"Gee but it's great to be back home" (a line from which Simon & Garfunkel song?)

Dear Lord,

It is indeed great to be back home and both Alan and I have missed home and family. Before closing this blog I would like to share this  final prayer.

The last fortnight has been tough both emotionally and physically for both Alan and I with each day seemingly presenting a new range of obstacles to be overcome, from the repairs to van and caravan to the challenges of navigation and weather. Putting two strong minded males in a caravan for a fortnight could be a recipe for disaster but we end the fortnight knowing more about each other and ourselves and with an even deeper bond of friendship.

Whilst I had set myself a challenging goal You Lord saw fit to spice it up a touch and throw in a few extra elements to test our mettle, I guess You knew we would overcome them :-)

Thanks Lord for the people who rearranged their fortnight to accommodate my challenge, including Karen, Sophie, Amy, Grandad and Grandma and Alan & Julia. The fundraising has been a phenomenal success thanks to the team of Sister Helen, Monica and Helen and my friend Terry has ensured we got some publicity.

Such an event as this is expensive and between us, Alan's family and my family have met all those expenses so that all the funds raised on the Just Giving page or donated directly are going to L'Arche - and that's over £4,000!

Thanks Lord for everyone who has donated and shown such interest in our epic adventure and for keeping Alan and I safe and well.

We entrust L'Arche Flintshire to your care.

Amen

pics

Hopefully if you are reading this the pictures have downloaded too :-) Pics are self explanatory with me heading out from Penrith in the pouring rain at 6.30am after our day of pampering and rest with a tick of approval :-) and Alan and I at John O Groats - I'll write one more blog tomorrow on our journey home before we sign off.
The Two Alans

Show me the way to go home (written by Irving King but who was Irving King?)

A favourite of my mum's and suggested by Alan as we now start to plan our long journey home tomorrow and ......YES😀 we've arrived at John O Groats! If I cycled another 400 metres I'd be in the sea! We can't decide if it's the North Sea or the Atlantic and best guess is that it's where the two meet. Today has been the nicest day of the fortnight and probably the least eventful, not that Alan is complaining.

We wanted to get this blog out asap and will do one more later today hopefully with some pics😀

Every Day Hurts (a hit for which Manchester rock group in the 70's)

We've given up on rain themed songs but suffice to say that for a fourth day I set off at 6.30 in full waterproofs! And after a hard days cycling yesterday my legs were complaining as today had more climbing and tomorrow has twomega climbs!

Today's ride saw me cycle the length of Loch Ness up to Inverness where Alan passed on route to Arnold Clark Renault dealer in Inverness. Two hours later he passed me again to my relief as I was mentally drawing up a plan B for accommodation. In my head I saw a stranded Alan in Inverness and me cycling around Dornoch trying to find a B&B for the night:-)

That we are now both sitting in the caravan in Dorncoch we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Fiona Paul and the service manager for listening to our dilemma and wanting to help our charitable cause and complete our challenge. They then went more than the extra mile and rescheduled their morning to repair the van and have Alan back on his way with in 90 mins.

After Inverness the rain cleared and I had a pleasant 3 hours cycle down to Dornoch. Only one more 80 mile day to John O Groats:-)

Climb every mountain (what is the theme of this famous Sound of Music song?)

A short blog as we've had to go to the local pub in Fort Augustus to get wifi. Things have been going really well and today's 3 hour jaunt over the mountains from Tyndrum to Glen Coe weren't as taxing as I had imagined. I set off just after 6 to reduce the impact of traffic on the busy A82 and tired legs coped really well with the climbling. The promise of bad weather coming in kept me going and the next 80 miles down to Fort Augustus were relatively comfortable and without a stop I was done by 2.

Having said things were going really well unexpectedly Alan has discovered a squeak in the engine of his van and is taking a detour to the Renault dealer in Inverness tomorrow. We'll await the outcome!
P.S. For Julia.....Alan has paid pensioner rate to have his ears lowered lol :-)

Baby it's cold outside (a well known song written in1944 but for what film?)

After  a drenching on Tuesday the temperature really dropped on Wednesday night, our first in the wilderness of Scotland and neither of us had a great night. As I hit the road at 6.30am pointing out to Alan that it might well get colder at night in the highlands he muttered something about coming up with a plan. I had no idea he meant dismantling the caravan to diagnose why the heating system that we didn't think we would need in July, wasn't working. But that's what he did and it was a very pleased Mr. Brumby who welcomed me back after another long day in the saddle.
We've gone from leaving the caravan door open overnight to having the heating on!

9 days cycling done and 3 to go and I am delighted that I'm still in one piece with a real chance of making it to the finish. We're in a lovely campsite north of Loch Lomond surrounded by mountains and beautiful scenery. Did I say mountains? That means more climbing in the last 3 days!

It might as well rain until September (a hit written and performed by Carole King but who did she originally write it for?)

Yesterday was our rest day and surprisingly it felt good to get back on the bike re energised and fresh for the final 5 days. And so I'd really like it to stop raining by at least mid August when we go on holiday and preferably this week! The good news is your prayers for better weather are being answered as whilst it rained all day we didn't get the forecast northerly strong winds as well so I made good speed on today's 80 miles all be it very wet miles:-) Having crossed the border we are 50 miles south of Glasgow for the night.

Alan is complaining that I'm going to have to buy him a new set of wiper blades for the van:-)

Interestingly I passed about a dozen separate cyclists heading in the opposite direction all doing the jogle (john o groats to lands end)