfacing quite large stretch and it was hard to figure out way, as the roads all seemed so good.  However, we didn’t mind being slowed slightly for this type of preventative maintenance.

Views from the Road North of Oakhampton

Another Big Breakfast (Brunch) to Fuel Our Efforts

We didn’t have too long of a stop in Tiverton, we were constantly aware that we needed to ride another forty miles on top of the distance we’d done the day before, so we weren’t for hanging about too much.  Another big (Full English) breakfast and a visit to a nearby shop to stock up on cereal bars etc. was in order.  Other than that we didn’t see too much of the town.  I snapped a picture of what I think was the Town Hall and a few other local landmarks and then we were on the road again.

Lunch Stop in Tiverton - A View of the Town Hall

Once on the move again, we headed for the A361 and up towards Taunton in Somerset.  The scenery and weather were lovely and the roads seemed to be levelling off a bit.  There was always something that seemed worth photographing.  We’d got into a ritual where I’d either go up the road a bit or leave somewhere slightly after Paul to grab a few snap shots to publish online later.  When I’d done my ‘David Bailey’ bit, we’d regroup further on along the route.  We always had the smart phones to stay in touch, so I wasn’t too worried about not always being in visual contact.

Paul Updates Our Followers About Our Arrival in Somerset

We also used the smart phones to stay in touch with out Twitter and Facebook followers.  We again partook in the ritual of stopping when we passed over a county border and grab some pictures as evidence of us standing by the next county sign.  It was a good opportunity to catch up with each other too, have a bite to eat and sometimes take a comfort break.

Ash at the Devon/Somerset Border

The run up to Glastonbury was very nice.  The Sun was out most of the time and the temperatures were pretty good for that time of year.  After the initial relatively chilly start to the day, the arm warmers were off and the gilet was open and blowing in the breeze.  We passed through Burrow Bridge and saw the ruins on Burrow Mump, but didn’t have time to stop and have a proper look around.  Any sightseeing needed to be done from the road, with perhaps a quick photo stop if the opportunity arose.

Ruins on Burrow Mump Near Burrow Bridge

Having said that, you’re in the open air with all round vision and things are happening at a slower pace than travelling in a car, so you do fell like you are taking things in as you pass without necessarily stopping and getting off the bike for a walk around.

A View of Glastonbury Tor from a Distance

As we approached Glastonbury we were able to see the Tor in the distance.  It is quite a landmark.  It was still during the school holidays after the Easter Bank Holidays break, so there were quite a number of tourist and sightseers about.  There was a bit of a climb on the road around the Tor, but nothing to trouble us too much.  We had a breather at the top for another photo opportunity.

A View of Glastonbury Tor Whilst Passing by on the A361

Views of Somerset from the A361 in Glastonbury

Fair Weather in Somerset - Had the Arm Warmers Off

We progressed with our North-Eastward journey along the A361.  It was getting well into the afternoon and we still had quite a bit of distance to cover.  We decided we needed a stop to refill bottles, so we headed for Frome.  I was in front of Paul and headed towards the town.  Paul was behind me trying to get my attention, but I didn’t realise.  On the way in, just off the A361, we passed a Sainsburys with a petrol station and we could have used their water to fill up.  However, I was oblivious to this and continued to descend a pretty steep hill into the centre of the town.  We managed to locate a car park with toilets and whilst a natural break was had, we were unable to get any cold tap water to put in our bidons (drinking bottles).  I took the stop as an opportunity to get in touch with my cousin, to let him know how we were progressing.  He was working in Oxford that day, and when he realised we were in Frome, he suggested that we’d possibly beat him home.  It seemed a bit optimistic to me and in retrospect I think he was thinking in motorbike time, as this is his main mode of transport.

Getting Our Bearings and Catching Up With People in Frome

Paul and I had been regularly using our smart phones for navigating and tried to use them again to plan a route out of Frome and on to the A361 again.  We were unsure, so came to the decision that we’d climb back up the hill to the Sainsburys and get the water we needed.  It was quite a tough one, it certainly felt like more than a ten percent gradient.  We used the machine the motorist normally use to top up their screen wash and coolant systems to fill our bottles.  I had not thought of doing this before and if you’re out riding with electrolyte (salt) tablets, such as the ’High 5 Zero’ type I use, it is a really handy way of topping up liquids.  Unfortunately now more and more garages are starting to charge for the use of the machine, however I think the Sainsburys one are still free.

