Liverpool To John O Groats To Land's End And Back
Using A & B Roads Only.
On the 1st August 2009, 5 riders set off into the sunrise on an epic adventure all the name of charity.
Covering 2000 miles, 9 camps and perfect weather?? Here is our diary...
DAY 1: 1st August 2009. Claire House to Edinburgh.
After a late start at Claire House at 9:40am, we made good progress through the drizzle and arrived at Preston Lidl at 11:40am
We spent our generous Lidl donation on drinks and chocolate. Making room in what little space we had in our panniers.
The weather changed and gradually became a lot drier & warmer. Leaving the A59 and heading north towards Carlisle. Stopping in Shap ( The Crown Inn ) for our Lunch.
We then headed out on the A6 to join the A7.
We had a quick stop at Morrisons at Hawick and then took the A68 all the way into Edinburgh.
The benefits of 'A' roads far outway the motorway... the views were stunning.
We didn't pre-book our campsites in scotland so we looked around and came across the Lothian Bridge campsite which is near Edinburgh.
Lovely small, well kept site located actually under the Lothian Bridge on the A7.. free showers and a generous £10 donation & free camping from the owner. We set up camp, had tea & went to recharge for day 2!
DAY 2: 2nd August 2009. Edinburgh to Loch Ness.
After a good nights sleep... we made an early start at 8:30am.. Scotland has to be seen to be believed! We filled up at the local Tesco. We followed the A680.
Sj & Brian disagreed on sat-nav routes. Sj's TomTom won the day and resulted in Sj leading the way to Loch Ness. On the way to Loch Ness our first bike problem arose.. Joannes Suzuki's main stand was uncomfortably close to the chain which resulted in strange grinding. It turned out to be just the chain..
also Brian performed open carb surgery at the road side after Joanne dropping the Suzuki made it not start...will it hold up to the end? Onto the A9 at a rest stop on the way to Inver, Sj decided to drop his bike whilst getting off and this resulted in leaving a nice battle scar on the side pannier.
TomTom decided to pack in outside Loch Ness so he was forced to listen to the countryside birds tweeting rather than the awful din he calls music from his satnav phone. Loch Ness was stunning!
Arrived in Drumnadrochit at a campsite at 7:45pm... all bikes are well at this point and the 125's are holding up well with the many hill climbs. There was no phone signal, most phones were on the last of the battery life at this point and were unable to be charged due to faulty bike USB chargers. This is the point we were unable to update the Hogblog posts. PS.. Set up camp.. food... sleep.. Happy Campers!!
DAY 3: 3rd August 2009. Loch Ness to Brora via John O' Groats.
200 mile day today... early rise at 5am'ish.
This campsite is in 2 halves.. the showers being at the top of the hill and us being at the bottom.
SJ thought it would be easier riding up the hill on the bike to save on leg power only to be confronted with a 20p machine demanding money for the shower.. wasted journey!!
The campsite was also a horse riding school.
We left at 8:30am out towards Inverness via the Loch Ness trail road.. we had a quick look for Brian's camera case which he lost the previous night at the Loch Ness tourist signs.. No sign of it so we carried on. Ray's bike developed a loud rattle further up the road and pulled over to investigate... turned out to be his cam chain tensioner spring which decided to snap!
Luckily super mechanic Brian diagnosed and treated the problem at the roadside within 3 hours with a great tempory fix. Rays bike now on the road again without the need of the RAC we continued.
Onto the A9 we cruised along at 55mph heading for Brora.. we made good progress despite the setback and arrived at Dalchalm caravan and camping park at 2:45pm. As we were a little behind.. we elected to cut out the Dunnets Head visit which would shave 3 hours off our total days schedule. Brian left us at this point and for reasons of his own he decided to do the rest of the trip solo.
We headed out for John O' Groats on the way up it was a very strong headwind but flat out all the way.... we encountered a tricky drop (11%) and then a climb (13%) in the middle section of the A9.
We arrived at John O' Groats at 4:45pm, the main sign had been taken down for the day and the photographers hut was closed,
the only other sign was the one near the harbour which was mounted on the wall. No chance of lining up the bikes in front as the floor sloped downwards. Good photo opportunity none the less. Nice food from the burger van. He had a picture on his fridge of Charlie and Ewan
when they set off from John O' Groats for their long way down adventure taken in front of his van.
The return journey took a little longer as we stopped at a few scenic places that caught our eye on the way up.
More photographs.. it was a 60 mile journey back to the camp in Brora. We arrived back at 9pm'ish.
Sj had his first minor set-back of a rear tail light blowing.
