Remember the estimate of 93 miles!
Back to the start of the day. After a really good breakfast, addressing cycling related medical matters (enough said!), a tour of the delightful garden and a photo opportunity with our hosts Chris and Jack, (see below), we set off only an hour behind schedule.
The timing would have less of a problem, apart from having already arranged to meet up with Archie Scott, a distant relative of Scilla (we're staying with Scilla and Graham in Golspie the nights either side of our planned arrival in John O'Groats) and a lunchtime meeting to the west of Shrewsbury with Helen Crofts, an actuary I know, having indicated times to each which were to say the least at risk. To add complication (did we need any?) we had no mobile phone signal for much of the morning. Oh, and by the way, we also had to get back home to Hartford to call in to see elder son George at his 18th birthday party at a local golf club, today also being the day of George's last A level exam.
We managed to meet up with Archie, who has done LEJOG a couple of times, in Knighton and we had a really enjoyable couple of hours cycling with him.
Fortunately most of our cycling was over gently undulating terrain, although the difference in cycling capability became horribly obvious going up the first significant incline. Archie hardly slowed down at all, Martin did so noticeably more and I just watched the two of them disappear into the distance.
Before going our separate ways I did suggest to Archie that, given a couple of years' training on my part in particular, he might be prepared to join us again for a day out on our bikes. In any event, it was really enjoyable cycling with him and we were grateful for him taking the time to join us.
We then set off to meet up with Helen in a place which didn't exist on our map and for most of the time without a signal to enable us to harness satellite technology to track down the precise location. Gradually our likely time of arrival at the pub Helen had selected slipped back and the only consolation was the countryside we were cycling through (the Welsh border counties have really given us some beautiful views - note Martin has caught my good side in the photo below).
Finally we met up with Helen in Coedway at 3pm, a mere three hours after the time I had indicated the night before (sorry again, Helen!) and we then had a good lunch, but not before Martin had come across the vehicle of his dreams - that dear reader is a Triumph motorbike (with Helen and the bike owner standing behind) and it has a 2.3 litre engine. Martin used to motorcycle in his younger days - what does that look tell you?
Thanks also to Helen for coming out of her way to meet us (and for waiting a very, very long time for us to appear!).
By the time we left Helen, we still had 50+ miles to go (how "+" we didn't know) and the risk of us not making last orders was becoming an increasing possibility. We rattled along at what by our standards was a very good pace, aided by terrain which was kind to us. We stopped in Ellesmere (more of that later) after 7pm for refuelling (I was certainly starting to fade a bit by them) and then made good time hampered only really by the gathering darkness. Whist we both had lights, when you are cycling along back roads, particularly with a lot of tree cover, seeing the road surface and being able to spot potholes becomes increasingly challenging.
Eventually we arrived at Hartford Golf Club at 11.05pm (it's a good job there was a late bar). Unfortunately the gloss was taken off the occasion, because Martin could not find his wallet, which amongst the usual items in a wallet also had things relevant to our trip. He quickly concluded that he had almost certainly left it in Ellesmere.
The end result was, after Martin had made the necessary phone calls, early Saturday morning he went down to Ellesmere and also Malpas, to see if he could retrieve the wallet (to date to no avail), and then making his planned journey back home to Kendal, before returning for the start of week 2 from Hartford on Sunday morning.
It was a bit of an inconvenience, especially for Martin, but otherwise it has so far been a marvellous experience. I'm typing this without Martin's usual input, but he may well add his own thoughts later.
A few observations from me:
1. We cycled, taking the mileage from Martin's computer, which gives more conservative figures than mine, 462 miles against the first week estimate of 413 miles (I omitted to mention that Friday's total distance came in at 112 miles, versus the estimated 93 - no wonder I was tired!)
2. That means, especially as we expect actual distances over the remaining two weeks to be somewhat closer to the estimates (with possible exceptions!), we have done over 40% of the total mileage for our route for LEJOG and it is likely that we have already had the two longest days by distance on the whole trip.
3. The weather so far has been really kind, with no rain since we started.
4. The weather has also helped us enjoy some stunning scenery, particularly the Welsh border counties.
5. Much as I love Cornwall as a county, from the perspective of LEJOG, with its hills, a number of people have said the first couple of days through Cornwall are the worst. Agreed!
6. The people we have met have been great, including all our hosts wherever we have stayed and those we have just met along the way. What has been clear through conversations has been the number of people who have known or been related to someone who had been afflicted by bowel cancer. Hopefully there has been the odd conversation which will prove useful for someone in the future.
That's enough for week one. Week two starts Sunday morning with a vist to Macclesfield to see my Mum and for Martin to see his old school for the first time since 1969 (to put that into some kind of perspective, when he last saw King's School, man had not yet landed on the moon, the UK still used shillings and pence and England were holders of the World Cup - now that certainly makes it seem a long time ago!).
Ian