Back on the main road we traversed a large number of bypass roads with long drags between roundabouts.  We’d travelled seven or eight miles when we passed through a roundabout with a marking tow miles back to Frome.  This was a bit frustrating as we could have taken a shorter route out by about five miles if we had realised.  However, this may have meant topping up water could have posed a problem, so we didn’t worry about it too much.  We road along the last stretch of road in Somerset (for us that day) and approached the Wiltshire county border sign.  What a mess!  Compared to the ones for Devon and Somerset, this one was ‘every expense spared’ and looked like somebody had been carrying out rifle practice on it.  I didn’t want to linger too long in fear somebody might soon commence using the sign as a target again, and I certainly didn’t want to be in the firing line!  We updated our followers and my cousin with our progress.

Ash Poses by the 'Bullet Ridden' Wiltshire County Sign

The final miles of the day seemed to drag on longer than we’d been expecting and longer than my cousin had thought too.  We started to ride on wet roads, but we were not in the rain.  We were approaching some very ominous skies and the rainbow in the distance suggested we were soon to be dry no longer.  Fortunately, the heavy clouds seemed to be moving away and we were heading in a slightly different direction to them, which further pushed them away from us.  Other than a little spray off the roads we remained pretty dry.

Some Threatening Skies in Wiltshire

Night seemed to be approaching rapidly, and we still hadn’t arrived at my cousin’s.  I gave him a quick call to let him know that we were still on our way, but it was taking much longer than expected.  He was now home and suggested that we give him a call when we got closer to his house and he’d guide us in.  I was a bit worried about it getting dark, as whilst I had quite a lot of reflective gear and a number of flashing LED arm or leg bands (normally used by runners), I didn’t have any proper lights, to try and keep the bike’s weight down a bit.  Looking back, for the few grams they would have added, I should have installed some before we departed.

We pulled up at a junction in Calne and had a chat with a passer by to ask directions to Royal Wootton Bassett and to check we were definitely still heading in the right direction.  It turned out he was a lorry driver and had regularly visited a depot not more than a mile from my house.  He confirmed that we needed to be heading out towards RAF Lyneham and wished us well for the rest of our journey.  Dusk was turning into nightfall, but we were almost there.  I had to chuckle to myself when we passed road signs designating that New Zealand was only half a mile away.  How had we gotten so far off track in the space of only a few minutes?

It is Late and We Could be Lost - Is New Zealand Really That Close?

It was pitch black when we arrived in the area where my cousins house was situated.  We picked our way through the local roads and I followed a (Google) map on my smart phone along with remembered a few local landmarks my cousin had highlighted on his description of the run-in during one of our telephone conversations earlier.  We managed to guide ourselves past his local pub and on to his house without needing to request an official escort.  It was a relief to finally arrive at his place and he was a very welcome sight when we knocked on the door and he came out to greet us.  It had been a very long day in the saddle.  We had been on the go for over twelve hours and been riding for about nine and a half.




We settled down at my cousins with his wife, his daughter and the cat after a quick trip out to the local Chinese take away and the pub.  He informed us that he'd decided to take the following day off work and was going to ride some of the journey with us (weather permitting) in the morning.  This was good news, we had somebody with local road knowledge to guide us on the initial part of the next leg up to Birmingham and a night with Paul's friend.

LEJOG (End to End) Day 1 - Cornwall into Devon

LEJOG Leg 1 - Land's End to Sourton Cross (Okehampton)

We arose on the Wednesday morning eager to get going, the weather was cool (not cold) and it looked like there had been quite a bit of rain in the night, but things were drying out.  There looked to be a fair breeze, but thankfully whilst not the Westerly we'd been hoping for it seemed to be North Westerly.  This mean we'd have it on our tails and left shoulders.