Both 125's are in dire need of new chain and sprockets. There were plenty of places to fill up... no need for fuel cans as yet! Was this the hard part out the way??
DAY 4: 4th August 2009. Brora to Edinburgh.
Weather was fantastic till we reached the summit of a mountain... we were riding through a cloud.
Jo lost an exhaust bolt on the mountain... we called into a VW dealer who replaced the missing bolt. Still with bike starting problems we called into a motorcycle shop in perth Bikez & Quadz (www.scottishmotorcycles.co.uk) we were met by a very kind & friendly man who donated a new spark plug, L plate & reflector, recharged our phones and supplied us with a welcoming drink. Driving back through cities was no match to the scenery we had just left behind. Onto our next camp in Edinburgh called Morton Hall.
Slightly expensive at £22 per night but we were given free pitches for the night. Morton Hall had everything on site but we missed out on the restaurant food as we left it too late... no problem.. find a chippy.. wrong!! All shut! Now it's around 10:55pm at this point. We found a fast food place just about to shut who kindly served us. Whilst eating the food we encountered a beastly figure walking past our camp... it could only be described as a lynx type animal.. definately not a cat!! The eyes on the thing glowed yellow in the torch light and blinked scarily in the distance... what's worse is Ray left his tent open on a visit to the pub! Did anybody shut his tent? Nahhhh! Watered, fed, Happy!
Day 5: 5th August 2009. Edinburgh to York (was to be Brandesburton)
Brace yourself.. this has to be the most problematic day! After today- we are thinking of going to Land's End and coming home!
We set off from Morton Hall at 9:05am. Not a good nights sleep for SJ. Out on the A720 to the A1. We changed the route to faster roads to make good progress.
After 4 hours the inevitable happened. Ray's cam chain tensioner died. It lasted 600 miles on the tempory fix. I run into Morpeth to source the part but the nearest main Honda dealer was in Newcastle and couldn't supply the part for a further 3 day's.. There was no way round this one - RAC home!
Now down to 3 riders and severly behind we set off back on the A1 for the Tyne tunnel which was at gridlock. Even with filtering we wouldn't have made the Brandesburton camp. For fear of the lower cc bikes overheating in the sweltering heat we crawled through the traffic.
We made a decision at this point to head for York, 30 miles taken off todays schedule and 30 less to do tomorrow. By 9pm we arrived on the outskirts of York.
Unknown to us the York races are coming up and everywhere is fully booked, even the Youth Hostel wanted £70 for the night. We thought it best to head out of town and stumbled on the police station. It's 10pm at this point, the chances of finding anywhere are getting slimmer by the minute.
The police kindly suggested a field we may accidently come across near the millenium bridge. Whilst in the police station it was also suggested by a man that York Race course is a possible site? We looked at the field first and thought it a little unsuitable and to public to camp.. with all the panniers full of much needed essentials we couldn't risk leaving them where we had to.... race course here we come..
the security were great and we finally got some sleep.
Waking up the next morning to 3 hot air balloons floating by.
Day 6: 6th August 2009. York to Tewkesbury
An early start today in fear of a repeat of day 5.
Headed out of town for breakfast at the next service station we came across.
Nice pasty and strong cappucino.. also some fuel for the bikes.
Next stop Doncaster where we had another coffee and then made headway for Sheffield.
We worked from town to town at this point as both sat-navs were feeling unwell.. mine wanted to go to the motorway and SJ's just didn't want to go anywhere. Paper atlas was our best friend.
Stopped in Sheffield where SJ's sat-nav was restored with 3 cable ties.
From Sheffield we headed for Tewkesbury... dropping under Birmingham through Solihull for a visit to the National Motorcycle Museum.
We got to the museum at 4:30pm just as the weather was starting to turn, then, down came the rain.
After a quick look around the museum, we set off to our free camping at Tewkesbury.
Along with the heavy rain came the heavy traffic.. the rain turning some motorists into maniacs and after a few nervous near misses we decided to let the traffic settle a little before continuing.
Good job as the rain and traffic eased leaving 40 miles to go in just over an hour.
We arrived at lower lode inn
to what is their weekly bike meet... we think the weather put the bikers off as there weren't many riders.... beautiful location next to the river, very soft grass... no air bed for me tonight. Went for a drink in the inn... SJ forgot to close his tent and also left his light on inside... let's just say that it was gnat heaven!
Day 7: 7th August 2009. Tewkesbury to St Austell.
Late start at 9am today.. 2 reasons, 1: to catch up on sleep and 2: to take some photo's!
A good night's sleep - everyone ready and refreshed for a 205 mile ride to St Austell.
Stopped at a local garage in Tewkesbury for Joanne's exhaust bolt to be tightened again.
