I'm a double End-to-ender!
Sklerjen
Posts: 178
Hello!
Just came back from a double end-to-end trip: first Land's End-John O'Groats, and then Durness-Dover. A grand total of 4,700 km in 6 weeks... The most difficult part actually was going from Paris to Land's End, across Dorset and Dartmoor. I think it was the worse cycling week of my entire life! Rain, wind, cold, and hills...
LEJOG itself was fun. We did half campsites and half stealth/asking-people camping, and that was really good. As usual, we met wonderful persons who were extremely kind to us, offering a shower, a drink, coffee... while we were just asking for a place to put the tent. But what I liked the best was meeting all thses cyclists doing LEJOG. Everybody makes it a personnal challenge, and I found a true sport spirit along the road, because there is no competition between cyclists, just a lot of solidarity, and I found it beautiful! This kind of experience really gives you faith in mankind! We met so many great people! Then we spent a couple of days in JOG resting, and set out to Cape Wrath for the second diagonal. It was fine, but I was glad to get to Dover at the end...
Weatherwise, well... it rained a lot, especially in England... And it was cold, especially in Scotland... A bit difficult when you're camping!
As for the route, we followed the CTC B&B route, which was very nice. On the way back we also followed the CTC Dover-Durness road. Scotland was, as usual, absolutely stunning and beautiful. I can't get enough of it. My personnal favorite part was across the Grampians, from Spittal of Glenshee to Grantown on Spey, through Braemar and Tomintoul.
Now I need to write an article in the french touring magazine, to tell french cyclists to go and do it!
Just came back from a double end-to-end trip: first Land's End-John O'Groats, and then Durness-Dover. A grand total of 4,700 km in 6 weeks... The most difficult part actually was going from Paris to Land's End, across Dorset and Dartmoor. I think it was the worse cycling week of my entire life! Rain, wind, cold, and hills...
LEJOG itself was fun. We did half campsites and half stealth/asking-people camping, and that was really good. As usual, we met wonderful persons who were extremely kind to us, offering a shower, a drink, coffee... while we were just asking for a place to put the tent. But what I liked the best was meeting all thses cyclists doing LEJOG. Everybody makes it a personnal challenge, and I found a true sport spirit along the road, because there is no competition between cyclists, just a lot of solidarity, and I found it beautiful! This kind of experience really gives you faith in mankind! We met so many great people! Then we spent a couple of days in JOG resting, and set out to Cape Wrath for the second diagonal. It was fine, but I was glad to get to Dover at the end...
Weatherwise, well... it rained a lot, especially in England... And it was cold, especially in Scotland... A bit difficult when you're camping!
As for the route, we followed the CTC B&B route, which was very nice. On the way back we also followed the CTC Dover-Durness road. Scotland was, as usual, absolutely stunning and beautiful. I can't get enough of it. My personnal favorite part was across the Grampians, from Spittal of Glenshee to Grantown on Spey, through Braemar and Tomintoul.
Now I need to write an article in the french touring magazine, to tell french cyclists to go and do it!
Si vis pacem, para velo
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Comments
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Sounds great!!0
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Chapeau !Two wheels good,four wheels bad0
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Chapeau.
I'm glad that you liked your end to End. I certainly enjoyed my two separate rides that saw me do End to End in both directions. It put me in touch with my own country and I too enjoyed the camaraderie amongst touring cyclists and the friendliness and generosity of the people that i met on the journey.
I am just back from a Channel to the Mediterranean ( Calais to Montpelier) ride with the added challenge of try to survive using only French learned thirty three years ago. I had a wonderful time in France and much to my surprise I managed to cope with communication. On several occasions I was even being congratulated on being able to communicate in French.
The crossing of France is very different to a UK End to End in that France has far more landscape to swallow the touring cyclist and I didn't see too many tourers. Stelth camping in the Somme was hard with such a flat landscape but I managed to do so twice. I also stealth camped in a vineyard in the Rhone Valley.
Having only sampled France on the ride I'll be returning for more leisurely tours with smaller daily mileages over the next few years starting with Provence next year.0 -
Sklerjen rhymes with sturgeon. A certain amazing Sklerjen that I know recently did a middle to end, where s/he might have eaten sturgeon when s/he got to the end (only it was also the middle) if sturgeon lived in that particular sea, which I don't think they do. But s/he could have celebrated with sturgeon's eggs when when s/he got back to the middle (and the end) who's first letter rhymes with the sea.
Ha! There's an attempt at a riddle. Any guesses?0
