LEJOG - My Route

The Route

Land's End to John O'Groats or John O'Groats to Land's End

The first decision to be made before I could start planning the route details was whether to attempt LEJOG or JOGLE. As both ends of the journey are at roughly sea level the overall climbing would be the same in either direction so no advantage is gained, the only advantage LEJOG has over JOGLE is the prevailing wind which due to the jet stream blows from the South West. So this is the primary reason why I am doing LEJOG and not JOGLE, riding 1000 miles into a headwind whilst a challenge is not something I relish. Maybe next time I'll do JOGLE

LEJOG Route

So having decided on the direction of travel  the detailed route planning was started and it has been a lengthy monumental task taking almost 4 months with tweaking still being done to this day.
The beginning and end are obviously fixed points but there is no set route that must be followed. There are numerous guides and books available offering routes and many resources online with helpful advice but the final decision is up to personal preference.
The route for me was influenced by the following:

# of Days Available
Distance Cycled per day
Climbing per Day
Availability of suitable accommodation (not just for me but also my bike)

The number of days available was set by the vacation days I have accrued and the amount of time I can reasonably take of off work. This I figured to be 14 days.

Daily Mileage, based on the total expected mileage and days available I averaged out I would need to ride between 70 and 75 miles each and everyday. 

Climbing, Whilst keeping this to a minimum some days will have significantly more climbing than others. where possible some days the mileage ridden will be slightly longer so as to avoid significant climbs.

Suitable Accommodation for me and secure storage for the bike are not always within the average mileage I am planning to ride daily, in fact even finding towns and villages within the average mile was sometimes difficult. This all played into the planning and has required some days to be shorter and others significantly longer than average.

Day 0 - Land's End to Hayle

Day 1 - Hayle to Launceston

Day 2 - Launceston to Wellington

Day 3 - Wellington to Thornbury

 

Day 4 - Thornbury to Stourport

Day 5 - Stourport to Tarporley

Day 6 - Tarporley to Lancaster

Day 7 - Lancaster to Carlisle

Day 8 - Carlisle to Biggar

 

Day 9 - Biggar to Callander

Day 10 - Callander to Fort William

Day 11 - Fort William to Inverness

Day 12 - Inverness to Helmsdale

Day 13 - Helmsdale to John O'Groats THE END.

After reaching JOG the riding is not quite done, despite being close to 1000 miles at this point I have two more comparatively short rides, 20 miles each. I'll be off to Thurso for the celebratory evening of relaxing with a pint or two and sore muscles and the next morning riding over to Wick to pick up a rental car for 600 mile drive south to Staffordshire to visit family for a couple of days.