Chris’s LE2JOG Challenge: Day Seven

At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route.

It’s Friday today which means two days and I head home. In all honesty, I want my bed! I don’t mind camping but I have to be in the mood for it and when it’s soggy, wet and I don’t get enough sleep then I would rather be in a proper bed – yes I’d never survive on a “survival sleep under the stars” course.

It’s 5 to 10 and I’m sitting in the dark in our tent lol. Chris is not so snoring but I can tell he’s asleep if it was a book it would be like “Hannah typed away at the iPad screen while Chris rhythmically breathed in and out like a metronome while listening to the traffic on the nearby A road and the people sharing the campsite.”

Or something like that anyway!

So back to this morning. While we cleared up the tent Mr Campsite from Oakfield Farm Camp Site popped down to make sure everything was okay. Out of all the people, we’ve met this week these were the most hospitable and friendly (although the chap at the Friday Night campsite is lovely and helpful). Chris and Mr Campsite chatted about how lovely the site was and where he was heading off to next.

Yesterday evening after tea I had had a flick through the English Heritage guide book that Mum had lent me to see if there were any nice sights to see along the route (pretty much the A46 heading northbound). There were a few but they were anything up to 10 miles off the route we were taking. Now normally that wouldn’t have been a lot but today was a “short day” miles wise so I didn’t want to stray from the route too much in case Chris was finished before I’d caught up with him.

I decided to head straight for Stroud which was Chris’s lunch stop. I found a supermarket and found that the major parking for the town centre was right next to the supermarket even though I’d done two laps of the one-way system and was still mone the wiser. (Thank goodness for Google Maps!). I’ve been out of sorts since we went out for dinner at Street. I think because I’d been eating smaller meals combined with early nights when I had that big meal and slightly later night at Street I was thrown and so I’ve not had breakfast 2 days in a row having had it 5 days in a row before also I’ve been peckish by 11 am -ish but then not hungry by the time I meet Chris for lunch – talk about complicated.

Anyway, so I find somewhere to park and go for a wander around the town. Found a really cool shop called Moonflower. It was so cute (and there was a whole Cath Kidston section!!!) however I did feel a bit underdressed (and even dirtier than I already feel from camping lol). I wandered up to Costa and decided to try and catch up on my blog posts, I finally got my cream tea but it was in Gloucestershire rather than Cornwall. As you can tell it kinda didn’t work which is why I’m writing this at high speed while Chris sleeps. (and I drain the battery…..oops!)

I also got an Iced Latte which normally isn’t my choice of drink – I’m trying to train myself to like coffee if that’s a logical thing lol. I’ve had Iced Latte’s from Costa in the past and they have been fine, had that normal coffee kick but all in all, they are fine – however, this one was disgusting. I figured I’d wait a few minutes and consider if I could in fact get away with putting sugar or sŵeetener in it. While I was sat there trying to decide if I should eat scone then blog or visa versa my phone started playing Muse very loud (I still love my ring tone lol) Chris was already in Stroud and where was I? Well I’m in Costa on the High Street you can’t miss it. Well apparently my directions were a bit pants and it wasn’t as obvious as I thought it was. Anyway, we found each other in the end and I moved to a seat outside, I shared my scone with Chris and asked him did my Iced Latte taste okay/was it just my taste buds dying. He said yes it was a bit stronger than normal and he thought that Costa Stroud made it different to Costa Bedford. So I gave him my drink and got on with eating my half of the scone (decided that eating the whole one with him sat next to me was a little mean and sharing was the loving thing to do).

We discussed the routes we had taken to get to Stroud and then decided that lunch was needed (Well I was still digesting Elevenses but apparently when the cyclist is hungry then lunch is required lol). We tried a cafe called Woodruffs but at £6-8 for a lunch each it was a it expensive. (it was more going out dinner with friends rather than grabbing a quick lunch) we ended up in Greggs – I had a sausage roll and Chris had a pizza slice thing. We then sat outside on a bench and ate lunch, I was people watching – though it was interesting how the lady selling Big Issue was then on a mobile phone for what seemed ages – not only that when I walked past her about 10 minutes later I noticed it wasn’t just a mobile phone, it was an iPhone 4……okay? Now I guess you have to tick certain boxes to qualify for selling the Big Issue right? I did nearly buy a copy as it had something to do with Lego on the front but I changed my mind – does that make me mean?

Following lunch, Chris carried on towards Cheltenham. I pottered round Stroud for a little while longer and then headed back to the car, as I was heading through Painswick which is a village in the way between Stroud and Gloucester/Cheltenham I thought I’d pop into the Rococo Garden for a look round, I got as far as the description board near the gate and realised that it was a similar design to the garden at Wrest Park that me and Mum saw about a fortnight ago. I decided that I’d head for Cheltenham and potter round the shops there instead.

I got to Cheltenham and got a text from Chris telling me he was about 2 miles from the campsite and could I meet him. This evening we’re staying at Briarfields Motel and Touring Park, Chris thought we were early and that we wouldn’t be allowed on our pitch but when we got here it turns out that pitches are available from Midday so we were able to set up our tent and still have time to go for an explore later.

We went to the caravan store just up the road so that we could get some waterproofing stuff for the tent, we then had the choice of Cheltenham or Gloucester. We decided to go to Gloucester for a wander round. We parked at one of the shopping centres and then walked around for a bit. We went into HMV and Chris got a card reader convertor bit for the iPad so he was able to access the pictures that he had taken on his route – I should have some of mine tomorrow if he let’s me have a play – if not they will be up in Sunday or Monday hopefully.

We headed back and then I sat around enjoying the sunshine while Chris re-waterproofed the tent.

Tomorrow is our last proper day – on Sunday me and Chris’s dad swap over as support. Tomorrow I go from Cheltenham to Alcester or something like that and then onto Birmingham. I have friends in Birmingham so we are staying with them which is really lovely. When Chris put out the request for people to adopt us where possible it was lovely that our friends from Twitter were able to help us out. (Don’t panic – we have met before it’s not like it’s a complete first meeting lol).

I’m hoping to go to the Bullring tomorrow but we will have to see. I wanted to go when I was up in Birmingham at the end of June but that didn’t quite work out. Hopefully it will this time.

For the stressful, energetic half of the trip read Chris’s posts here. You can read about the rest of the adventure here.