Following a couple of years of preparation...

It's been a little while since a post to this blog, but it's been for a reason. And that reason being a long planned little trip on the old bike from Lands End to John O'Groats! This has been one of those trips I've been wanting to do for a very long time. And now I think of it I believe I've had the urge since I got the bike. Way back in '84.

So, here's the plan.

Starting from Lands End on the 7th July 2013 and travelling in bite sized chunks for the following 2 weeks to arrive at John O'Groats on the 20th July.

To help make this more of a team event I'll be undertaking this task with the support of my daughter Holly who will be joining me for the journey. And I've got a few offers from people wanting to join us for some of the journey or to help out with some road support to give some extra encouragement.

The thing is, when you look at our little island on Google maps you see that it's not that bad really. Just a small island to have a quick jaunt. But you start to zoom in and that little island starts to look huge! It's an amazing 1000 miles of huge. There is a more direct route, but on a bike it's a route you really would not want to take. There are a good number of roads you want to avoid at all cost and a good number of roads you just wish went all the way to the end.

I've been reading loads of different blogs and journals of this trip up the country and the thing is they are all so different. It's incredibly difficult to just decide upon a route. The trick is to plan your own personal adventure. There is just no one route that one should take.

Planning has taken into account training. And with a number of cycling events under my belt and lots of shorter trips between I find myself being fitter than I have been in a long time. The first time I got out on the bike I nearly died. I got to this huge hill, it went of forever, no end in sight, even shifted down to the lowest gear on my 12 speed relic. Getting home I was in that stage of agony, stomach in my mouth feeling desperately trying to suck any oxygen possible into my lungs. It was not good. I thought, what am I doing?

2 years later, and here I am. Having survived my early days of killing myself cycling up never ending hills I still ride the same route. The thing is, I can't find those hills anymore. They don't exist! That hill it turns out is just a small gradient. And the real hills are a reason to shift up a gear and get pushing. It's a fantastic feeling.

So, this blog will now track our big adventure. Please help to provide some encouragement by sponsoring us in support of Kangaroos.org.uk at www.justgiving.com/steve-farrage