John O’Groats and the struggle to Windermere

I’m going to be cycling from John O’Groats to Lands End in a couple of weeks time, so I thought it about time I did some route planning.

It’s so much more difficult when you don’t have a great big river to follow, and with no official route (and so many options for creating one) it’s hard to know where to start.

I’m not trying to set any records, so when I found this route it seemed like a decent place to begin.

I’d already set some milestones, in the form of the weekend breaks I plan on taking en-route, so all I needed to do now was merge the two and create a plan for the first leg – John O’Groats to Windermere.

Five hours of poring over maps and various cycle routes on the sustrans map and I’ve got a plan.

It doesn’t bear much resemblance to the one I set out to replicate, but I’m both excited and nervous about the prospect of tackling c.550 miles over 6 days.

I won’t reveal the exact route beforehand, but the climax will be The Struggle.

How fitting.

On reaching the first major milestone of the trip, I plan on taking full advantage of the services offered by the Kirkstone Pass Inn before freewheeling into Windermere for a couple of days rest and recuperation.