Final Blog of Pat's Le Jog

I promised to let you know the grand total of the sponsorship for Le Jog. It has now reached £10,000!!!!!!!!!! We are grateful to all our sponsors and supporters and we thank God for blessing us and consequently many children in South Africa. Pat seemed a little tired after returning but appears to have quite recovered and is back on the squash court. He has even regained the 2 kilograms lost en route.

In closing I would like to remind you of our website http://www.grct.org.uk/ and those of our principal beneficiaries in South Africa (http://www.epapfeeding.co.za/ and http://www.misssionvale.co.za/ ) You can download the Garden Route Children's Trust newsletters from the GRCT website.

Thank you for travelling with us!

Good Bye for Now and Thank you

Pat booked a night in the Forss House Hotel near Thurso to celebrate our safe arrival at John O Groats. It's absolutely lovely and not just because of the wi fi! And again we have eperienced such kindness. The dear manageress Anne, who has been here for many, many years, insisted on GIVING us champagne to celebrate and took the photograph. We are so pleased Pat is not on the road today as is very cold(10 degrees) and wet!

I have much enjoyed doing the blog apart from the difficulties with connection at times. Thank you to all our readers - in South Africa (Knysna, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg and elsewhere) in Paris, in Edinburgh, in various parts of Surrey and London and elsewhere in the UK , not to mention the readers collected on the road! The blog was even read every morning at breakfast in a certain villa in Tuscany! We apprecate your support on our adventure and your comments via the blog and texts. Thank you too for your prayers. We were blessed with wonderful weather, freedom from any serious setbacks and lots of happy connections made on the way.



We are particularly thrilled by the generosity of so many as we think the total is over £6000 raised for the GRCT.(http://www.grct.org.uk/) Part of this has come through Just Giving - www.justgiving.com/patrickfleming I shall post up the final total in about 10 days time.



Before signing off I want to thank the P3s of East Linton Primary for their enthusiastic support. Unfortunately we will not be able to get to East Linton before you leave school on Friday as it is a very long way from Thurso



And now I shall give the triumphant cyclist THE LAST WORD!!



"It has been a great adventure! We have journeyed through all sorts of interesting places, learned much about this beautiful island and met many friendly people. My route took me along tiny county lanes. minor and major A roads and even (horror of horrors) the expressways of Runcorn! I became an expert at reading maps and fortunately didn't take too many wrong turns. We were blessed with good weather - only a day and a half of rain - and my bike was superb - no technical problems and the smooth touring tyres made it over 1,000 miles of varying surfaces without a puncture!



"Because the conditions were so favourable and because I got fitter as I progressed I was able to complete the ride in 14 days - slightly ahead of schedule. I thought that was pretty good but then I learned that an army relay team had arrived in John O'Groats the same day having done it in 46 hours!!!!!



"None of this would have been possible without a fantastic back-up. I can't thank Penny enough for her support in so many different ways - booking B and Bs, meeting me each day with a high carb picnic lunch and her amazing blogs, to name just a few. And of course there has been encouragement and support from many quarters and helpful advice on training and nutrition . I know that Penny has already thanked you but I would like to echo that wholeheartedly. THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH."

And Those Met on the Way

As you may have realized, the wi fi has gone to my head and you are having all these photos posted. We are staying in a lovely hotel for tonight, in Thurso, to celebrate the end of the End to End journey. We plan to return to Surrey via Edinburgh at the week end.

The stories behind these photos are that I chatted to a young farmer,who was a civil engineer,and who now farms the rarest breeds iin the world for a Rare Breeds Survival trust.

Then I was fascinated by the Laidhay croft building which Nicola guided me around. It is in the middle of nowhere in Caithness and the reason I stopped was because there was a lonely tearoom above it and it was coffee time. The Laidhay dwelling house incorporates both a stable and a byre.

Then I saw a sign for Caithness Cheese and sheepskin and after following a single track and becoming convinced it was going to deliver me into the sea, I eventually arrived at a simple farm building full of cheeses where this man was at work. He proudly told me that Caithness cheeses were even exported to Australia. Needless to say I bought 2 cheeses. I was plied with so many tasting portions that I would have felt guilty not to!

Last but not least I met these amazing walkers who are being sponsored to walk from End to End for a Cystic Fibrosis charity. They plan to do it in 57 days.

The Final Day-Places Passed

Some of the long roads with little change of scenery on which Pat toiled covering 160 miles on 2 and 3 June. I did meet him at the side of the road at Laidlay with alarge, freshly baked fruit scone which he devoured! The pretty harbour is Brora where we spentMonday night.

Got There!

At 4.40pm the intrepid cyclist was met by a welcoming committee of his wife, his driver, his back up and his blogger (all one and the same Penny) at John O Groats!!!!!!!!!!! The 70 miles today had been very hard because of the chilly headwind which prevented any build up of speed and some final killer hills outside of Helmsdale and through the Berriedale Braes. Pat says he was counting every tenth of a mile during the last hour. John O Groats is quite bleak and windswept- a good setting for a mystery/thriller.

The coastal A9 passed through green fields full of lambs and sheep with quite dramatic sea views at times. We sheltered behind a grey drystone wall to have our lunch just past Lybster, and because there was only the one road kept very much in touch as I had frequent photo stops. I guess I also wanted to keep the cyclist in my sights because I found the long narrow ribbon of road with swaying heavy vehicles and speeding cars a little unnerving.

The A9 is virtually the only road to the far north. It is a very sparsely inhabited area. Phil Horsley the author of the book about the ride writes "scatterings of Spartan windblasted houses"and "a wild section spattered with stark homes among the derelict cottages." Very different from Brora with its trees and pretty harbour and scenic golf course. The trees became bright yellow gorse and then finally scrubby grassland with not a tree in sight.Pat did 70 miles today bringing his grand total up to 1022 miles in 14 days. You will hear from the man himself tomorrow when we sign off the blog.

I am really fighting with the computer tonight as I sit on the Band B bedroom floor in Wick. Therefore I shall continue blogging tomorrow evening when we are staying in a nice hotel in Thurso to celebrate our arrival at John O Groats at the end of this great journey and adventure. I guess it will have wi fi.

950 Miles Done!

Last blog today! Just to say that Pat has cycled 950 miles to date. He has only one or two days to go. We shall let you know when we arrive at John O Groats. The photos show him taking on necessary sustenance at lunchtime and after THAT hill.

Scenery en route

I am getting a bit carried away with this unlimited access to the B and B wi fi and am making the most of it! These are some pictures I took en route showing the different kinds of landscape.