The reason for this all madness:

There is something exhilarating about embarking upon a long journey, especially when you plan to make it under your own steam.  There is the spirit of adventure experienced when exploring unfamiliar territory and meeting both ordinary and extraordinary people and of course there is the perfect opportunity to sample some of the local culinary delights and the occasional regional brew.  I've wanted to travel from one end of our beautiful isle to the other for a quite a while and when  the opportunity arose this summer I needed no persuasion.

Highlights:

• The Youth Hostel at Tintagel - The hostel is perched on a cliff top and the view looking out to sea is phenomenal.  The friendly lady warden and her mum were the perfect hosts.

• Meeting up with my sister at an ice cream parlour near Bicester and eating ice cream sundaes when the temperature was nearly 30°c.

• Cycling for a few hours between Crowden and Sowerby Bridge with Steve who emailed me some Pennine Cycle Way maps - cheers mate, although we didn't use as much of the PCW North as I'd planned.

• Being able to take a detour home to see my wife in Leeds and timing it just right to see my friends at Jill 'n' Kev's BBQ

• Being able to cycle the Tissington Trail midweek and having it all to myself.

• Fish & chips at the lovely market town of Hawes. Mmm... nice...

• Tea and cakes in Hartside cafe waiting for the torrential rain to stop.

• Church tea rooms in Dalkeith near Edinburgh - shelter from the wind and rain and soup, sandwiches, tea and cakes & cakes & cakes... all for £4.20...!!!

• The helpful couple who ran the B&B at Culloden who drove us to Tesco's when we had no food and printed the route information we needed off the internet... and haggis for breakfast!

• Tea and a cappuccino muffin at Ralia cafe and being able to buy a miniature of Dalwhinnie after their visitor centre had said they had stopped producing them.

• The lady warden in Tongue who's endless supply of top quality home baking replenished our energy levels and kept Ross's panniers stocked up with cakes

• The lady wardens in our last youth hostel who wrote out a certificate for me and then kindly posted it home for me too.

• The End... because I felt like I'd achieved something

Low points:

• Going off in the wrong direction from Truro after losing the NCN3 signs and following link signs towards Falmouth instead. Doh!

• So hot in the midlands the tarmac melted and made it like cycling through treacle.

• Edinburgh city centre - chewed us up and spat us out... 2 hours later!

• Clocking 99.5 miles on the Melrose to Stirling stage and being too tired to cycle down the hill and back up again to reach the magic 100.

• On the Black Isle, the Cromarty ferry had broken down leaving us with a 25 mile extension to our 60 mile day.

• Cafe woman in Thurso who rubbed every pasty in the heated cabinet like she was stroking a dog as she described it's contents.  Eeouw!

• The End... because you don't want to have to stop doing something that you're enjoying.

Scary moments:

• Being in The Zone, head down, cycling over Slochd Pass and nearly cycling at about 15 mph into the back of a stationary Land Rover, only saved from a crumpled wheel, bent forks and a headache by my more observant companion Ross yelling "Allan" moments before the potential impact!

• The smell of melting brake pads descending the 1:3 gradient into Porlock on the coast of Exmoor.

• Nearly dropping a lathe on Ross's hand in Culloden... don't ask!

• Finding out that Ross had a superior capacity for eating cakes than I did.

The route:

For quieter roads and ease of route finding I followed National Cycle Network and Sustrans routes wherever possible

From Land's End I used the Cornish Way and the West Country Way (NCN3) taking detours to Tintagel, Bude, Lynmouth & Minehead before branching off East to Glastonbury, through the Mendips, over the Chilterns & through Oxfordshire.

Heading North through the Midlands using quiet roads (between Birmingham & Leicester) to join the Pennine Cycleway (NCN68) between Ashbourne & Sowerby Bridge

Ross joined me for the Northern half starting from Pudsey through Settle to Hawes.

Through Kirkby Stephen, Appleby crossing the C2C at Hartside Heights, then through Alston to Birdoswald on Hadrian's Wall.

We used part of the Reiver's (NCN20) up to the Border at Newcastleton and then on to Melrose where we joined the Coast & Castles route (NCN1) up to Edinburgh.

Then across the Forth Bridge picking up the Forth cycle route (NCN76) to Stirling.

Across to Aberfoyle where we joined the Lochs & Glens route (NCN7) to Inverness.

Re-joining NCN1 took us to our conclusion at John O'Groats.

The Statistics:

Over 1,300 miles, 18 days & 1 puncture

Thanks to:

My wife for helping sort out my accommodation problems, for supporting me every pedal stroke of the way and driving all the way to Inverness to collect us when train timetables let us down.

My sister for the ice cream, meals and bed for the night and for all the text messages of support.

My Certificate of completion

(er... just for my Mum to see... of course...)