All that way for a sign post.

So yes, at 2:10pm on Wednesday 21st September all seven of our wheels rolled across the 'finish' line outside the John o' Groats hotel... after 1061 miles of cycling from the Land's End hotel.

This means that if you sponsored us, you can cough up now... all cheques payable to 'Tearfund' please, and posted to:

End to End for Tearfund
97 Elmhurst Estate
Bath
BA1 7NR

More descriptive details and photos will appear before long.

Now it's back to glorious Aberystwyth for us four...

Tain.

After Stirling we have experienced more of the traditional "fine Scottish weather"... an entire day of chill precipitation escorted us from Tyndrum through the magnificent (so we're told) Glen Coe. Cloud and fog gave visibility of about half a mile, and lopped off the tops of the moutains. A yellow rescue helicopter buzzed around for a bit.

Up alongside various lochs has provided us with good amounts of some of the most beautiful, spectacular and increadible scenery there is. Loch Ness proved uneventful though, with little to be seen from the road (trees deliberately screening the tourists, to prevent frequent stopping on the road).

The east coast has opened out around us, crossing the bridge at Cromaty Firth and up with the sun low on our left side. Suddenly hay bales are covering the fields, and the fields are covering the land.

With only two days left before John O' Groats, and ~967 miles covered, our cycles are feeling increasingly tired, with various parts bandaged with gaffer tape, toe-straps and bungee cord.

After a slight inter-cyclist collision during the rainy day (naming no names, but... she has accepted responsibility for taking me out :) ), my right unicycle crank has been spinning at a somewhat jaunty angle. My left Achillies tendon also started creaking a little today. Nothing another hundred miles of riding won't fix.

We shall make it.

Haggis, neeps and tatties.

When you hear the word 'haggis', what comes into your mind? Probably just a lot of prejudice, hearsay and propaganda. Usually anti-haggis.

It's delicious. Wholesome, healthsome and tasty-some.

Cynical and sarcastic, I may oft-times be, but this is not one of those times.

Now as far as Stirling. That's over 3/4 of the way. Edinburgh played host to the most exhausting rest-day we have had. We have had one. Tartan shops provide almost blanket coverage of the Royal Mile it seems. Very nice though.

Hawick was our first port of call into Scotland, and what a welcome. Four lycra-clad members of the Historic Hawick Cycling Club excorted us in. A pipe band serenaded us with Scotland The Brave; we were given Irn-Bru and shortbread and even got checked up with by two genial officers of the police force. Ace.

Scotland is fantastic. And it just gets better.

You take the high road and I'll take the low road and I'll get to Scotland before you!

Just to let you know that we are in Carlisle, within spitting distance from the border, and all is going swimmingly.

Tartan all the way.

Shrewsbury Wed 7th September.

Beautiful Shropshire. Rolling ploughed fields, notably cuboidic hay baling, compared with other counties' round bales.

Weather lovely. Food excellent. Health good. Bikes like well-oiled machines.

More details and blurb may appear after this whole thing, when we don't have to ride again every morning.

Watched Braveheart. Scotland here we come...

Land's End

Bath... A quarter of the way there.

Stunning sun broke into a little rain at the end of the ride today.

Knees are still holding together.

Onwards :)

Saturday 3 September

Okehampton

For those of you who have been checking for updates regularly, and finding none...

We did not get stuck on the train.
We did not get distracted by cheap flights to Jamaica.
We did not meet Dale Winton, or get invited to his birthday party in a private igloo.

We did, however, take the train down to Penzance, cycle to Land's End, and have our photo taken at the (im)famous signpost. There will be a copy of this photo when we have overcome the inconvenience of both Sam and Jonathan mislaying their (identical) camera cables.

The much rumoured "killer hills of Cornwall" have lost much of their bite of late, it seems. There has been a pleasantly rolling characteristic to the roads so far. Yesterday afternoon we reached our first County boundary sign - Devon. Some rendering of a certain Feeder song about lemons was effected.

All cycles and cyclists have been in good working order. The weather has ranged from 'ok' through 'rather good' to 'gloriously beautiful'. Some pathetic attempt at rain was chased away with derisory comments about it being nothing on good proper Scottish weather.

Milage so far: 21, 36, 43, 45... total:145/1000