The Drive Down

Sunday 1st August

First Base

It was the day to leave and we had organized a hire van to get there. One of our friends Alastair Beedie, who had finished a boat building apprenticeship in Wales agreed to drive the van back from Lands End up as he had a bench saw to pick up from down south anyway. We were to pick him up half way down then he would drop us of at the bottom of the UK and drive back, picking his saw up on the way.

Outside my house just before we left

Before we got everything organized and the van packed it was 11:15am. We had everything set for a 14 hour journey ahead of us, loads of sandwiches and home bakes, kindly made by Kerrie and her Mum and plenty of good music. We stopped at Aviemore for a quick coffee and a 6 pack of red bull. We picked up Alastair at Tebay services Westmorland, quick high 5 then on the road again. Alastair definitely provided fresh banter but best of all, a kettle that plugs into the lighter socket. The red bull wasn't sitting very well in our guts so a nice cup of tea and a few truffles went down a treat. As the miles and hours flew by we were becoming increasingly aware that we will be arriving early in the morning, causing a slight panic trying to find a open shop for some beers, but found one Tewkesbury. The time was 9:45 pm and we still had 250 miles to go.




We arrived at lands end at 01:21am as predicted by the sat nav. First impressions were grim as it looked like lands end wouldn't look out of place in Disney Land. Which in itself is not a bad thing, but we had certain preconceptions from various books and blogs of this place being a money grabbing tourist trap and so far fitted the stereotype nicely. Decided to avoid the £50 fine for camping anywhere near lands end so drove on through the night in hunt of a camp spot. We drove up single track road after single track road, surrounded by plants and shrubbery that looked like it shouldn't grow in a UK climate. Eventually the road came to an end in an small open car park beside a small wee cove which looked derelict enough to us to call it night. Cracked open our beers bought from the shop in Tewkesbury and explored the cove, found some caves and took some photos, probably not the ideal thing to do the night before cycling over 1000 miles but after a 14 hour drive it was nice to relax.



The wee cove we found



Logan planning routes and me writing up what your reading now, in what was our bed for the night

At 03:30am we decided not to set up the tents but to sleep in the van instead, Logan and myself in the back with the bikes, Alastair in the front in which he volunteered for, which he inevitably regretted in a few hours later when the sun came up turning the cab into a green house. Went of to sleep stoked, a bit late but all went well, gnarly start to a gnarly trip.