Leaving Mull to travel anywhere is a bit of a journey!! To cycle from Lands End to John O Groats we have had to pack all the gear we need for 2 weeks and travel with that and our bikes to Penzance. The journey is taking us a solid 27 hours of travel!

My lovely husband Tom, very kindly dropped us and our bikes at Craignure to catch the ferry to Oban, after bidding a fond farewell to Asha and Jack! We took the 1.35pm ferry along with a whole host of other cyclists who had taken part in the Mull Sportive, we were the only ones with huge thought. We were glad our ferry the Isle of Mull is back in action and we could have lunch on board!

We had to wait in Oban for the 4.11pm train to Glasgow, we basked in the glorious sunshine as we had to sit with our bikes and bags. I had forgotten my phone charger so I managed a trip to Tescos to buy a replacement.

The train to Glasgow takes a limited number of bikes, as do all of the trains that we booked, and you cannot take your bike on a train unless you have a reservation and ticket for it!
The train to Glasgow was hot, but I thouroughly enjoyed the journey, one which I hadn’t taken for a very long time!
When we got to Glasgow we changed stations and had a 2 hour wait to board the Caledonian sleeper at Central station. We stopped off in Buchanan st and enjoyed a lovely cool couple of beers on the street as the sun went down!

It was a pretty leisurely wait to board the sleeper. When we got on, we checked ourselves into our wee bedroom and then headed to the Club car for a small libation to help send us to sleep!

I traditionally have not slept well on the sleeper on the few occasions I have travelled on it . I am a light sleeper anyway and the least change will easily wake me up!

I think I had a solid 3 hours sleep but the bed was pretty comfortable so I didn’t mind.
We arrived ahead of schedule into Euston station and we had to navigate London on our bikes to join Jamie and Sakae (my brother and sister in law) for breakfast and then cycle on to Paddington to get the train to Penzance. Jamie had offered to come and collect our bags for us and move them as it was about 3 miles between the 2 stations and we felt it would be a bit too tough to carry and bags and push our bikes all the way!

After breakfast, I had the directions on my phone to get to Paddington, unfortunately I had got the route for cyclists which took us a quieter and not so direct route. It was very pleasant as we cycled along the canal and through London zoo, but diversions confused us a bit and we were almost concerned we might miss our connection.

Jamie however, saved the day! He is a bit of a techie and likes to use all tools on his phone. He had asked to “share my location’ so he could follow my progress on the cycle, and it was lucky as he realised we were in the wrong place and called and guided us back to the right place!

Making our final connection smoothly was a relief. The whole trip was smooth and we could sit back and enjoy the scenery on our last 5 hour train ride to the end of the UK.
We arrived in Penzance at 3 pm and checked into our accommodation. We then spent a while walking around and taking in our new surroundings. Smaller that I had thought, Penzance only has a population of 15,000, for some reason I thought it would be bigger. It is pretty exposed and is surrounded by sea walls to help prevent the waves from battering the town! It’s a lovely place and after whit week in Mull was very quiet.

At 7pm this evening we had a team briefing! I have met most of the 11 others that are joining us on the trip, had dinner and am now heading to bed in anticipation of a tough days cycling tomorrow!