John O'Groats to Lands End: 2 Bikes, 2 Blondes and a whole lot of banter!

After rejuvenating ourselves with our chums we headed off to Bath stocked up with energy, motivation and fuel! Today was a canal cycling day, good for not having to navigate and for flat land but acts as a pick and mix for land quality! We had a bit of everything - grass, mud, stone, puddle, clay and finally some tarmac! (Which Kayla kissed as she is not the biggest fan of canal cycling!) As we travelled down the Devises locks we stopped at the bottom on a bench to eat sandwhiches, sausage rolls, the remaining pringles and mars bars! (Don't even ask what happened with Jenna's mars bar!) 😂 The rest of the afternoon contained lots of puddles, getting muddy and assisting a canal boat to get past another, as one was not tied up properly and was just floating in the canal! Near the end of our cycle we cycled up a big hill! At the top of the hill we camethrough a school where we met the headmaster who offered us showers! (we must have smelt bad!😂) Eventually we ended up at Abby&#

After a tremendous sleep we woke to glorious sunshine! Whilst it was sunny we proceeded to clean and fix our bikes for the next few days ahead! After some crazy planning in the map room with some jelly babies  we had a lovely quiche lunch. Then off to a crop circle museum to find out about the aliens or humans whichever you believe is true!😂 We then went to Avebury to see the stones, they were meant to be in a circle but it didn't look like the circle I had been taught at school, it was more like a wiggly line! We managed to walk through the stones, past the men with no shoes who were at one with the stones just before it poured it down with rain! We also saw many chalk horses on the hills! We headed back in the warmth of the car to the house. After a little more route planning we sorted out our panniers and ate the most wonderfully home cooked roast lamb, although it didn't contain any chervil herb (if it even was that!) 😂 Hot chocolate and off to bed after a wonderful day w

After a lovely sleep at 'The Bell' we had 50 miles to get to Pewsey! After a speedy morning we had a take away pizza (cooked by a real Italian) and gobbled it down sitting on a park bench! The next 25 miles was a bit soggy and with our music blaring we travelled along some pretty cycle paths! Arriving at 'The Castle and Ball' to meet up with our next guests for chocolate popcorn cheesecake and lots of other naughty treats! After  some energy boosts we had 7 miles to climb a hill and make our way to the warm house, with bunting and a pannier filled with delicious treats and motivational messages made for us! Amelia had made us a delightful meal and after a lot of giggles we headed to bed, ready for our rest day tomorrow!!! Yipee 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Most impressive skill of the day: almost photobombing 3 wedding photographers photos Funniest moment: Kayla talking to the Italian pizza man, who proceeded to tell her about all the drinks on the menu, going through them all fo

After a delightful sleep and a fullfling breakfast we were sent off smiling from ear to ear onto our next destination in the Cotswolds! Arriving into Stratford Upon Avon for a pic nic and a little bit of sightseeing.  'As one gazed uponeth the Stratford canal, one took delightfully unto a stool for the rested and bewildered! Unraveling hand knitted sandwiches, lovingly prepared for the travellers and popping openeth the Pringles, we sat amongst the droplets of rain underneath the crochet canopy!' (note the use of an alliteration, and metaphor!😂) We left the home town of Shakespeare and travelled through a mixed bag of weather through to the hills of the Cotswolds! Having tried some tagliatelle and beef from a cow off BBC country file, in the Kings Arm we headed off to bed! 

After a wonderful sleep we were escorted out by the marvellous Grace who was able to take us a sneaky way to avoid a vertical hill that was not very friendly for us bikers! Whistling down through the roads of derby we are headed towards Little Shrewley. After mixing the roads from path, to canal and back to road we ended up in the Tame Otter pub for lunch! To Coleshill for tea and a beak from the rain! Then arriving at our final destination for an amazing meal with some wonderfully warming hosts!  Most traumatic moment of the day: Jenna blissfully unaware of the massive puddle on the roadside next to her as a lorry then thunders past and completely empties the road of this water all over Jenna (it was like a tidal wave!) And to those who have been chanting the Coleshill rhyme to us, I give you our version:  Unlike the young lady, Miss Coleshill, Jenna did not sit on a moles hill!  She did find a moles hill, but it was too small for her bottom to fill! So Jenna with h

