End to End Business recommendations and feedback

FEEDBACK

17/09/2011

David McCusker

Lochwinnoch, Scotland

Alan,

We have not met but can I - on behalf our Team Tuna - thank you for the help we got from your website for our recently-completed LEJOG adventure.

We left on Aug 20th 2011 and used your route as the basis of our trip.

After getting the train down from Lochwinnoch near Glasgow, we did the 10 miles to Land's End & back, and stayed at the YH in Penzance. We then set off on the Sunday morning through beautiful, hot and sunny Cornwall, across the very scenic King Harry ferry to Golant. Remote but homely :-) The next day we went on to very picturesque Tavistock and over Dartmoor. Hard! I see you went round to the north but as Scots we didn't know Dartmoor was so hilly (a moor in Scotland is a flat area) and ended up late after a 12 hour day in Exeter. Then via Taunton (very pleasant town) & Burnham-on-Sea (lost in the icecream 60s) to Stablegrove B&B in Wrington south of Bristol - best B&B I've ever stayed at, thoroughly recommend it. Then through sunny, beautiful Bristol, across the Severn bridge to B&B in Lea.On via Wilderhope YH (impressive and great food), Ludlow (lovely market town where we sunbathed at the castle) to Winsford where we stayed with friends. Through a rainy Manchester and up to Slaidburn - very nice but wow a great climb to get there! Over the hills (a hard very wet 12 miles!) to Bentham (great b'fast at hotel) and on to Carlisle where we stayed at the IBIS - good value. To Galloway Activity Centre where we stayed in a Mongolian Yurd - interesting! ... and to Ardrossan (where we all headed off to have a night in our own beds). Over to Arran the next morning and then ferry from Lochranza - where we all fell asleep and had to be wakened to leave! .... to Lochgilphead where we stayed with friends. Incredible views and sunny weather right through Oban, FortWilliam (overnight), round the Commando monument and up the (a bit wet) A82. Off to the east of Loch Ness where again the views and sunny scenery were awesome, and then on the Saturday we did the Inverness Monster Dualthon round Loch Ness - a great (if mad) diversion from LEJOG and we had into the night ride to Helmsdale afterwards (best YH on trip I think). Big, blue sky ride up to JOG the next day where Orkney was just a touch away.

A great 2 weeks - no Wives, Weans or Worries ... I work in IT so it was a non-WWW break :-) ... made oh so much easier with your site. Again a big thank-you.

Also it looks like we'll raise about Ł5000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust in the process. John (one of our group)'s son Andrew, died of cancer so it made, what started out as my 50th birthday bash, all so much more worthwhile.

Thanks again. I hope you and your fellow cyclists are well.

Take care,

David

http://www.teenagecancertrust.org/get-involved/as-a-fundraiser/fundraisers/lands-end-to-john-ogroats-cycle-2011/

17/09/2010
From Ben
"I thought that after finishing LEJOG in July 2010 and using your route a THANK YOU was in order. My brother and I used your website a lot in planning our trip. It was the best website we found in our 'research' and proved to be a great asset to us.

We enjoyed reading your day by day blog each night so we could get an idea of what the next day had in store for us. We did vary your route slightly, staying in Abergavenny so we could take in the Wye Valley and also because we couldn't find a YH in the vicinity.

Anyway, I just thought a thanks was in order for all your hard work with the website. I am sure there are many LEJOGers who use the website to plan their trips.

We did the ride for charity and raised 7000 pounds for our local hospitals new chemotherapy unit. Our website for the trip was http://bbcycleadventures.weebly.com/ if you would like to add it too your list that would be great.

Thanks again and keep up the good work."

Mark and Ben

17/07/2010
From John S

Hi Alan, Thanks for the email. Our trip is now complete.
We had a fantastic time due in no small part to your web site info. The weather too could not have been better. Sunshine every day except the last one when it rained and blew a gale against us. Sun came out at JOG so we got some nice pics which was good. Unlike you we used Ken our GPS as our primary navigation tool although we took laminated road maps as well.