The Famous LAND END Sign

Our night (before) in St Just had consisted of the most expensive fish and chip dinner ever, followed by a couple of beers in the pub attached to our accommodation (The Commercial Hotel - www.commercial-hotel.co.uk).  The Hotel was good and we just psyched ourselves up for the (very) long ride ahead.  We also got connected on Facebook, as we planned to use our Social Media accounts to keep friends, colleagues and loved ones up to date about our journey.  It had been somewhat of an afterthought, but we both had set up sponsorship web pages so that we could hopefully raise a little bit of money, for our respective charities, along the way.

The Bikes (mine on the left) Looked Ready to go Too

We’d both slept OK and had been suitably fed (with full cooked breakfast) prior to leaving The Commercial.  We packed everything we’d needed for the previous evening into our pannier bags, checked the tyre pressures etc. and embarked on the first short leg to the official start line.  The journey was about 6 miles from St Just to Land’s End and surprisingly the bike with luggage seemed much more responsive and manageable to me compared with the night before.  Hopefully this meant that it was going to be easier than I’d been slightly worrying about the previous evening.




It was pretty quiet in the area and the tourist attraction side of Land's End hadn't really got going at that time in the morning.  There were a few locals around, who appeared to be working on a roof and that was about it.  On the downside there was nobody around to help us with the photography (thankfully modern digital cameras have timers on them for self portraits), but on the plus side there wasn’t anybody around to charge us for anything related to our visit.

Ash Ready to Leave Land's End - Only 874 Miles to go

Paul and His Trusty Steed Before the Off

A Quick Self Portrait on The Timer with Camera on the Rocks

We rode away from the sign and into the main tourist area of Land’s End had a quick look around and another brief stop for picture taking and then we were on our way properly.  The sun was shining and we were feeling pretty optimistic about the journey ahead.  We got on our way properly at 09:23 am on Wednesday 11/04/2012.

The Tourist Stuff at Land's End (Penn-An-Wlas)

Ash Posing Before Leaving Lands End

Our plan for the first day’s riding was to stay to the main routes in Cornwall.  Whilst there was an opportunity to take in some nice scenery by moving off the beaten track we were worried about potentially dragging the journey out by traversing heavy and undulating roads whilst we were just feeling our way with the heavy bikes with luggage.  This meant that we’d mainly be on the A30 for most of the day.  The A30 turned out to be a pretty well maintained, smoothed surfaced road.  However, on the downside, it became progressively busier as we travelled further East.  Whilst there wasn’t a cycle path there was an area on the outside of the white line marking the edge of the road that could be ridden on.  I avoided doing this most of the time for fear of the debris on this part on this part of the tarmac, whilst Paul used it more often than not.  I was a bit wary as, whilst we were both using decent Winter tyres, neither of us had anything wider or heavier duty than we’d have normally been sporting at that time of year.

Views of the Cornish Countryside from the A30

Paul Pulling into the Lay-by to Meet Me 

As far as the riding was concerned, we’d come to an agreement that we’d ride at our own pace and ensure that we had regular meet ups.  We’d done a similar thing on a Sportive ride we did the previous Autumn and this seemed to work out OK.  Sometimes it is very hard work riding at somebody else’s pace (either slower or faster than you’d want to be going) even it is only 1 mph different.  It also meant that whilst we rode together quite often, we were very rarely drafting (i.e. riding in each other’s slipstream to save some energy).  I think we both felt that this was cheating a bit and that it would meant that we weren’t riding under ‘our own steam’.

Pleasant Skies above the A30

The riding in the gutter approach proved to be a problem on the first leg for Paul.  He punctured within the early part of the ride.  However, he was convinced that he’s hit a reflector embedded in the tarmac when moving from the road to the edge of the tarmac rather than hitting a stone or any other debris.  We had spare tubes a plenty, so doing a quick change (even on the rear wheel) wasn’t a problem.  What was a problem was the fact that both our bike pumps couldn’t deliver enough pressure.  This was especially worrying when we had the extra weight of the back end.  We tried with both Paul’s and my pump and got as much air into the tyre as we could, but it couldn’t have been much more than 60 psi (our tyres would normally be inflated to circa 100psi).  We soldiered on and aimed for Bodmin to take a lunch stop and see if we could acquire a new pump, or at least borrow one to get Paul’s tyre back up to pressure.  The frustrating thing was that one of Paul’s stolen bikes had a pump on it than was more than up to the job.

