Lands end to \john O Groats trip

*The Grand Trip - John O'Groats to Lands End July 2005*
The Proof	The facts are that we set off from John O'Groats about 2:00pm on Monday 11/07/05 and arrived at Land's End 1:15pm Thursday 14/07/05.

The Start	We meet to leave from John & Linda's house at 10:00 on Sunday 10/07/05 (John's Birthday) with the weather cloudy but warm. Much excitement and quite a gathering to send us off.

The Ride	Sunday The ride was amazing especially through Scotland as we cross the Forth Road Bridge near Edinburgh with wonderful scenery and generally very quiet roads with the A9 taking us right to Inverness and the first evening stop. Nice meal and drinkies at Wetherspoons. Monday and we hit the A9 again in hot sunny weather for a dramatic ride up the coast to John O'Groats with stunning scenery and many places of interest, sadly on this trip no time to explore! Nice meal and drinkies at Wetherspoons (deja vu?). Tuesday and we are off sharp at 10:00am in the beating sun along the A9 toward Glasgow and on to Carlisle and Blackpool with a bit of a 'ran out of petrol' moment adding some time but we are in to Blackpool in plenty of time for Fish & Chips and a few pints . Wednesday was a bit of an uninteresting day as it is a straight motorway dash in hot sunny weather to Exeter round Birmingham - with an unplanned excursion along the M6 toll - but as ever it is in to the B&B, shower and out for a beer! Thursday starts a little bit foggy but heats up fast to a scorching day as we bomb along the A30 to Land's End for a couple of hours then back to Weston Super Mare. Out to a nice Chinese and - more beer! Friday seems a bit of an anticlimax as we have a quick stop for ice creams on the seafront then a straight run for home - no beer :(.
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
The Drinking	It seemed polite to sample the local brew after a hot day in the saddle.

The Sleeping	The splendid B&B's we stayed at. Many thanks to Angus & Margaret, Shaun & Susan, Lesley and finally Hayden & Wendy for helping to make our trip a wonderful holiday.

The Nasties	It's not big and it's not clever - funny though..

The End	So back to our start point at Linda & John's late afternoon Friday 15/07/05

The Facts	9,287 miles traveled Alan 1808, John & Linda 1809, Graham 1848, Lynn 1906, Kev 1916 Approx £150 spent on fuel each bike
The Videos	These will be along shortly as work is required to make them look good. There will only be few of the best ones here as they do take up a lot of space, If you are really interested contact me for a CD / DVD with all 800 pix / vids on!

John's End to Land O' Scrotes
	The Trip - Rev 1.0 10th to 16th July 2005 On Sunday a steady drive from Home to Inverness then out to celebrate John's birthday. Monday sees us off to John O' Groats then back to the same B&B at Inverness. Tuesday is a blast down to Blackpool and Wednesday on to Exeter. Thursday sees us on to Land's End and back as far as Weston-Super-mare and Friday an easy ride home. 1776 miles What could possibly go wrong?
	The Team Graham (thinks he is in charge) Lynn (in charge of bookings) Kev (actually in charge) Alan (not in charge) John (can we go to Morrisons?) Linda (Luggage, cameraman, and to blame)
	The Route As per the map on left Stopping overnight at: Inverness (Sunday & Monday nights) - booked Blackpool (Tuesday night) - booked Exeter (Wednesday night) - booked Weston-Super-mare (Thursday night) - booked
	Planning - Rev 2.0 to exact locations Mileage guides - amended with true numbers 312 miles (was 330) - Mbro to Inverness 241 miles (was 240) - Inv, JOG, Inv 354 miles (was 345) - Inverness to Blackpool 281 miles (was 275) - Blackpool to Exeter 328 miles (was 300) - Exeter, LE, Weston-Super-mare 266 miles (was 336 - oops) -Weston-Super-mare to Mbro
	Autoroute Stuff Now including rest / petrol stops - for better timing. Directions - version 5 - including all overnight night stops map file - version 5 - including all overnight stops
Updated 22 September, 2005 22:50:45	Home

Inverness - Blackpool - Exeter - Weston

Diary - The Great Preparation
Date	What's to do?	Gra	Lyn	Kev	Jon	Lin	Al
27/02/05	First meet - basics sorted, do we all want to go?	J	J	J	J	J	J
	Can we all get the time off work?	J	J	J	J		J
12/04/05	Sent off for tourist info to Wick, Carlisle, Weston & Exeter			J
03/05/05	Second meet - All change, details above and a new map. Wales gets dropped	J	J	J	J	J	J
	First 2 nights B&B are booked.	J	J	J	J	J	J
	Sent off for tourist info to Blackpool			J
24/05/05	Third meet - Agreed to book all the stopovers and managed to book nights 3 & 4 at Blackpool and Exeter. Autoroute stuff updated above.	J	J	J	J	J	J
19/06/05	Booked final stopover at Weston-Super--mare. Autoroute stuff updated above, and now final. Looks like we are all still on for it.	J	J	J	J	J	J
03/07/05	Fourth meet - Only a week to go so a good time to check out the route.	J	J	J	J	J	J
09/07/05	Bikes - new tyres as required?	J	J	J	J		J
09/07/05	Bikes - serviced as necessary?	J	J	J	J		J
10/07/05	*Are we off then?*	?	?	?	?	?	?

Checklist doc here