Ken was invaluable and made for much less stopping and checking than would have taken place otherwise. He got us straight to our B&Bs every night without fail. We did have your Mad Max moment however so I think the OS maps are at fault because although I used your files as a basis to work from, I went through every mile of the route and checked it before using it.

We cut a day out in mid Wales but other than that used your route. We used the SUSTRANS route from Ayr to Ardrossan which proved a good if tortuous call. I do have one bone to pick however.

Your site gives the impression of a few drinking buddies who go off and do the LEJOG trip.
However your time into Ayr - visit to bike shop, then catching the early ferry from Ardrossan had us stepping back in amazement. I don't think we are couch potatoes but that left us standing!!

We too took tea and home made cakes at the Crask Inn with the quirky landlord (wife was out thinning carrots !!). We were in the company of a Canadian guy walking LEJOG who didn't seem to have any maps - landlord lent him one. And a lady from Holland who had cycled through Norway, got the boat across and was making her way down through the UK with masses of camping equipment back to Holland. You do get to see some quirky people.
You were right this penultimate day certainly had some stunning scenery.

Anyway enough rambling.
Thanks again and happy cycling

John S

29/06/2010
From Craig

Hi Alan,

Firstly, love the website. It seems to be the most comprehensive site out there for the LEJOG journey.
Cheers

Craig

02/06/2010
From Nick W

Hi,

I love your website and I have been using it extensively to plan our trip next month.

Thanks for all your hard work, you have made planning our trip so much easier and I after reading your pages I am really looking forward to it.

Many thanks

Nick W

26/04/2010
From Stuart
Hi Alan,

Just finished lejog using your route exactly, with my friends copied in here! I downloaded your GPS route data and uploaded it into a bike-mounted GPS device and so it was really easy to plan for us although the rechargeable battery decided not to work so I have spent a small fortune on duracells!

Thanks very much for putting the route online, it was a really fantastic picturesque way to go. We raised money for Clic Sargent, a childrens cancer charity.

We did deviate once to go via Greenock & Bute to pick up a firend, and then we rejoined your route at Tarbet - so we missed out Arran but Bute was amazing.

Also we were so tired after day 1 that we wondered if we would be able to make it but it all got easier from there, which I remembered you had said in the blog and also we met some people along the way who had done it and they all said Cornwall was the hardest part and that we were over the worst! We were really lucky with the weather, it only lightly rained twice for about 30 minutes each time.

Great expeirence, thank again for taking the time to put the resource online,

Cheers,
Stuart

p.s. a link to some photos of our trip, might trigger a few memories: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28061301@N03/sets/72157623934722184/show/

01/12/2009
From Tony in Surrey

Hi

I just wanted to drop you a quick email after finding your website of real help over the summer. My brother and I were looking to cycle from LE2JOG to raise money for the cancer charity, myeloma UK, but had no idea where to start (planning wise, obviously you don’t have too many options on where to actually start!). I stumbled across your website and found it invaluable when it came to planning our route and just the general advice it offered. We set of on the 11^th September this year and finished two weeks later - for the vast majority of the trip we followed your route to the letter, except for the odd detour (most notably over Dartmoor which was pretty tough!). Your gradient maps were also a vital part of our breakfast briefings as we looked at what was to come in the day ahead!

I really just wanted to thank you for taking the time to compile your website and for all the help it offers – I’m sure there are lots of people like me who have used it. We raised almost Ł9,000 for the charity and had an absolutely fantastic experience as well.

I recorded a short video of our trip and have put it on youtube – you may find it of interest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYU77KYp_sM

I must admit I got a bit confused with some of the places we’d been to so some of it is out of order but it still acts as a nice reminder of our trip.

Once again thanks very much.

Feedback on my site. If you've found my site useful or you feel it could be better, then send me an email and tell me.

