South Down the East Coast

Hi all

Roughly 2 weeks left on the trip and I'm a bit ahead of schedule. Its nice really because I can now start to do some shorter days for my transition back into normal life...and work!

The Spurn Lightship in Hull

Scotland

Harwich Lights

3 weeks ago I was in Inverness and I cant believe how quick the run down this side of Britain has been. I've been averaging around 75-80 miles a day over the last couple of weeks, mainly due to the flat terrain and fairly strong northerly winds. The east coast has been very different riding conditions compared to the west with lots of industry and busy coastal cities. I also seemed to be ending up on the wrong side of town quite a bit, riding through some 'choice' housing estates and generally run down areas.

Felixstowe crossing on the ferry

somewhere?

I met and cycled with a couple of great guys heading south, Paul, from south of Atwich, who was just going to do a quick 10 miles with me... that soon turned into a 60 mile round trip down to Spurn Point and Mike was the other guy I cycled with down to the Thames. Mike had just finished a round Britain cycle himself completing over 3200 miles in just over 5 weeks, which was incredible!

Scurdie Ness Lighthouse

Cycling with lots of friends over the next couple of weeks including Rob Brooks, Lofty, Jess Ford, a group of teachers from St Giles College in Brighton (where I used to work), Noel from Dartmouth and hopefully a big group of mates from Devon for the last day (4th July) I'll post details of the last days ride soon.

cheers simon

The Top of Scotland

The sign before the hill to the Mull of Kintyre The legend that is Damo...doing the CTC challenge

Beautiful still harbour of Ullapool

Rupert and me after a long days riding

Been a few weeks again since i've blogged but just reached Edinburgh and have internet access again...hooray (though not much)! First of all I'd like to say a massive thankyou to Helpful Holidays in Devon for their fantastic £1000 donation to Ovacome. A donation like that really helps to boost my enthusiasm for the ride and makes it all seem worth while :0)

So for the last 2 weeks ive been cycling north from Ullapool on the North west coast, around Stoer Head and up to Cape Wrath, the latter of which is apparently the most isolated part of Britain. From here I cycled east along the North coast with pretty much fine weather the whole way. I signed the book at John O'Groats and had a couple of photos and then started the journey south through the historic town of Wick and many others to Inverness. Had a couple of days off with Elsie in Inverness which was fab!!

For the last 5 days ive been cycling east then south, out to fraserburgh, peterhead, Aberdeen, Dundee, St Andrews and into Edinburgh. Beautiful riding, sunny, flat with occasional headwind. Got some great shots of the lighthouses that ill publish online asap.

Cant believe I've nearly run out of credit on this BT openzone already! Ive been busy downloading podcasts to listen to on the long flat roads of the east coast that lay ahead

Ill update again soon.cheers