Just a quick post to say we've done it, we're now at John O'Groats!

The mission is now complete :D

Thank you to everyone for your support, and all your donations.

Day 5:

After leaving the heart of rural England in the morning, the cyclists soon found themselves engulfed in yet another city. This time the delights of Liverpool and Warrington were upon them, with their dual carriage ways and bustling traffic causing severe distress to Barnett in particular who emerged at the end of the day a jibbering wreck. He let out several fearful (paranoid) yelps during the car journey to the campsite as lorries drove past, claiming to have had "a bad experience" with an HGV earlier in the day... He also claimed to have seen an eagle in a mans car, clearly the mental strains of our never-ending journey are getting to him.

We spent the night in a campsite near Chorley, just north of Liverpool, surrounded by horses, horses and more horses. Smith felt right at home as a strong waft of horse manure passed by the entrance to our tent. The kind campsite owners gave us a 50% discount on our overnight stay as well, so coupling this with a curry and a few beverages, for those of us who are old enough (Ollie Maltby), we finished the day with morale high and the prospect of a warm house and fresh sheets just around the corner.

Day 4:

I know it’s not the best way to start a blog entry, but today was by far the least eventful day. We have, by now, firmly settled into a routine and another 80 miles were soldiered out on the cycles.

The main news of the day has to be that Camilla has almost learnt to wash up. Now for many of you this may seem a simple achievement, but for those of you who know the girl (and how domestically retarded she is) this is miraculous. This unusual act on Camilla’s part was probably triggered by Maltby targeting her with a full blast of uphill-cycling-anger at lunchtime, when he released his frustration by saying what everyone else had been thinking. Scoulding her inability to do even the simplest of domestic tasks, the highlights of the rant including phrases such as, “officially useless” and “f***ing lazy”.

Moving on from a tense lunch break the cyclists managed to reach rack up the final few miles of the day and by 8pm we had settled down at an idyllic campsite in the heart of the Shropshire countryside, complete with a stream, a field full of lambs and a fishing lake. A relaxing end to a satisfying day.

Day 3:

Following departure from the night before’s Five Star Camping Experience we embarked upon our first stint through a large city, Bristol. As country bumpkins we were all taken by surprise at the amount of people and large buildings all around us. The sat nav seemed to have been taken by surprise as well, taken us through the city via a multi-storey car park, perhaps not the most conventional route…

The cyclists quickly found themselves being battered, quite literally, by the stresses and strains of modern cross-city travelling. Barnett, Jex and Maltby found themselves under attack from passers by flailing sex toys and launching strawberries in their direction. Fortunately, several hours later they emerged from the other side of Bristol in one piece and headed towards the rural roads of South Gloucestershire.

We ended the day at a campsite near Nailsworth, just south of Stroud. However, this wasn’t just any old campsite, it was an eco-campsite… Tepees, ponchos and acoustic guitars were the order of the night, with luxury composting toilets and cold showers freely available. What more could a tired cyclist want?

The immense challenge facing us has finally sunk in. After weeks of optimism and playing down the enormity of our upcoming end-to-end journey, reality at last is upon us.

Day 2:

Out of Cornwall! Thank God! Although the prospect of the rolling hills of Devon wasn't much more appealing.

First things first though, repair the puncture. We visited a nearby cycle shop where we were sold a new inner tube, which proceeded to burst as soon as we blew it up. So we bought a new one, which didn't fit. So we were given a new one, which the shop fitted wrongly. So we fitted it ourselves, perfect! Oh, then we were forced to bring out the "charity" card for the second time in quick succession to dodge a £70 parking fine.

After a delayed start the team set off for destination No. 2 a five star campsite in the Somerset countryside. We had well and truely begun to eat up the miles and were now on to County No. 3.

Day 1:

We awoke to an overcast Plymouth skyline, not too hot, not too cold, perfect cycling weather. But first we had to reach Land's End, just 2 hours drive away. As we approached the first and last point in mainland England the weather got worse and worse. Spirits fell. Heads dropped. The support team realised they had made a good choice staying in the comfort and shelter of the car. Upon arrival in Land's End the rain was coming down sideways, the wind blowing all our naive optimism back to the flat lands of Lincolnshire. So of course the first thing you think of wearing in these conditions is... skin-tight lycras and a cycling vest! Again, the warmth of the car seemed like the perfect place to be.

Nevertheless, we completed the traditions of the end-to-enders in having our photos taken by the famous sign post, the start-finish line and signing the (soon to be) members book. The journey had officially begun!

The first day ended at a campsite just outside Newquay. It was still raining. Morale was extremely low due to the terrible weather and Ollie (the problem child) Maltby suffereing a puncture to his bike just inches from the campsite. After finally putting up our soggy tent in the pouring rain, we decided that cooking a pot full of pasta in a miniature Tesco's Value pan was the last thing we wanted to do. So we went to drown our sorrows at the local.

Day 0: Travelling down

We decided that, after finally leaving school at 4:00pm, we would not have enough time to reach Land's End in one stint, so instead we stopped off at Premier Inn (or was it Travelodge, we can't remember) in Plymouth. Im sure those that have kindly donated towards our costs will appreciate, we are trying to cut costs in every possible way, so on arrival at the site of our last real bed for 2 weeks we paid for a 4 bed room and tried to sneak Camilla in for free... maybe not the best choice of person to sneak in for free... Anyway, the long and the short of it is that we were rumbled and were facing real danger of eviction. However we managed to sweet-talk our way out of this tricky situation, playing the "charity" card for the first of many times to come. All in all, Day 0 had been carried off relatively problem free and we all settled down for a luxurious night's sleep in a real bed, after Ollie Maltby had finally put his clothes back on...

We're off!

Between us we managed to get everything in the car, (just!), and finally managed to work out how to get the bikes on the back (and keep them there!).


The Free Press photographer has been down, so watch out for us in the paper very soon!

Hello Everyone,

Tomorrow is the big day and we as a team are greatly looking forward to the road ahead.

Watch this space carefully as this page will be updated with a diary of our trip.

Please help our cause and donate via the link on the homepage.

The reason we're doing this is for charity - to support Cancer Research UK. If you haven't already, put your hand in your wallet (or purse!) and donate. You can do it in person via one of the team (bit difficult come tomorrow!), or you can do it online via our JustGiving page.

Also, the total isn't always correct, we've raised a lot more offline but haven't updated it yet :)

http://www.justgiving.com/landsend2010 is the address you need.

Come and join us at Spalding Grammar School from 3.30pm tomorrow (Wed 30th) for our send-off, before we depart on our epic journey!!