Just after 4pm on Sunday 28th June 2015 we reached Land’s End and completed our 950 mile JOGLE cycle journey. Before that JOGLE Day 16 had been another of those days of two halves.

Overall we had been fortunate with the weather so far, but in Cornwall things can change quickly. So following yesterday’s sunshine the morning weather was frankly rubbish as we left Perranporth YHA.

And it was more cycling down into bays and then climbing out of them as we made our way through St Agnes, Porthtowan and Portreath. It was tiring and not particularly pleasant cycling.

Unfortunately cycling down the 17% hill in to the bay of Porthtowan I came a cropper as the wet slippery road swept my front wheel from under me. I landed in some bracken. Shaken, scratched, bruised, a bit battered, but thankfully nothing broken I was ok to carry on (though the shoulder was a bit stiff later on).

On we continued towards Gwithian.

Eventually we reached Hayle. Another theme of our tour has been the planned coffee stops being closed, and today was no exception. Sarah and Nic once again came to our rescue and found an alternative location at the newly opened ASDA store.

By the time we left the weather was beginning to clear up.

After yesterday’s tough ride we had deliberated over which route to take and had settled on an earlier provisionally plotted route I had put together along the Cornwall south coast. It’s advantage was less climbing. So from Hayle we picked up NCN Route 3.

This revised route enabled us to cycle past St Michael’s Mount at Marazion.

And then along the coastal path to Penzance.

Penzance was heaving due to a festival taking place, this slowed us down somewhat and we were quite glad to get out the other side.

It also put back our ice-cream stop to Mouseholes! Once we had reached Penzance we had amended our route again. My provisionally plotted route took us off NCN Route 3 but we decided to stay on this route all the way to Land’s End.

If you look centre left of the photo below you will see a stiff climb out of the village …and yes that was the route we took!

Then we made our way over the top via St Buryan to Sennan.

Finally we picked up the Cornish Coastal Path.

AND THEN WE WERE THERE – AT LAND’S END!

We were pleased to be met at the finish by quite a few friends. Although we nearly took them all by surprise by arriving via the ‘side-entrance’ to the Land’s End complex.

Happily, as you can see, the sun was now out and we had some terrific views out over the bay.

We had cycled 44 miles to reach Land’s End and climbed 2600 feet. You can view our JOGLE Day 16 route from Perranporth to Land’s End below:

[sgpx gpx=”/wp-content/uploads/gpx/jogleday16-perranporthtolandsend.gpx”]

After a pot of tea and sit down taking in the sunshine it was then finally time to head back to Penzance.

You can view our JOGLE Day 16 route back from Land’s End to Penzance below:

[sgpx gpx=”/wp-content/uploads/gpx/jogleday16-landsendtopenzance.gpx”]

We had planned to celebrate by eating out in Penzance. However the youth hostel seemed to have a good menu and served the required plonk so we decided to dine there!

It was an enjoyable evening of celebration.

And that’s it, tomorrow …home!