Today we left the Houghton household taking a member of the family with us - Fiona! Fiona like Ian led us out of Sheffield also in the rain but also in tremendous style, helping us navigate the hills! She kept us going and we were all entertained as she sang some Adele, topical to the weather (i bet you can't guess which song it was!) Although this time we top trumped it with the rain quality as we were drenched through to our underwear!! Stopping off at a cafe after we had just left Fiona we walked in dripping and sat down in the warmth to have a hot chocolate with all the toppings!!! ☕️ Funnily enough the coffee shop was called insomnia which was very ironic for the day! Next stop was in costa, where we found a hand dryer in the toilets and so attempted to dry parts of ourselves down! Off again through the rain and our next stop was Derby! Guess what we had another coffee stop, where this time we sat in the sunshine with a pot of tea and some cake! Arriving at our next night to s

A twist on the book we are going on a bear hunt - We're going on a Sheffield hunt, by Kayla and Jenna  We're going on a Sheffield hunt we're going to climb a big hill, we're not scared! Oh dear, what's this, a large swooshy green field of fern! We can't go over it and we can't go round it so we must go through it! Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh! We're going on a Sheffield hunt we're going to climb a big hill, we're not scared! Oh no, what's this, a path full of thorny brambles and nettles! We can't go over it and we can't go round it so we must go through it! Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow! We're going on a Sheffield hunt we're going to climb a big hill, we're not scared! Oh dear, what's this, a river with gushy wushy water! We can't go over it and we can't go round it so we must go through it! Gush, wush, gush, wush! We're going on a Sheffield hunt we're going to climb a big hill we're not sca

After a wonderful nights sleep we were able to wake up leisurely to the sound of mooing! Sitting together to have various cereals but no one partook on rice crispy's😉! After saying our goodbyes we headed off through markington to our lunch stop only a few miles along! We stuffed ourselves to the brim and proceeded to tackle some hills! Stuffing our faces probably wasn't the best idea as It made us feel really heavy and sluggish! However our lunch stop is where we had an ingenious thought to create a restaurant with everything in half, including portion sizes and structure, decor and even prices! (It was a very entrepreneurial lunch!) Onwards to Bradford where we had a quick pitstop at Halfords to sort out a few dodgy brakes ready for the larger hills to come in Sheffield! We arrived at our next hosts house in glorious sunshine and were treated to a lovely homemade meal which filled us up nicely! 😊 Bring on the hills tomorrow -it's ON!!! 😂

As we started our day in musical form we obviously continued this theme throughout, singing directions and speakers blaring on country roads! On our travels today we went through many towns named after foods, including Richmond (sausages), Kiplin (cakes) and the Darby Wiske (whisky). Today was very quick as we arrived at our next destination before 4'O'Clock, how speedy we are! Arriving at the Robinson's we were greeted by the crew and were given the most fantastic BBQ followed by ice cream and pineapple! FANTASTIC😍 With maps galore we were able to plan the next few days! 

The last breakfast with the Alderson's today and what a mighty send off we had in the drizzling rain! We managed  to get out of Newcastle perfectly by the most helpful instructions we had been given the day before on our tour! So much so that as soon as we ran out of instructions we got lost!!! Meeting up with the Goulding's for a lunch stop was eggcellent! 🍳 For the afternoon we had our very own tour guide - Ian!!! What a fabulous man!!!! Needless to say the journey would have been tiresome and long if it weren't for him! With a brain like a Sustran map we were able to fly carelessly straight through Durham and beyond even when we were drenched by the downpour! We salute you sir! We managed to keep up this pace after he left us and arrived at Darlington in the sunshine! Best moment of the day: coasting behind Ian as we travelled along the path and as he was nattering to Kayla he got whacked in the head by a tree branch then to be followed by a full body drenching from