After a re-fuel and tyre pressure check ( not trusting SJ's bootsale compressor) at the services we made on our way.
A few winding backroads to join the A303 via Gloucester where we grabbed breakfast at Mcdonalds.. or you could call it dinner... after nealy an hours wait we were told our breakfast order was given to another customer and that they have now changed the grill to the lunch menu... furiously changing our order we were amazed to see the Mcdonalds staff serve other customers with what could have been our order... we asked for a refund and were given the price of a bagel for change.... erm... £7 something we paid!! Full refund - no breakfast! We stopped at the next butty van... glad we did as it was rated the best in Gloucester!
Once on the A38 we made good time filling up with petrol and coffee at the fosse way garage.
Then onto a 50 mile run down the A303/30.
A few more stops than normal due to a little tiredness and overtaking traffic spreading us out a little.
As we neared Bodmin, we departed company. A lorry blocked our view of each other and I followed my sat-nav which took us on the back roads to our next camp... SJ's took him the easy & quickest way in so he arrived first.
Probably the best camp so far was the Innis Inn & fly fishery,
After being greeted by the friendly management and setting up camp.. we sat down to what can only be described as a feast for a king.
We enjoyed it so much it deserved a lie-in the next morning!
Day 8: 8th August 2009. St Austell to Bideford via Land's End.
Lie in later... we recieved a text off Geoff, another Mildhog member with an attached photo of Land's End.. realising he was actually at Land's End we packed up promptly and headed straight there.
By 12pm we arrived,bike parking was a £1 per bike, bargain!! We were greeted by Geoff, we had coffee, photo's & bought souvenirs.
We left at 1:45pm and headed for Bideford another 110 miles away. We stopped a few times for coffee. The roads were busy but moved fast. I don't know what it was but we flew to Bideford.
One near miss with a ford focus at 60mph. Bideford was not as expected, pretty poor to say the least. Knapp house had no showers or hot water and the toilets were shocking.
Geoff also stayed on for the night with the kids and the dog... intending to stay in one of the 2 tents he brought... one was poleless and the other was skinless. Argos for Geoff... night in the car!
Day 9: 9th August 2009. Bideford to Pandy.
Late start today to let the tents dry. Bideford had a lot of condesation to offer.
Left at 10am on the A38 for Pandy.. The Suzuki died on a layby and it turned out to be the HT lead not seated right... this explained the possible faulty spark plug starting problem that we looked at in Perth! But by 11am Jo's Suzuki gave up the fight to carry on. A breakdown right on the M5 junction 27 roundabout/slip road. The worse place possible for a breakdown... we managed to get it going and moved it to the services on the other side of the roundabout.
RAC was called and adjusted the valves.. still not right the bike was taken to a garage in Abergaveny.. near the hospital. We forgot it was sunday and that there were no garages open anywhere... managed to get the bike up to the campsite at Llanthony. Take it to a garage in the morning! After Jo was taken by the RAC.. me and SJ pushed on to Pandy... The campsite was 10 miles outside Abergaveny... it took best part of half an hour as the roads are tight and winding and are well used by cars.
The campsite was located in the Brecon Beacons in an Abbey's ground..
nice scenery but the ground was very uneven.. no showers here either!
Day 10: 10th August. Pandy to Home!
Late rise... easy day of 130 miles... wrong!!
First mission was to find a garage that would look at the Suzuki's valves.. on the way out the beacons following the sat-navs directions.. SJ's tyre decided to take on a glass pillion and made a nice hole in his tyre... the holts punture foam was flying out the hole like a fountain but got hime to a B&B's car park up the road were the puncture could be mended. By the way... bike shops don't exist in Abergaveny.... realised this when I set off in search of a tyre shop instead. I came off my bike just outside town and damaged the brake lever i had just replaced and bent my indicator. A shop gave us a plug kit which repaired the hole... a local garaged seated the tyre which i had strapped to the back of my bike and pumped it up to pressure... the whole thing set us back 4 hours! No chance of reaching Claire House by lunch.
We headed to Hereford where we found Eric Rees motorcyles who kindly took a look at the Suzuki.
Valves adjusted... oil topped up.. 77 miles from home... it died... it really was the end of the road for the Suzuki. The shortest day turned out to be the longest... returning home at 9pm!!
These are the highlights of what can only be described as the most fun we have had on a motorbike.
It's the biggest rideout we have done to date and it's been great doing it for a local deserving charity like Claire House Children's Hospice.
The mission was... John O Groats to Land's End using A & B roads only... in that we succeded!
Written by Paul Astle & Paul Robinson.
See all the Pictures Here
