Initial planning
There are huge number of published resources which give an equally huge number of variations on the LEJOG route. We started serious route planning towards the end of 2013 by reading a few blogs and books, and looking at a number of variations such how many days, Edinburgh vs Glasgow, lanes vs main roads etc.
The key to our route planning was (a) what felt "do-able" in terms of mileage per day and (b) what would work with taking 2 weeks holiday from work. Working from a basis of around 900 miles as a base distance for LEJOG and 2 weeks holiday, it seemed entirely sensible to go for around 90 miles a day for 10 days. This would mean:
Accommodation
We initially agreed that the most sensible option for the trip would be to hire a motorhome, the rationale being that we could prepare our own food and we would not have to keep packing and unpacking from hotel to hotel. We used our Christmas break to scope out a suitable model, and made a reservation for the agreed dates.
The next step was to look for suitable accommodation, which we began to do around 3 months out from the start date. We identified camp sites around the finish location for each day (see below - Route Planning) and then adjusted the proposed route to finish at a suitable site. What we had not fully appreciated at this point was that many sites would only accept bookings from members of either the Caravan Club or Camping & Caravanning Club and so we took out memberships with both. We also did not appreciate that many sites would already be fully booked so there were a few anxious moments while we (well, my wife) called and emailed to find a site with a vacancy. The other slightly frustrating point was that some sites had a minimum 2 or 3 night stay policy which seemed to defeat the whole point of a motorhome holiday, but we had little option but to book anyway.
Having done all of this and ended up with accommodation plus a 10 day route, I then got on with training until one weekend when we were staying in a lovely pub in the Cotswolds. This was part of the training plan, in that I had trained on the Saturday morning, then we drove to the pub and stayed over, with the plan being for me to cycle back in the morning while Becky drove back. After breakfast Becky looked wistfully around the room (which was lovely) and said something along the lines of "If we stayed in B&B accommodation, every day could be like this".
This really did shine a light on the whole concept of using a motorhome for this trip for us; why were we using a motorhome? When we got home we had a long conversation and agreed that in reality:
The upshot was that we decided to go for B&B accommodation or hotels, and travel using our own car; this did mean more telephone calls and emails to find suitable accommodation, and some consequential alteration to the route, but it was definitely the correct decision. The only place we had difficulty finding accommodation was in Glasgow, as the Commonwealth Games were on at the time, but everywhere else was no problem. Please refer to the "Accommodation and Food" post for more information on where we stayed and ate.
I am not saying that booking a motorhome should be ruled out as an option for LEJOG; it may well work for you if you're not bothered about the above points, and the question of value for money becomes less of an issue if you are thinking of doing this with another couple, where the chores and driving can be shared.
Route planning
As mentioned above, the starting point for this was looking at 10 days riding, with the last day being a very short day. It was a very simple matter to use Google Maps to identify a 90 mile or so route for each day, which then gave an idea of start and finish points, and then to refine that initial route using Garmin Connect to produce something that could be exported as a .gpx file to my Garmin Edge. I have shown the actual route ridden below; you will need a Garmin account to access them. I found that when route planning it was helpful to have Garmin Connect open as the actual planning tool, plus Google Maps for the general route view, and Google Street View to check that Garmin Connect was not trying to send me down a canal path or similar (which it will try to do from time to time).
In terms of the actual routes used, I stuck to relatively main roads as this limited both the potential for getting lost, and also kept the route to a reasonable length. As much as I would have loved to go off exploring the byways and beauty spots, I was on a limited timescale and had to focus on getting each day's ride under my belt. Maybe one day I will go back and explore some of the areas I passed through, but not on this trip.
There were two specific parts of the route which caused me concern: the section from Land's End to Devon (Day 1), and the section through Glasgow to Dumbarton (Day 6).
The Day 1 route concerned me because it seemed like a very definite choice between coast hugging, and making slow progress, and taking the A30, which got some very bad write-ups in terms of it being a very dangerous road. In the end I decided to take the A30 as far as Bodmin, and then approach Okehampton from the south, via Dartmoor. The A30 is a fast road, and it is a little hairy when you are crossing the turn offs to other roads; my approach was to look behind very carefully and get out of the saddle so that motorists could see me from a way off. I also made sure that my rear and helmet LEDs were both switched on, even though it was very bright sunshine. The worse thing about the road is the constant noise from the traffic going past, which did become very wearing after a while.
