Nearly there

Last time I posted I was in Spain - well now I'm in the UK so I'm nearly at my final destination Swansea in Wales.  To add a bit of a challenge to the final week or so I've decided to go from Lands End to John O'groats - the two opposite tips of the British mainland - as a way to end the trip with a small flourish.  This may be a bit more of a challenge than I intended as the weather in Scotland is beginning to get very wintery - we will see.

This is how Spain looked as I left:

[caption id="attachment_740" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Santander port -15 degrees and sunny."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_741" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Portsmouth UK - not 15 degrees and not sunny!  Was the UK in December a good decision?"][/caption]

 

From Portsmouth I took another quick, but quite rough, ferry ride over to the nearby Isle of Wight, which happens to be where I was born, and also was where I mis-spent lots of my early twenties doing far too much sailing and not enough university work.

 

[caption id="attachment_742" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The house my parents had built and i grew up in - it appeared a lot larger than this when I was 5 years old."][/caption]

From the Isle of Wight it wqas back to the mainland and west to Lands End.

[caption id="attachment_743" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="On the way I stayed Bed and breakfast in various pubs (its tough but someone has to do it!). This one is in Lymington (another place where I sailed when supposedly studying) and dates from 1257."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_744" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="and to prove I did finally leave the pubs and make it to Lands End"][/caption]

 

Around about Lands End the weather started to get more "wintry" - all layers and waterproofing now required each day.

[caption id="attachment_745" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Scenery was still stunning though. this is just after my GPS decided to give me a challenge by sending me down a 6 foot wide track covered in farm muck and ending in a 1 in 3 hill. I was still recovering when I took this."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_746" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="I tried toi stay off the main roads for most of the route north and so by accident rather than any plan went passed a few good tourist sites. This is Tintern Abbey - which was "dissolved" by Henry the Eigth when he decided to get rid of the catholics and create the Church of England."][/caption]

As I got further north and approached the scottish borders I started to run into sleet - nasty stuff on a bike because its really hard to keep the visor clear enough to see where you are going!

[caption id="attachment_748" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="And after sleet came snow."][/caption]

First stop in Scotland was the "Falkirk Wheel".  This is a bit of canal engineering built in 2005 (ish) to replace 11 traditional locks.

[caption id="attachment_749" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="In its top position loading a boat from the upper section of the canal (and the boats are about 18m long by 2m wide)"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_750" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="And about 4-5 minutes later with the transfer nearly completed. A very impressive, and elegant, piece of engineering."][/caption]

Falkirk is near Edinburgh which in turn is in the lower middle part of Scotland.  I stayed there for the night with some old university friends.

[caption id="attachment_751" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Bill (another naval architect) and his wife Diane, both who were good friends of mine throughout university."][/caption]

 

When I woke up in the morning this is what I saw out the window:

[caption id="attachment_752" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Oh dear - its only 400km further north to John O'groats, storms are forecast, this is the lowlands and I need to pass over the highlands to get there."][/caption]

 

There was a bit of serious talking to myself before i set off this morning to convince myself it will be OK once I get on the gritted roads, and that I can always turn around if it gets to bad.  But is it a good idea to continue on to John O'Groats and can I make it?  For the first time in the trip I'm not sure what is the correct answer so I'm going to give it a go anyway.  Wait for the next post to see if i make it!