Wednesday 17th May day minus 1 Getting to the start ............ I picked up my bike from Catherine and Kieron's house and headed for Paddington Station.  The train journey takes five and a half hours, nearly two hours of which are spent in Cornwall, providing some sense of the challenge that lay ahead.  I arrived in Penzance at 7.30pm and cycled the ten miles to the campsite at Sennen which sits above Lands End.  I arrived as the light was beginning to fade, pitched the tent and slipped into my sleeping bag with excitement and anticipation for the day ahead. The Journey - Day 1 Sennen to St Austell 65.64 miles 5,561 ft of climbing  Lands End was quiet and still as I cycled past the gift shops and cafes to take the obligatory 'start' picture.  The day dawned still and I cycled through wall bound lanes bursting with spring flowers to Penzance where I had a coffee and bacon roll overlooking the bay with views towards St Michael's Mount.  The hilliness of Corn...

About?  This Blog has been written for myself, as a record I can return to in future year's to remind myself of the mini adventure I completed in 2023.  It's more than a travel diary, it try's to capture the emotions, experiences and my reflections.  If others enjoy it or are inspired to take on their own adventures, then that will be a bonus.  It also fills a gap for my family and friends who live outside the world of Facebook and who were not able to follow my daily updates.   As I write this blog, a couple of weeks after completing the journey it is easy to make it seem like setting off and completing the trip was a formality.  The reality was that I only made the final commitment two weeks before I set off after limited training and a maximum distance fully loaded training ride of 60 miles.   What? A fourteen day, 1050 mile, unsupported bicycle journey, travelling from Lands End to John O Groats.  There's no official route to follow ...