TLET Route Planning

I've been giving a little thought today for our planned route for Tring-Land's End-Tring (TLET for short). We'll probably take a slightly different route back than there, and plan to stay with friends at Newbury and my brother and his wife in Penzance. I'm also trying to keep the daily mileages below 65 and avoid any major hills and dual carriageways - mainly for my wife's benefit, and bearing in mind we'll be carrying luggage. My first draft is as follows:

1. Tring to Newbury - 50 miles
2. Newbury to Shepton Mallet - 65 miles
3. Shepton Mallet to Crediton - 65 miles
4. Crediton to Liskeard  (north of Dartmoor) - 53 miles
5. Liskeard to Penzance - 63 miles
6. Penzance - Land's End - Penzance - 20 miles

We plan to have a day or two at Penzance before heading back home.

Land's End and Back - Summer 2013

My wife Nicky's just got charitable status for her special needs school, so I suggested last night we could do another charity ride sometime. She was wondering about LEJOG on a tandem, but we eventually decided that a tandem would be expensive, and might not get used much, and that it would be difficult to transport to/from the start/end. So we decided on a Land's End return trip from Tring taking in a few sights and friends over 2 weeks in Aug 2013. We'll be unsupported on our hybrids but staying in hotels or with friends along route. The distance will be around 650 miles. It should be fun.

Walking not cycling

I haven't been on a bike for over a week now - which is a bit unusual. We went away over the Jubilee bank holiday to Southwold and had planned to take our hybrids, but decided to just go walking instead - partly as the forecast wasn't that good and partly as it is a bit of an effort loading the bikes onto the roof rack and getting all the gear togther. In the end the weather was quite nice and we only had light rain on one of our walks. On this wet day my feet got wet walking through long wet grass in the first 5 mins, as my so called waterproof Peter Storm boots weren't! My wife's Brasher boots on the other hand kept her dry all day, so last week I invested in a pair of these myself (Brasher Suparlite II GTX pictured), and spent the weekend breaking them in. I'm pleased with them so far.
I'm hoping to get back on my bike this week if the rain stops!

New Shorts

I bought the cycling shorts pictured, for our summer hols and rides to the pub etc, where I don't need Lycra. They have a reinforced towelling cloth in the saddle area, and should be good enough for my hybrid.