Feedback and Recommendations

I have started to add Frequently Asked Questions and Feedback sent to me by readers of the site. If you would like to give me any feedback I'd love to hear from you by email.

Recommendations

If somebody contacts me with a recommendation of where to stay, eat, etc I will add it here. Clearly I cannot vouch for the recommendation persoonally so it is up to individuals to do their own research as to the suitability. If you wish to provide any feedback on your own experience of anywhere listed please let me know.

The views of the recommendations are those of the individuals listed next to the entry and I take no responsibility for the accuracy.

For accommodation recommendations look in the Accommodation section of this website

Area Description Contact Details Comments

Bentham Breakfast Hotel in Bentham, North of Slaidburn "Great breakfast"
LEJOG cyclist, David McCusker, Aug 2011

Kendoon IDumfries) Accommodation and refreshments Our web site is www.carricksofcarsphairn.com, accessed via visitscotland.com and is about to be updated.
In lieu of Kendoon YHA there is a B&B near by known as Kirkholm and can again be found through visitscotland.com

Linda Szafran says "We offer good food at reasonable prices, a cheery welcome and lovely scenery; more than enough to entice people in! People can ring in advance and book what they want to eat to save time when they land!!"

John O'Groats Bike Transport and Hire Ticket To Ride - Bike Hire

Cantraybruich Cottage
Culloden Moor
Inverness, IV2 5EG
+44 07902 242301

www.JohnoGroatsBikeTransport.co.uk

www.TicketToRideHighlands.co.uk

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inverness-United-Kingdom/Ticket-To-Ride-Highlands/57503050855

Ticket to Ride has 2 services of interest to the end to ender. A bike transport / taxi service to help you get your bike to or away from John O'Groats, and a cycle hire service.

Cornwall Cycle Hire Check us out at www.porthlevencyclehire.co.uk or contact direct on 01326 562976.
' Completing John O'Groats to Lands End? Want your friends and family to ride with you on the last few miles into Lands End?

Perfectly located in West Cornwall, Porthleven Cycle Hire can drop off bikes anywhere on route enabling your supporters to participate on the final day of your challenge. Then once over the finish line we can assist with transporting your bike back to Penzance or further afield.'

General Various http://piemanpete.com/b/2010/08/27/looking-back/ PiemanPete reflects on his #JOGLE undertaken in the summer 2010, and provides advice and recommendations from his journey.

Carbisdale / Bonar Bridge Restaurant Kathy Smith
Crannag Bistro
Dornoch Road
Bonar Bridge
IV24 3EB
01863 766111
eat@crannag.com
More info at www.crannag.com (please note that we are open Tuesday to
Saturday from 6.00 pm, not 5pm. Flash sites are written in stone
unfortunately!)

Read reviews about us on Trip Advisor!
From the owner: - I have just been going through our feedback forms for our restaurant - The Crannag Bistro in Bonar Bridge, Sutherland (near the end!) and had rave reviews from a chap called Sean Overend from Plymouth. Sean was doing a
lejog trip and staying at the local B&B Kyle House.

We do get a lot of cyclists in to the bistro, and they often say that ours is the best food they have had all journey!

Would you be kind enough to let everyone know about us please? We are situated in the centre of Bonar Bridge, 7 miles from Carbisdale Castle (but only 3 as the crow flies and if you come via Invershin bridge!) We are a small family run restaurant, 24 covers, fully licensed and serving honest
local fare.

Cyclists are always good fun and very appreciative! So we are happy to offer lejogs a FREE DRAM from our local distillery, Balblair, after their meal.