After bunking out with Clover the bird feeling very well rejuvenated we tried various smoothies at the Alderson's Smoothie Bar ( which we discovered contained many hidden ingredients!). Route planning was next on schedule as we have been discovering the cycle and wing it method was not working after the past events! 😂Shout out to Hedy for finishing school and to Jim who will remain lollipop man for the upcoming year! 🍭 We passed him on the way to our lunch date with the Alderson crew, where we were treated to a royal feast! Heading back to the house we were entertained by Adams afternoon of TV quiz shows where we can now say that every fibre in our bodies know what the answer to which is the second most popular drink is tea!!! 😂😂😂 Jackie gave us a tour in her open top car for knowledge for our next days cycle, returning to eat pizza, Clover to sit on Jenna and us to see Hedy's infamous dance move! 💃🏻 

Off to Newcastle today where we reach more civilisation. Leaving Berwick upon tweed from our very fancy youth hostel after a little lie in we set off at quite a pace along the coastal route! Kayla met a cow and was able to hug it which ticked off one of her items on her bucket list! We then travelled through a sign posted area that said beware of metal objects as they may explode and kill us, that gave us confidence! 😂 Our lunch stop was at Lindisfarne Inn where Kayla treated herself to a seafood linguini, very typical to eat seafood by the seaside! After filling up our bellies we then set off to Newcastle! However they day became more and more worse by the minute as it began to rain, we started to get tired and we travelled a little off course - by accident! So our knights in shining armour Jackie and Mary came to rescue us and bring us to the safety of a warm house with a bird and bolognese! After a quiz against the parents versus the young we got some sleep on the sofa preparing

Today was a random day! We set off from Gullane to travel to Berwick! But before we arrived to Berwick-upon-tweed we arrived at North Berwick. North Berwick had a lovely little beach. We witnessed two dogs and their owner on this beach, one dog was black and one dog was sandy brown. Jenna saw that the owner couldn't find the sandy dog as it blended into the sand, which made her giggle! 😂 Kayla then spotted Quality Street although we had to admit that there wasn't much quality to this street. After a lot of cycling through cloud and drizzle we eventually reached the border to England. Getting to our next hostel destination to order a take away pizza and then bed!  Funny moment of the day: when Kayla spots waggon wheels on the shelf of the shop so goes to grab for a pack but the whole shelf falls and we have to struggle to keep all the items from falling completely of the shelf!

Woohoo it's our rest day!🎉🎉 With a lie in this morning we felt rejuvenated. From a recommendation of our host for that evening we went out to breakfast where we gulped down a good cooked breakfast and we even tried a tattie -potato bread thing! We then headed off on our bus tour of Edinburgh, we chose this method of transport as we didn't want to move!!!!!!😂 The tour guide was very funny and warned us not to stand up whilst on the move as even though perms are great, being electrocuted by the electricity cables above is not much! She told us a lot of fascinating historical facts leaving us both intrigued to see more. Although, we were very limited on  time and so we have decided we must have to come back to see the sights properly (especially the Dynamic Earth as it sounded like so much fun). We visited Bobby the dog and even got lunch from Bobbies Sandwich Cafe! We then set off to our next night in Gullane to arrive to a feast and some very comfy beds!  What we have lea

After a wonderful nights stay with our fabulous hosts we travelled off in the sunshine - hooray! We arrived to the sunny Perth and had a rest stop in the middle of a golf course, shame there wasn't any tee 😉☕️. All was going well until the hills returned! Eventually we stopped off at a restaurant in Kinros to stuff our faces and top up with sun cream! After some difficult navigation through road works we soon hit the Forth road bridge into Edinburgh! It was very windy, pooh sticks would have been great but it may have been hard to run to the other side 😂. We have now arrived at our next hosts house and cannot wait for our lie in tomorrow for our first rest day. Most traumatising moment- goes to Kayla for running over an alive bird and then replying to Jenna's utter shock, saying 'oh I thought it was a leaf!'

