The 8000 km photo

We've just had our first night in Scotland and are just hitting what I class as 'proper' Scottish scenery on our epic Lands End to John O'Groats bike ride when the next 1000 kilometres roll around. You can see the first hills of the day in the distance. Comic accommodation dramas still to come.

The 7000 km photo

We're in Cornwall, a few days after the beginning of our Lands End to John O'Groat's trip, and just outside Rock which is a short ferry across the bay from Padstow. Its not rainy and there's not a single car on the road.

Sadly the old faithful pink Raleigh has all but died - the last few commutes before this holiday I had to kick the derailleur back into shape and could only ride it in a few gears. Could fix it, or could get a commuting bike that's actually the right size for me.

Before the end of the trip we will roll over a thousand mark one more time...

Last night before Lands End to John O'Groats

Its five minutes to midnight and we're just one last night from our three week trip from Lands End to John O'Groats. I don't think that it is going to sink in until we've been away so long we have to wash clothes.

You're going to have to check the left panel on a regular basis if you'd like to follow my text message updates through twitter. Over on Justin's website his twitter feed will feed nicely into his blog.

I'm trying not to think about the hard work ahead of us - three weeks off work pedaling around the country sounds pretty easy from the comfort of my bed.

Lands End awaits! Roll on tomorrow...

Geographical spread of Philpott's

Met a Philpott today on a social ride with the London Cycle Touring Club. The ride is part of our 'training' for Lands End to John O'Groats, which we really haven't done a lot of. Anyway, people were friendly and seemed happy to chat about our new Thorns and thought that three weeks was a good length of time to do our upcoming trip and still make it feel like a holiday. Beautiful day and nice not to navigate ourselves for a change.

As we started cycling after lunch, a regulart called Richard Philpott cycled past and introduced himself. More interesting than the fact that we're probably not related is he said that according to a London University study into geographic origins of last names, the Philpott's came from Kent, which is where we were cycling.

You can see a pretty cool map illustrating where Philpott's were in 1881 here