Chorley, Lancashire Bakery Joe Hall Pies
http://www.hallsbakery.co.uk

Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/joehallspies
FREE TEA and CAKE! What cyclist doesn't like a nice cuppa and a piece of cake, especially when its free. Well the good news is that End-to-enders can get a free cuppa, soup and a Chorley Cake, courtesy of Joe Hall Pies. Joe (an End-to-Ender himself) has 2 shops on the Chester - Slaidburn part of the End-to-End on the Eaves Lane in Chorley, Lanc's (B6628). Joe will be setting up a voucher scheme on his website, but in the meantime pop in and mention the offer. Joe promises a wrong welcome so go on, pay them a visit, support their business and mention my site when you do. Thanks Joe.

	FEEDBACK
17/09/2011 David McCusker Lochwinnoch, Scotland	Alan, We have not met but can I - on behalf our Team Tuna - thank you for the help we got from your website for our recently-completed LEJOG adventure. We left on Aug 20th 2011 and used your route as the basis of our trip. After getting the train down from Lochwinnoch near Glasgow, we did the 10 miles to Land's End & back, and stayed at the YH in Penzance. We then set off on the Sunday morning through beautiful, hot and sunny Cornwall, across the very scenic King Harry ferry to Golant. Remote but homely :-) The next day we went on to very picturesque Tavistock and over Dartmoor. Hard! I see you went round to the north but as Scots we didn't know Dartmoor was so hilly (a moor in Scotland is a flat area) and ended up late after a 12 hour day in Exeter. Then via Taunton (very pleasant town) & Burnham-on-Sea (lost in the icecream 60s) to Stablegrove B&B in Wrington south of Bristol - best B&B I've ever stayed at, thoroughly recommend it. Then through sunny, beautiful Bristol, across the Severn bridge to B&B in Lea.On via Wilderhope YH (impressive and great food), Ludlow (lovely market town where we sunbathed at the castle) to Winsford where we stayed with friends. Through a rainy Manchester and up to Slaidburn - very nice but wow a great climb to get there! Over the hills (a hard very wet 12 miles!) to Bentham (great b'fast at hotel) and on to Carlisle where we stayed at the IBIS - good value. To Galloway Activity Centre where we stayed in a Mongolian Yurd - interesting! ... and to Ardrossan (where we all headed off to have a night in our own beds). Over to Arran the next morning and then ferry from Lochranza - where we all fell asleep and had to be wakened to leave! .... to Lochgilphead where we stayed with friends. Incredible views and sunny weather right through Oban, FortWilliam (overnight), round the Commando monument and up the (a bit wet) A82. Off to the east of Loch Ness where again the views and sunny scenery were awesome, and then on the Saturday we did the Inverness Monster Dualthon round Loch Ness - a great (if mad) diversion from LEJOG and we had into the night ride to Helmsdale afterwards (best YH on trip I think). Big, blue sky ride up to JOG the next day where Orkney was just a touch away. A great 2 weeks - no Wives, Weans or Worries ... I work in IT so it was a non-WWW break :-) ... made oh so much easier with your site. Again a big thank-you. Also it looks like we'll raise about Ł5000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust in the process. John (one of our group)'s son Andrew, died of cancer so it made, what started out as my 50th birthday bash, all so much more worthwhile. Thanks again. I hope you and your fellow cyclists are well. Take care, David http://www.teenagecancertrust.org/get-involved/as-a-fundraiser/fundraisers/lands-end-to-john-ogroats-cycle-2011/
17/09/2010 From Ben	"I thought that after finishing LEJOG in July 2010 and using your route a THANK YOU was in order. My brother and I used your website a lot in planning our trip. It was the best website we found in our 'research' and proved to be a great asset to us. We enjoyed reading your day by day blog each night so we could get an idea of what the next day had in store for us. We did vary your route slightly, staying in Abergavenny so we could take in the Wye Valley and also because we couldn't find a YH in the vicinity. Anyway, I just thought a thanks was in order for all your hard work with the website. I am sure there are many LEJOGers who use the website to plan their trips. We did the ride for charity and raised 7000 pounds for our local hospitals new chemotherapy unit. Our website for the trip was http://bbcycleadventures.weebly.com/ if you would like to add it too your list that would be great. Thanks again and keep up the good work." Mark and Ben
