600 miles on two bikes …

Back in the early 1970's my partner, Denise, and I did a fair bit of cycling around the south of England. We lived in Essex and spent several weekends and holidays exploring locally with trips down to Sussex and Kent, the New Forest and a couple of excellent trips down to Lands End. We had also cycled around The Lakes and by 1976 we were ready for a bigger challenge.

The classic End to End was a bit too much for us, both time and energy wise, so we settled on a trip from John O'Groats down the West Coast of Scotland to Glasgow. The train would take us from Essex up to Wick and then back from Glasgow but the 600 mile trip between promised to be full of interest and a reasonable challenge. The photos and logs from the trip have lain in a cupboard, unlooked at, for almost 30 years but with the advent of the Web I can now share these with anyone who cares to look.

1976 is a lifetime away for many people and much has changed in Scotland since this trip. Ferries have been replaced by bridges, roads have been upgraded and the peace and isolation have been disturbed by increased traffic. The scenery, however, remains unchanged and is just as beautiful now as it was then and this trip is well worth repeating for anyone who wants to enjoy Scotland at its best.

Bear in mind when looking through this website that the photos are not of the quality I like to take nowadays, they were merely taken as a record of the trip. Most times the light was not good, the weather was poor and the object of the trip was cycling, not photography. The photographs had to fitted around the cycling and it is not always easy to concentrate on photography when limbs are tired and the weather poor. We did not have the best of weather for this trip and there are often long distances between photos as I didn't fancy stopping in the rain.

The logs are presented as written and, again, were done as a record of the trip and not as flowing prose. With tired legs and a desire to snuggle down in the sleeping bag (often with the rain hitting the tent) writing daily logs can be a bit of a chore. Never mind, without these simple notes I doubt that I could remember much of what we did.

So here we have the story of our long ride, not much of a challenge for many long distance riders but it was a trip to remember for us in more ways than one as it was our last cycle trip together. A few months later Denise went off to marry someone else and I took up solo walking. I've still got the bike though so who knows, one day …

I hope that someone gets some enjoyment out of these words and photos and if this story inspires anyone to get on their bike and get up to Scotland it will have been worthwhile. Select your preferences from the menu above and, if you enjoy your virtual cycle trip, leave me a comment or two in the guestbook.

Happy cycling,

Les Ellingham