Author Topic: LEJOG following the West Coast?  (Read 3158 times)

LEJOG following the West Coast?
« on: 23 December, 2018, 08:28:47 pm »
Good evening & Happy Christmas to you all!

I am planning on riding LEJOG next July.
I have looked at a few routes..

One that interests me is following the coast of Wales, England & Scotland all the way up to JOG...

What do you think of this as a route?

At the very least, I plan on cycling up the West Coast of Scotland...have any of you done this?

I appreciate your advice..


Dublin a Dave.

Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #1 on: 23 December, 2018, 09:07:39 pm »
I followed the west coast from the Scottish border to Ardrossan, got the ferry to Brodick, round the coast of Arran to Lochranza and then the ferry to Claonaig, and then continued up the west coast to Fort William. Couldn’t recommend this route highly enough - loved every km.
Eddington Number = 132

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #2 on: 23 December, 2018, 09:34:22 pm »
I only dipped into wales, however from Ardrossan I nipped over to Arran, onto Kintyre, up to Kilmartin, broke my wheel on the descent, limped into Oban in the pissing rain, found the "other" bike shop in Oban just after it shut, got a new wheel, over to Mull, across to Kilchoan from Tobermory, up to Kinlocheil, to Malaig, Sleat, back onto the right island at the Kyle, then up to Achnasheen and Garve (didn't bother with Torridon and Gairloch) to Ullapool, up the coast to Durness then along to Reay, Doon past the reactor, into Thurso then the 3 extremes before returning to Thurso.

Certainly makes a change from the obvious dead north route (also because Glenfarg is a bit close to home!)

Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #3 on: 24 December, 2018, 04:26:40 pm »
Hi! thank you for the replies..
That is good to know that you enjoyed your cycle along the West Coast of Scotland...the names of the places are all new to me but I will look them up on Google maps..

What sort of accommodation did you stay at in Scotland?
Any of you cycle around the coast of Wales?

Thank you!

Dublin Dave

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #4 on: 24 December, 2018, 04:55:10 pm »
Accommodation was a mix of Hostels and the Tent lumped wherever seemed suitable.
In Oban (which is always busy and I hadn't meant to stop at) I was in a B&B because it was the only place available.

Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #5 on: 26 December, 2018, 02:25:49 pm »
Thanks for the replies!
I am hoping to pack very light ... So no camping.. stay in hostels, b nb, air b nb where possible...

I imagine in rural Scotland, I will have to plan ahead for any accommodation?

Dublin Dave.

Genosse Brymbo

  • Ostalgist
Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #6 on: 26 December, 2018, 02:36:37 pm »
I imagine in rural Scotland, I will have to plan ahead for any accommodation?
Yes, and for hydration/nutrition while riding.
The present is a foreign country: they do things differently here.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #7 on: 26 December, 2018, 10:15:28 pm »
http://peter.chesspod.com/lejog/

Nearly 12 years ago, but that was our ride.

This was before the days of widespread social media. At the end of a day's ride, I would write the reports longhand in a notebook, dictate them to our son, and he would type them onto the pages of this august forum's predecessor, ACF. The reports were very well received by the punters.
The loss of humanity I could live with.

Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #8 on: 30 December, 2018, 07:57:56 pm »
Wowbagger.. that is great...
With all the social media, I dont know if things are any better!
I will check out the link u posted..

Thank you!

Dublin Dave.

vorsprung

  • Opposites Attract
    • Audaxing
Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #9 on: 30 December, 2018, 08:24:30 pm »
I know Wales pretty well and whilst some of the roads that are near to the coast ie the B4572 Aberwrysth to Tre'droll is great it might be an idea to avoid crazy up and down stuff

Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #10 on: 30 December, 2018, 08:45:56 pm »
I followed the west coast from the Scottish border to Ardrossan, got the ferry to Brodick, round the coast of Arran to Lochranza and then the ferry to Claonaig, and then continued up the west coast to Fort William. Couldn’t recommend this route highly enough - loved every km.

^ This

I'd say island hop from arran over to mull of kintyre, ride up to Oban via Lochgilphead then ferry to mull too and then ferry hop to Lochaline and go to FW via Strontian. From there head up to Fort Augustus and then South side of Loch Ness to Inverness. Then pick up road to Lairg and take Strathnaver road to Bettyhill.

Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #11 on: 31 December, 2018, 05:25:58 pm »
Vorsprung, I cycled around Snowdonia National Park before.. the Wesh roads van be verrry steep.. so you think maybe go straight up through England, instead of via Welsh coast and then follow the Scottish Coast?

Hot Flattus.. thanks for the advice re the Scottish Route.. sounds very interesting!

Dublin Dave.

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
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Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #12 on: 31 December, 2018, 05:31:55 pm »
Vorsprung, I cycled around Snowdonia National Park before.. the Wesh roads van be verrry steep.. so you think maybe go straight up through England, instead of via Welsh coast and then follow the Scottish Coast?
You could ride quite near to the coast on very nice roads without stoopid hills, visiting quite a few coastal settlements. (and there are some long stretches of coast road that are fine).

It would make a lovely ride, but you'd add a huuuuge amount of time. (time which might be spent more enjoyably in Scotland. Arguably!)

(I should say I only know the south+west coast, sorry.)
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #13 on: 02 January, 2019, 08:00:09 pm »
My favourite section of the whole LEJOG experience was cycling through the Welsh Borders. Nothing too extreme, reasonably good scenery but on a long ride like that, you don't want to destroy yourself when you are not even half way.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #14 on: 02 January, 2019, 09:12:25 pm »
I'm not sure how fit you need to be to tackle LEJOG. Jan and I took 20 days over it - 1050 miles by our route. We were by no means fit although we had been out on our tandem quite a lot in the late winter/early spring. A few days before we set off we went out and did back-to-back 50 mile days just to prove that we could. I think that some of the days were almost 70 miles. We were, however, blessed with wonderful weather. Pretty much non-stop sunshine all the way from Land's End to Fort William.
The loss of humanity I could live with.

Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #15 on: 02 January, 2019, 10:04:32 pm »
Its a long while ago, but I reckon on at least 500-700 mile weeks on differing terrain in the lead up are necessary. The actual days were 70-125ish miles on the ride and its the consistency of effort and wear and tear on bike and body that will make the difference as to how successful it will be.

Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #16 on: 03 January, 2019, 05:52:11 pm »
Yea.. the fitter you are the more enjoyable it will be.. I commute 40km per day to work and a club ride at the weekend.. so I don’t need to train too much


Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #17 on: 04 January, 2019, 09:02:47 am »
If you really want to go round the west coast of Scotland, check out the North Coast 500 route:
https://www.northcoast500.com/
though you might want to be selective, as you may or may not want to include the Bealach na Ba!!

Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #18 on: 05 January, 2019, 05:29:45 pm »
Thank you Fimm..I will check that route out!

Dublin Dave.

rr

Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #19 on: 06 January, 2019, 03:04:07 pm »
Paging Mr Larrington,
Mr Larrington was involved in a project to ride a windcheater around the British coastline in our PSO days.
I don't know if he has any record of the route.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk


Re: LEJOG following the West Coast?
« Reply #20 on: 06 January, 2019, 08:46:50 pm »
I am reading Mark Beaumont's book at the moment about his record round the world cycle... He warmed uo by cycling around the coast of the UK...

I am interested to see how Mr Larrington got on?

Dublin Dave.