17/07/2010 From John S	Hi Alan, Thanks for the email. Our trip is now complete. We had a fantastic time due in no small part to your web site info. The weather too could not have been better. Sunshine every day except the last one when it rained and blew a gale against us. Sun came out at JOG so we got some nice pics which was good. Unlike you we used Ken our GPS as our primary navigation tool although we took laminated road maps as well. Ken was invaluable and made for much less stopping and checking than would have taken place otherwise. He got us straight to our B&Bs every night without fail. We did have your Mad Max moment however so I think the OS maps are at fault because although I used your files as a basis to work from, I went through every mile of the route and checked it before using it. We cut a day out in mid Wales but other than that used your route. We used the SUSTRANS route from Ayr to Ardrossan which proved a good if tortuous call. I do have one bone to pick however. Your site gives the impression of a few drinking buddies who go off and do the LEJOG trip. However your time into Ayr - visit to bike shop, then catching the early ferry from Ardrossan had us stepping back in amazement. I don't think we are couch potatoes but that left us standing!! We too took tea and home made cakes at the Crask Inn with the quirky landlord (wife was out thinning carrots !!). We were in the company of a Canadian guy walking LEJOG who didn't seem to have any maps - landlord lent him one. And a lady from Holland who had cycled through Norway, got the boat across and was making her way down through the UK with masses of camping equipment back to Holland. You do get to see some quirky people. You were right this penultimate day certainly had some stunning scenery. Anyway enough rambling. Thanks again and happy cycling John S
29/06/2010 From Craig	Hi Alan, Firstly, love the website. It seems to be the most comprehensive site out there for the LEJOG journey. Cheers Craig
02/06/2010 From Nick W	Hi, I love your website and I have been using it extensively to plan our trip next month. Thanks for all your hard work, you have made planning our trip so much easier and I after reading your pages I am really looking forward to it. Many thanks Nick W
26/04/2010 From Stuart	Hi Alan, Just finished lejog using your route exactly, with my friends copied in here! I downloaded your GPS route data and uploaded it into a bike-mounted GPS device and so it was really easy to plan for us although the rechargeable battery decided not to work so I have spent a small fortune on duracells! Thanks very much for putting the route online, it was a really fantastic picturesque way to go. We raised money for Clic Sargent, a childrens cancer charity. We did deviate once to go via Greenock & Bute to pick up a firend, and then we rejoined your route at Tarbet - so we missed out Arran but Bute was amazing. Also we were so tired after day 1 that we wondered if we would be able to make it but it all got easier from there, which I remembered you had said in the blog and also we met some people along the way who had done it and they all said Cornwall was the hardest part and that we were over the worst! We were really lucky with the weather, it only lightly rained twice for about 30 minutes each time. Great expeirence, thank again for taking the time to put the resource online, Cheers, Stuart p.s. a link to some photos of our trip, might trigger a few memories: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28061301@N03/sets/72157623934722184/show/
01/12/2009 From Tony in Surrey	Hi I just wanted to drop you a quick email after finding your website of real help over the summer. My brother and I were looking to cycle from LE2JOG to raise money for the cancer charity, myeloma UK, but had no idea where to start (planning wise, obviously you don’t have too many options on where to actually start!). I stumbled across your website and found it invaluable when it came to planning our route and just the general advice it offered. We set of on the 11^th September this year and finished two weeks later - for the vast majority of the trip we followed your route to the letter, except for the odd detour (most notably over Dartmoor which was pretty tough!). Your gradient maps were also a vital part of our breakfast briefings as we looked at what was to come in the day ahead! I really just wanted to thank you for taking the time to compile your website and for all the help it offers – I’m sure there are lots of people like me who have used it. We raised almost Ł9,000 for the charity and had an absolutely fantastic experience as well. I recorded a short video of our trip and have put it on youtube – you may find it of interest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYU77KYp_sM I must admit I got a bit confused with some of the places we’d been to so some of it is out of order but it still acts as a nice reminder of our trip. Once again thanks very much.

