Jogle Complete

*Slight glitch with Garmin missed out just over 10 miles early on!

This morning had a very strange feeling to it. As I sit on the train back to the big smoke with no pedalling required, staring out on the Cornish countryside  that I felt myself cursing yesterday in a rushed effort to reach the finish line of our 969 mile long adventure. I find myself lonely and almost as though I'm missing a limb without my trusty steed and fellow wolves.

It's been a long and arduous adventure which has taken us end to end in a valiant attempt to challenge ourselves whilst also raising as much as we possibly can to help out the true heroes of our nation. 12 days, 969 miles and countless calories consumed later and we finally reached our destination and end point; Lands End in what was fittingly a very sunny and warm setting to finally ditch the bike and for Ed and Dave anyway sip that cold first beverage in celebration of our achievements.

The day yesterday was always an inevitable obstacle in our quest, however we did not expect that obstacle to be so tough. We had set ourselves a pretty long day of 90 miles on day 12 through a county we knew was hilly but we were feeling confident that with an earlier 6:30 start we could eat up those miles early on. On exiting our Plymouth University accommodation I found that my back tyre was flat and without hesitation I started to remove the wheel and resolve problem number one. It took about 10 minutes with some help from the lads and eventually we were on the road, not the best start but worse was to follow. As we hit the streets of Plymouth town centre the weather was as we were used to, SOAKING WET!! This meant that I the middle of August 10/12 days we'd experienced rain. Clearly not what the brochure had displayed when we signed up for this. Nevertheless we had the goal in our sights and we were as determined as ever. We negotiated the city centre and found the bridge out of Plymouth. As we were crossing we again had that impending doom as lorries braked hard behind and cars in front flashed and horned. Oh, that would be the cycle path we missed to cross then.

Once across we saw the large no bike road signs warning us against the A30 to Liskeeard. Our heads followed this time and we took the slip road. We let Garmin lead us to Liskeeard and planned to rejoin the A30 further down the county once some of the traffic had dispersed. Unsurprisingly Garmin opted for the quieter roads, otherwise known as dirt tracks in the middle of nowhere which seemed to circle aimlessly and made us feel as though no ground was being made whatsoever. After 11 days of my chain staying firmly in place on my bike it decided to continually remove itself from my bike in the now torrential rain in the middle of some steep climbs. This really wasn't ideal, as again I was freezing cold, I had oil black hands and I was delaying both Dave and Ed which in the conditions I imagine made them feel mildly frustrated.

After about an hour of riding through what felt like rivers including a ford (which was actually. Disappointment for us after expecting a seaway) we reached Liskeeard and we could see a break in the cloud further to the south. Some chocolate bars later and another urination stop for Ed and we continued on towards our next milestone St. Austell. We now rode hard with a slightly more upbeat cadence after having neared termination of our challenge at such a late stage in horrendous circumstances. Nothing breaks the wolfpack though, not even the biggest hills that Cornwall could throw at us.

14 miles later and we rolled in to St. Austell with a break in the rain we stopped for a hot chocolate and a flapjack. As we were waiting to leave the coffee shop with Dave in the toilet the waitress decided it would be a good idea to pop next door to the local press officer and bully us into a short interview and photo shoot for the St. Austell Herald. Begrudgingly we obliged and rode3 astride down the high street as traffic was halted for the new heroes. Quite surreal actually.

Onwards through Truro and by now the clouds had cleared and the skies were blue and temperatures must have been exceeding 18 degrees, mild for most August days, but almost exotic for our now rain drenched bodies. Once through Truro we reached the A30 to Redruth and Penzance. The end was now both in sight 27 miles away and achievable. We set a blistering pace on what was a very smooth and slightly less busy road now. We flew down the hills and actually managed to increase the speed up the long drags. Through Redruth and onto Penzance with our first sighting of signs for Lands End we continued to step on the gas and were averaging speeds of 20mph+ for the last 10 miles our quickest so far. Clearly the 11 previous days had just been training for our last big push.

Upon arriving in a very picturesque and warm Penzance we checked in with base camp and WAG central, arranging a rendezvous at Lands End in 1 hour we found time for a quick ice cream and posed for a photo taken by the local bobby.

A leisurely pace with team hats on brought us into our destination which we found to be much busier than we'd imagined clearly tales of our journey have touched hundreds. The church bells rang, bunting flew and a large banner welcoming us to our endpoint that had been erected by Hannah and Jen was waiting.

Epic scenes followed as we congratulated one another and posed for the obligatory photo by the final sign and finally relaxed in jubilation of out accomplishments.

A big thanks to my comrades Dave Wallace and Ed Coy who without them none of this would have been possible or achievable. Well done lads.

Next up the world....