The Day 6 route bothered me because Glasgow looked like a navigational nightmare; I had noted the fact that there is a riverside route which gets top marks in most LEJOG write ups, but I was concerned that I might miss it and end up on one of the dual carriageways going through the city centre. In the end I needn't have worried, as the Commonwealth Games had resulted in a large number of road closures and diversions, and I had plenty of time to find some quiet routes through the city, which popped me out exactly where I wanted to be, just a couple of miles away from that evening's accommodation.
As backup, I highlighted all the routes on large scale AA maps, and took the relevant map with me each day just in case my Garmin failed.
The Route
This is the entire route ready for printing onto 6 x 4 index cards:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x2jrp2tnckpfz1z/B%26B%20cycling%20routes.doc?dl=0
These are the Garmin links:
Day 1 Land's End to Okehampton
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/547358757
Day 2 Okehampton to Almondsbury
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/547358582
Day 3 Almondsbury to Shrewsbury
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/547358331
Day 4 Shrewsbury to Garstang
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/548036369
Day 5 Garstang to Gretna Green
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/548743591
Day 6 Gretna Green to Dumbarton
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/549347350
Day 7 Dumbarton to Fort William
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/549971263
Day 8 Fort William to Dingwall
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/551011049
Day 9 Dingwall to Thrumster
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/551786693
Day 10 Thrumster to John O'Groats
The key to our route planning was (a) what felt "do-able" in terms of mileage per day and (b) what would work with taking 2 weeks holiday from work. Working from a basis of around 900 miles as a base distance for LEJOG and 2 weeks holiday, it seemed entirely sensible to go for around 90 miles a day for 10 days. This would mean:
- 1 day for packing
- 1 day to travel from London to Land's End (by road)
- 10 days cycling
- 2/3 days to travel home, during which which time we could celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary at a suitable location
We decided that we should try to finish the final day's cycling by lunchtime, so that we could make a reasonable inroad into the journey home by the end of Day 10. This did mean that Day 9 would have to finish somewhere relatively near John O'Groats, and therefore would increase the distance to be covered on Days 1-9 by a small amount.
We also decided that July would be the best option, as (a) we wanted the ride to finish a day or two before our wedding anniversary and (b) the weather in July would be (hopefully) as good as it gets in the UK, and booked the time off from work.
Accommodation
We initially agreed that the most sensible option for the trip would be to hire a motorhome, the rationale being that we could prepare our own food and we would not have to keep packing and unpacking from hotel to hotel. We used our Christmas break to scope out a suitable model, and made a reservation for the agreed dates.
The next step was to look for suitable accommodation, which we began to do around 3 months out from the start date. We identified camp sites around the finish location for each day (see below - Route Planning) and then adjusted the proposed route to finish at a suitable site. What we had not fully appreciated at this point was that many sites would only accept bookings from members of either the Caravan Club or Camping & Caravanning Club and so we took out memberships with both. We also did not appreciate that many sites would already be fully booked so there were a few anxious moments while we (well, my wife) called and emailed to find a site with a vacancy. The other slightly frustrating point was that some sites had a minimum 2 or 3 night stay policy which seemed to defeat the whole point of a motorhome holiday, but we had little option but to book anyway.
Having done all of this and ended up with accommodation plus a 10 day route, I then got on with training until one weekend when we were staying in a lovely pub in the Cotswolds. This was part of the training plan, in that I had trained on the Saturday morning, then we drove to the pub and stayed over, with the plan being for me to cycle back in the morning while Becky drove back. After breakfast Becky looked wistfully around the room (which was lovely) and said something along the lines of "If we stayed in B&B accommodation, every day could be like this".
