LeJog year

Each year we have cyclists stay in our guest house part way through an
End2End or other marathon trip. 2005 has been a bumper year, with at
least a score of LeJogers and others staying overnight. Typically those
heading for John O' Groats are on about day ten or eleven when they
reach us here in Perthshire, though we've had a few taking a more
leisurely approach and just recently had a young man who'd got here in
four days (he reckoned the tail wind had helped!).

The bike of choice is still the Galaxy, in various vintages, including
one Belgian gentleman with a beautifully preserved early model Galaxy in
British Racing Green, which he said had taken him for many thousands of
kilometres throughout continental Europe. There are other bikes too,
nice road bikes, and one young lad who'd made it up here on a
no-suspension "mountain" bike he'd bought in a car boot sale. His only
problem had been regular punctures thanks to tyres so perished they had
gaping holes in the walls.

Equipment loads vary from one small rack bag to an array of panniers
with a bike hidden somewhere inside. Perhaps to no-one's surprise there
does seem to be a relationship between load size and rate of progress.

Anyway, I'm posting this just to salute all of these hardy souls,
including those who didn't stay here in our guest house (bleepy
skinflints ;-) ). I'm sort of developing a vague plan to join them in
2007, which year I'll become 60, one of those life milestones that seems
to call for something a bit effortful. But even if I never do it, I
have great respect for those who have done and will do so in future.
Well done all!
--
Brian G