Saint Petroc Parish Church - Bodmin

We rode into Bodmin past the Saint Petroc Parish Church and had a look around for a bike shop.  We found a mountain bike sales and hire place (Bodmin Bikes - www.bodminbikes.co.uk) and the guy there was very helpful, but unfortunately he‘d nothing to attain the pressures we needed.  We found a little café on a pedestrianised street and had another fairly substantial meal, even though a very large breakfast had been consumed not too many hours earlier.  We were conscious that we were going to be burning a lot of calories pedalling all that distance with the extra weight and we were sure we didn’t want our bodies to run out of fuel.

Substantial Lunch - Even After a Big Breakfast!

Paul Leaving Bodmin Heading for Halfords

We had a relatively leisurely meal and pondered our options for the journey to the nights accommodation and a likely place to get more air into Paul’s rear tyre.  We got on our way and headed to a Halfords at the edge of the town.  Paul also seemed to experiencing some trouble with the screws on his cleats at this point and as he was using the two screw SPD cleats (as opposed to the three I had on my Look ones), so loosing a screw was going to pose a problem.  Neither of us had thought to bring any spare screws, something that I would always ensure I had on any future long distance bike rides I embark on.  Whilst the man at Halfords didn’t sell SPD pedals, he was more accommodating and he managed to fix Paul up with a new screw and some more air in the tyre.

Windswept Trees by the A30 in Cornwall

We continued our journey onwards towards Devon.  The roads were still very good and noticeably better than those of Lancashire and the North West of England.  After many miles of riding already, we hadn’t seen a single pothole.  The rest of the days riding was pleasant, but relatively uneventful.  The weather stayed fair and we saw quite a bit of sunshine.

Paul Updating Our Followers on Facebook

On arrival at the signs denoting the border between the two counties (Cornwall and Devon) we started a ritual that would remain for the rest of the journey, or at least when passing into new counties that weren’t too near home and overly familiar.  The novelty also wore off a bit when we got into the second week!  We would stop for a small break, take a few snapshots, Tweet them and/or upload them to Facebook.  Again, for those interested back at home they could see were we had travelled to in real-time.  I pondered that this was something that only riders making the journey in recent years would have been able to do.  We got a few ’Likes’ & ’Retweets’ and then we were bake on the road again.

Ash at the Devon Border Control

We got to the end of the day’s journey well before nightfall, we’d been on the road for about nine hours in total and had been riding for just over six hours.  We had a brief stop on the run in to Sourton Cross, the location of the Travelodge we were aiming for, which was just South of Oakhampton.  The approach was very straight forward, it was a motel just off the A30, so there weren’t any problems finding it.  A had a bit of a wander round after we’d checked in and freshened up.  There wasn’t to much around a I was trying to figure out where we could eat later that evening that would be within reasonable walking distance.

Views from the Travelodge Car Park

We’d travelled about ninety five miles on the first leg of our LEJOG, but taking into consideration the six we’d done in the morning before the start, this was our first hundred mile ride with luggage and we’d got through it!  We made a few phone calls to people back at home and eventually headed across the A30 to a pub for an evening meal.  It was a crisp clear night and we ended up refuelling at the Prewley Moor Arms (www.prewleymoorarms.co.uk).  The pub and meal were both pleasant, but perhaps a little expensive for a couple of low-budget travellers like ourselves!  I can recommend the Isotonic Sport drinks on offer there.  I partook in the consumption of a couple of pints of the ‘Jail Ale’.  It was just the tonic after a long day in the saddle.

Sunset Seen from the Motel

Maybe not quite Lucozade but the Local Beer 'Jail Ale' is Recommended

One day down with a few minor worries but no major concerns and we both seemed to be feeling fit.  Paul had felt a few twinges from his back, but nothing to feel too bothered about.  Our legs felt OK, bbut how they would be the following morning was another question altogether.  The next leg of the journey was going to be a very long one.  Relatively speaking we were going well out of our way to go and visit my cousin and it was going to be not only the longest ride we'd done with the extra weight, it was going to be the longest distance either of us had ridden in one day before.