This really did shine a light on the whole concept of using a motorhome for this trip for us; why were we using a motorhome? When we got home we had a long conversation and agreed that in reality:
- The motorhome offered poor value for money against B&B accommodation or hotels
- Access to supermarkets and tourist activities was limited if using a motorhome
- There was an element of drudgery for Becky, as she would be solely responsible for emptying the waste tanks, and doing all the cooking and shopping
- She would also be stuck at the campsite during the day with nothing to do
- She was very anxious about damaging it on some of the very narrow roads on the route
- Parking a motorhome is problematic, in that visibility is limited and they generally need 2 parking spaces
The upshot was that we decided to go for B&B accommodation or hotels, and travel using our own car; this did mean more telephone calls and emails to find suitable accommodation, and some consequential alteration to the route, but it was definitely the correct decision. The only place we had difficulty finding accommodation was in Glasgow, as the Commonwealth Games were on at the time, but everywhere else was no problem. Please refer to the "Accommodation and Food" post for more information on where we stayed and ate.
I am not saying that booking a motorhome should be ruled out as an option for LEJOG; it may well work for you if you're not bothered about the above points, and the question of value for money becomes less of an issue if you are thinking of doing this with another couple, where the chores and driving can be shared.
Route planning
As mentioned above, the starting point for this was looking at 10 days riding, with the last day being a very short day. It was a very simple matter to use Google Maps to identify a 90 mile or so route for each day, which then gave an idea of start and finish points, and then to refine that initial route using Garmin Connect to produce something that could be exported as a .gpx file to my Garmin Edge. I have shown the actual route ridden below; you will need a Garmin account to access them. I found that when route planning it was helpful to have Garmin Connect open as the actual planning tool, plus Google Maps for the general route view, and Google Street View to check that Garmin Connect was not trying to send me down a canal path or similar (which it will try to do from time to time).
In terms of the actual routes used, I stuck to relatively main roads as this limited both the potential for getting lost, and also kept the route to a reasonable length. As much as I would have loved to go off exploring the byways and beauty spots, I was on a limited timescale and had to focus on getting each day's ride under my belt. Maybe one day I will go back and explore some of the areas I passed through, but not on this trip.
There were two specific parts of the route which caused me concern: the section from Land's End to Devon (Day 1), and the section through Glasgow to Dumbarton (Day 6).
The Day 1 route concerned me because it seemed like a very definite choice between coast hugging, and making slow progress, and taking the A30, which got some very bad write-ups in terms of it being a very dangerous road. In the end I decided to take the A30 as far as Bodmin, and then approach Okehampton from the south, via Dartmoor. The A30 is a fast road, and it is a little hairy when you are crossing the turn offs to other roads; my approach was to look behind very carefully and get out of the saddle so that motorists could see me from a way off. I also made sure that my rear and helmet LEDs were both switched on, even though it was very bright sunshine. The worse thing about the road is the constant noise from the traffic going past, which did become very wearing after a while.
The Day 6 route bothered me because Glasgow looked like a navigational nightmare; I had noted the fact that there is a riverside route which gets top marks in most LEJOG write ups, but I was concerned that I might miss it and end up on one of the dual carriageways going through the city centre. In the end I needn't have worried, as the Commonwealth Games had resulted in a large number of road closures and diversions, and I had plenty of time to find some quiet routes through the city, which popped me out exactly where I wanted to be, just a couple of miles away from that evening's accommodation.
As backup, I highlighted all the routes on large scale AA maps, and took the relevant map with me each day just in case my Garmin failed.
The Route
This is the entire route ready for printing onto 6 x 4 index cards:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x2jrp2tnckpfz1z/B%26B%20cycling%20routes.doc?dl=0
These are the Garmin links:
Day 1 Land's End to Okehampton
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/547358757
Day 2 Okehampton to Almondsbury
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/547358582
Day 3 Almondsbury to Shrewsbury
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/547358331
Day 4 Shrewsbury to Garstang
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/548036369
Day 5 Garstang to Gretna Green
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/548743591
Day 6 Gretna Green to Dumbarton
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/549347350
Day 7 Dumbarton to Fort William
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/549971263
Day 8 Fort William to Dingwall
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/551011049
Day 9 Dingwall to Thrumster
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/551786693
Day 10 Thrumster to John O'Groats
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/552560922
Resources
These are the main sources we used for route planning and accommodation:
http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/
http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/
http://www.justgo.uk.com/
https://www.google.co.uk/maps
http://connect.garmin.com/
http://www.sawdays.co.uk/
http://www.cycle-endtoend.org.uk/
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