A week has gone now since we finished our epic 950 mile cycle tour from John o’Groats to Land’s End. It seems a long time ago already and yet the memories are thankfully still fresh. So …time for some JOGLE reflections perhaps.

Let’s start with one of the disappointments – and there weren’t too many of those. This was obviously the fact that Sarah didn’t make the starting line due to breaking bones in her foot just three weeks before the start. Indeed the only time she attempted to get on her bike was around Penzance Youth Hostel car park at the end of the last day. The pain she felt when putting her foot down to stop confirmed that it had been a wise decision not to attempt to do any cycling beforehand. So not having Sarah cycling with us was a disappointment, but the fact that she still came along and was part of the support team was a bonus.

Thankfully the positives far outweighed the negatives. One of these was the meticulous planning paid off. Firstly the route planning enabled us to enjoy some fantastic scenery and stay at some great places. Almost too many to mention really – though cycling along the Sutherland lochs and through the Lake District stand out.

Our Rest Day in Grasmere was memorable.

Another important feature of the tour for me was the excellent sense of team work that pervaded throughout. My memory of our previous End-to-End is slightly tarnished by certain group tensions that occurred whilst on the tour. Thankfully this wasn’t ever going to be the case on this JOGLE tour and friendships and the team spirit were a strength throughout. From the cyclists right through to the fantastic work of our support team. This is perhaps best displayed when I needed an emergency dentist on our day to Whitchurch and everyone pitched in to get me there on time.

Our support team were a tower of strength for the cyclists, time and time again finding alternative places for us to stop when the planned place turned out to be closed, or even providing food and drink from the van, booking us into B&B’s, shopping, washing, cooking …taking me to the dentist. Yes, our job of cycling was easy!

We were also fortunate with the weather. For most of the tour it was overcast and cool, ideal for cycling. And over the two weeks the temperature gradually got higher. People often say that with the JOGLE you are likely to be cycling in to pervading south-westerly’s. However this wasn’t the case for us. Whilst in Scotland the wind was mainly behind us from the north and as the tour progressed and the direction changed the winds were mainly to our side. And when there were south-westerly’s in the final week they were weak.

We also stayed and ate at some great places. Kyle of Tongue Hostel was situated in a fantastic place, the B&B at Whitchurch was great, and Greek restaurant we ate at in Taunton was special. And then our final evening simply eating and sharing at Penzance Youth Hostel will live long in the memory.

At the other end of the scale there weren’t too many disappointments about the tour. The nuisance of my sore wisdom teeth was certainly one disappointment of course.

As you might expect there were one or two small sections of the route with hindsight I might have changed. Out of necessity to keep the mileage down we had a few miles along the A7, A6 and A49 and around Avonmouth. Why anyone would choose to do these routes is beyond me. In retrospect my word of advice would be to avoid these roads at all costs, and I think I ought to have chosen the few extra miles quieter roads option. Thankfully these were only a few miles.

Eventually we reached Land’s End. We were greeted by our support team of course, but also there were a number of friends there too. This helped to provide a perfect finish to the tour. Our finish for our previous End-to-End had been underwhelming, but this time it was wonderful to share our JOGLE achievement with others.

So that is it.

I have now completed both a LEJOG and a JOGLE. People ask how do the two compare? This is difficult since both were wonderful cycle tours taking in some fantastic scenery. Due to the extra mileage cycled each day this JOGLE tour certainly felt tougher though. However if I had to choose one I would choose this JOGLE tour simply because the team atmosphere made me proud to be a member of this JOGLE 2015 team.