Day 13 (final day!): Port Gower to John O’Groats (55 miles)

Thirteen days and more than 960 miles later and we’ve done it! We reached journey’s end at John O’Groats today at 1.40pm after one last 55 mile push.

We struggled up two long humps to our first stop at Dunbeath, a very long straight road to our second stop at Watten and then the last 15 miles, the last five of which was spent wondering if what we could see in the distance was John O’Groats.

Looking back at where we have been over the last fortnight is already a bit of a blur. We’ve had our tough moments to battle through and at times it took a lot of willpower to ignore the aches and ever present tiredness and just keep going.

But it’s also been a huge amount of fun. We’ve cycled through some amazing places, laughed until we’ve cried, and actually the hardest parts are some of my favourite.

We’ve discovered a few universal truths along the way:

1. Nick to Chris, disappointed he wouldn’t drink anything stronger than water at dinner: ‘You can’t go wrong on beer.’

2. Support driver three Kev, the morning after our chippy dinner: ‘Don’t go large on chips.’

There’s a lot of people who have helped us along the way and made the journey that bit easier. A huge thank you from all of us goes to:

– Mog minders Adrian and Ellen for enabling us to take the time to do this. 

– Support drivers Jean and Jane for their constant back-up and Kev for his almost constant back-up and hundreds of extra miles. We wouldn’t have made it without you.

– Nick and Susie, Jane and David, and Barry and Catherine, for not turning us away at the door and even doing our washing. We’re sorry we weren’t better company.

– Everyone who has made a donation to our two charities, Isle of Man Samaritans and Parkinson’s UK. It includes Allen and Jackie, who made a donation as we had our picture taken at the John O’Groats sign. Raising money for these charities really kept us pedalling up those hills.

– And everyone who has enjoyed and commented on this blog. It’s not the most informative but it helped us to see the funny side of all our mishaps.

Our sponsorship is up to nearly £900 for Isle of Man Samaritans and about £1,650 for Parkinson’s. But if, like us, you’re amazed we actually made it then it’s not to late to donate!

For Jackie’s fundraising page visit https://gogetfunding.com/jackie-turleys-lejog-for-samaritans-isle-of-man/?show_desktop=1

And for Liz and Chris’s: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/LEJOGUK2016