Today's blog consists of some events of the day including a story!  The first route of our day was very relaxing as Kayla sang some Taylor Swift and we tried to think of as many songs with the word bicycle in ( we only managed to find four, so that game didn't last long!). Jenna also started discussing the anatomy of a Pom Bear concluding that it was infact female as it had no sign of genitals but just a belly button - no further explanation needed! Town of the day goes to...... Dunkeld  for providing us with fish and chips!  The story of how the partridge hung himself/herself! I hope your settled comfortably for this gruelling tale! One day (the 5th day of cycling) Kayla and Jenna were cycling from Newtonmore to Bankfoot. When cycling through a gale in the mountainous views we came across yet another hill. As Kayla and Jenna ascended on their two bikes called pulkie and paura they stumbled across a group of partridge! The partridge family was very scared and it consi

What a day....Today we had the task of travelling from Inverness to Newtonmore with the rain and wind! We got a bit lost in Inverness which added on cycling time to our day.  We then had to walk along the A9 dual carriageway with no path and so had to walk a long way on wet dewy grass! Although Kayla found some wild raspberries. For lunch, w e had some cous cous at Tomatin. Afterwards the rain came again along with some big hills, no surprises there! Once reaching the top of the hill Jenna fell off her bike and almost down a ditch which got Kayla into hysterics! We went along a cycle path which looked like a western, Cowboys and Indians film set!! Cycling through the Cairngorms we travelled past many dead animals which almost reflected our mood, but one that was alive was a chicken?! We all know that punch line when the chicken crossed the road however, We almost ran him over but he survived! I feel like he was a very symbolic chicken! 🐓

This morning we had a leisurely start with a little lie in! Today was more of a down hill which we very much needed!! Although struggling with our knees we managed to arrive at Inverness at a reasonable time of  5:30 ! We had our first hearing of bagpipes as we walked through inverness to our hostel, and even spotted our first kilt too!!! We then treated ourselves to a taxi which took us to Loch Ness!! Where we saw the Loch Ness monster 🐉 (jokes we didn't but we shall say we did!) 😂 It was a fantastic view even though it was drizzling! So we went into the Dores Inn where we had something to eat, and met some other cyclists who were fascinated by our trip, so much so I thought one man was going to join in with us tomorrow! To Newtonmore tomorrow..... 

Day 3: Today we had the tough challenge of tackling the Berriedale Braes (a whole load of hills that should be called mountains!) and with signs telling us to test our brakes we knew it was going to be a bit of a struggle! It took us a while to overcome them, but we finally reached the downhill!!!!!!! Then we went up some more hills, where we stopped off at a town called Golspie for a mango break by the sea kept very entertained by a man attempting to get back into his Kayak, we still think he's probably still capsized there now bless him!!😂 We were really tired by this point but had only reached half way of our day's journey! After more hills we reached Dornoch were we took the scenic route and even had a sighting of a seal. Through Dornoch to Tain was the next town, we travelled over a sea bridge which was very windy and by this point the heavens had opened! With cold hands we plodded on into Tain completing the last little push to arrive at the Shandwick Inn for burgers, en

The day we actually started cycling! We woke up today after sleeping in what seemed to be the comfiest bed so far (the only bed so far!) Kayla made egg soldiers for breakfast using the food Florence provided, the eggs were on point! We set off on our warm up ride from wick to John O'Groats cycling past the seaside! There were some horrendous hills, however we realised that we are going to face much worse 😱! After 2 hours warm up we arrived at the very windy but sunny JOHN O'GROATS, were a sweet old couple took our photo and chatted to us about all sorts! We then went into the cafe and feasted on a pizza which we wolfed down. After eating we signed the official John O'Groats to Lands End visitors book and got stamped! Best quote of the day goes to Kayla: "just like Brexit I don't feel strong and stable" as the wind was blowing us all over the road!! Eventually we have arrived at our B'n'B and are getting some good rest for the long and hilly day tomorr

Welcome from the jogle bloggers on day 1 of the big adventure! What we have learnt so far....how to put a bike on a train and fasten its seatbelt, your only a true traveller if you bump a few heads with your panniers walking through a 1st class carriage, when you walk out of the train toilet and your older sister is already chatting up a travelling hunk, and finally a good belly laugh can always make your day! We look forward to our first night in Scotland and can't wait to meet the legendary John with his goats! 🐐🚂