This is the end...the Lands End.
Trip Start
Jul 08, 2008
1
16
Trip End
Jul 25, 2008
Lands End,
United Kingdom
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Fortunately Cornwall was not quite as hilly as the day before but it was still dammed hard work. We did the 1st 30 miles without a break to Helston where I waited for the boys at Tesco. Watching the lunches being served in the Tesco café we decided this could never match up to Morrison's so just got some pasties to fuel us to Lands End.
Once again Carl had a day of bad luck with the indexing going on his gears such that his chain kept coming off. We reached Penzance about 2pm and met Dave with his kids Harriet and Toby. We gave Dave the camera to take some pics of us as we crossed over the line (but somehow the wires got crossed, as they do with Dave, and he went to the beach instead) and set off again. The run into Penzance hadn't been too bad so we ditched the thoughts of setting up camp before the final push to Lands End and carried all our stuff
Mr Ross at the end
. We were wrong; the ride out to Lands End was Cornwall at its hilliest again just to stretch our beaten legs to their absolute limit. We did most of the last leg alone stung out as always with our own thoughts about the past 15 days going through our heads before meeting up just above Lands End to ride across the line together. It was emotional if a little bit of an anticlimax. We snapped the obligatory pictures and cracked open a bottle of sparkling wine before heading down to the beach for a pint while Dave took the kids into the sea.It was now that it started to become clear that Phil and Carl were going to struggle to get home. Angela had been trying all day to get them onto a train with the bikes and it was proving simply impossible. Fortunately 2 very kind people came to their rescue: Dave took all our stuff to Penzance and the bikes back to his house while Pete from Astek (GV's shipping company) offered to pick the bikes up from Dave's house and ship them back to Manchester. Thanks to both of them. It did mean that me and Carl had to make our own way from Lands End to Penzance. We started hitching but then and open top bus came past so we got on that and went on an hour long tourist trip back to Penzance where Phil had got us into a dodgy little campsite in the middle of town.
After a quick shower in the portacabin it was time to get out amongst it. We did all the Penzance night scene fortunately meeting a guy called Johnny who seemed to know everyone in town such that we ended up in a disco at the Longboat Hotel drinking dodgy drinks while watching Carl break dance.
The next morning we were awoken by the campsite owner coming round time and time again looking for the camping fees
Mr B at the last beach in England
. I went for a final Morrison's breakfast before we all got on the train, me getting off at Dave's house the boys going to Exeter where they had to pay 80 odd quid to get back to Manchester. And that's it.
A final thanks to a few people:
Absolutely everyone who sponsored us. We all met our targets which is great.
Stuart for meeting me in Laos and getting us all into this in the first place, without that meeting none of us would have even thought about doing this.
Iain for lending me the bike.
Angie for coming and meeting us and feeding us.
Dave and Astek for sorting out the bikes and saving us a cycle back from Lands End to Penzance.
All of the kind people we met on route who gave us discounted campsite fees etc.
Morrison's café for fueling our journey.
The End.
Day 16:
Miles 57.15
Average 12.3
Hours on bike 4.38
Max speed 40.5
Total distance 1034.75