Area	Description	Contact Details	Comments
Bentham	Breakfast	Hotel in Bentham, North of Slaidburn	"Great breakfast" LEJOG cyclist, David McCusker, Aug 2011
Kendoon IDumfries)	Accommodation and refreshments	Our web site is www.carricksofcarsphairn.com, accessed via visitscotland.com and is about to be updated. In lieu of Kendoon YHA there is a B&B near by known as Kirkholm and can again be found through visitscotland.com	Linda Szafran says "We offer good food at reasonable prices, a cheery welcome and lovely scenery; more than enough to entice people in! People can ring in advance and book what they want to eat to save time when they land!!"
John O'Groats	Bike Transport and Hire	Ticket To Ride - Bike Hire Cantraybruich Cottage Culloden Moor Inverness, IV2 5EG +44 07902 242301 www.JohnoGroatsBikeTransport.co.uk www.TicketToRideHighlands.co.uk http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inverness-United-Kingdom/Ticket-To-Ride-Highlands/57503050855	Ticket to Ride has 2 services of interest to the end to ender. A bike transport / taxi service to help you get your bike to or away from John O'Groats, and a cycle hire service.
Cornwall	Cycle Hire	Check us out at www.porthlevencyclehire.co.uk or contact direct on 01326 562976.	' Completing John O'Groats to Lands End? Want your friends and family to ride with you on the last few miles into Lands End? Perfectly located in West Cornwall, Porthleven Cycle Hire can drop off bikes anywhere on route enabling your supporters to participate on the final day of your challenge. Then once over the finish line we can assist with transporting your bike back to Penzance or further afield.'
General	Various	http://piemanpete.com/b/2010/08/27/looking-back/	PiemanPete reflects on his #JOGLE undertaken in the summer 2010, and provides advice and recommendations from his journey.
Carbisdale / Bonar Bridge	Restaurant	Kathy Smith Crannag Bistro Dornoch Road Bonar Bridge IV24 3EB 01863 766111 eat@crannag.com More info at www.crannag.com (please note that we are open Tuesday to Saturday from 6.00 pm, not 5pm. Flash sites are written in stone unfortunately!) Read reviews about us on Trip Advisor!	From the owner: - I have just been going through our feedback forms for our restaurant - The Crannag Bistro in Bonar Bridge, Sutherland (near the end!) and had rave reviews from a chap called Sean Overend from Plymouth. Sean was doing a lejog trip and staying at the local B&B Kyle House. We do get a lot of cyclists in to the bistro, and they often say that ours is the best food they have had all journey! Would you be kind enough to let everyone know about us please? We are situated in the centre of Bonar Bridge, 7 miles from Carbisdale Castle (but only 3 as the crow flies and if you come via Invershin bridge!) We are a small family run restaurant, 24 covers, fully licensed and serving honest local fare. Cyclists are always good fun and very appreciative! So we are happy to offer lejogs a FREE DRAM from our local distillery, Balblair, after their meal.
Chorley, Lancashire	Bakery	Joe Hall Pies http://www.hallsbakery.co.uk Twitter http://www.twitter.com/joehallspies	FREE TEA and CAKE! What cyclist doesn't like a nice cuppa and a piece of cake, especially when its free. Well the good news is that End-to-enders can get a free cuppa, soup and a Chorley Cake, courtesy of Joe Hall Pies. Joe (an End-to-Ender himself) has 2 shops on the Chester - Slaidburn part of the End-to-End on the Eaves Lane in Chorley, Lanc's (B6628). Joe will be setting up a voucher scheme on his website, but in the meantime pop in and mention the offer. Joe promises a wrong welcome so go on, pay them a visit, support their business and mention my site when you do. Thanks Joe.