JOG to the Black isle

8/12/2019 JOG to the Black isle

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John O’Groats to The Black Isle13

th - 15

th June 2014

Background

On the morning of Monday May 5th 2014, my dad passed away at a guest house in Fortrose, a small

town on the east side of the Black Isle (just a stones throw away from Inverness). With 13 riding daysalready completed, my dad was fully kitted up on the Monday morning ready to tackle the remaining 2days riding but unfortunately just prior to going downstairs for a pre-arranged breakfast at 8am hesuffered a blood clot, causing a fatal heart attack.

His intention was to complete the final stretch from Fortrose to John O’Groats which is 125 miles andprovide a total riding distance of over 1000 miles and in the process raise a significant fund forParkinson’s.

Completion of the Ride

The decision was easy for me his son. Closure on a number of fronts was what was required and Iimmediately started to think how this stretch of the UK could be tackled. I had a number of weeks toprepare to give me some breathing space after the funeral and with work / family commitments I knew Ionly had a handful of days to get the job done. Scanning through my diary the “Fathers Day” weekend

was coming up and that was the decision made in terms of timings. It would also allow me to continue toswell the “Parkinsons” charity fund in honour of Dads life long friend “Fred ward” who died of Parkinsonsback in March. It would also provide me (and the family) some further insight into what happened inFortrose and an opportunity to take some photographs of an area that had suddenly become veryimportant to us..

I did mull around for quite a while on the best way to tackle this journey as there were a number ofoptions available. One thing that struck me early on was to keep things simple so I decided to ride alone(despite a number of offers to accompany me) which would allow me to go at my own “fat burningintensity“ pace.

My original plan was to ride in a northerly direction from Fortrose to John O’Groats. However,psychologically the north to south option appealed more and more as I could get the bulk of the cartravel out of the way on the Friday and know from there onwards we were always going southwards. It

would also ensure I could wake up on the Sunday morning in Fortrose and it would be of course Fathersday !

Last Blog

Before I share some of my own notes of my ride I would like to share with you my dads very last “blog”(which he did daily) - this was written on the morning of his death (so between 7-8am) which reads asfollows: -

“ St ruggl ed the last f ew morn in gs with in digestion f oll owin g the in tak e of a huge Scott ish

break f ast consisti ng of porr idge, haggi s, black pudding, toms, mushrooms, bacon ,toast and

egg so thought I woul d experiment by just havin g my endurance dri nk sample and see what

happens.

Leaving Fort Wil li am very early at 0700 I foll owed in it ial ly the Horsley route which wassuperb wi th a big sky f eel. Thi s was soon to change as the tarmac disappeared and a rough

t rack needed to be f ol lowed f or 7mil es and i t was desperately di f f icul t k eeping t racti on going

up hil l as the Sandy surf ace was wet and I needed heavy duty M T B t y res to solve and

coming downhi l l even worse and in the end I let t he bik e go and hung on to my cow horn s li k e

gr im death on ly to suf f er a puncture on my bul let proof German t y res.

Then I had to f ace the track that ran along t he Caledon ian Canal to Fort Augustus but 35 m i le

done in about 3 hours of rough going. The weather t hen changed t o dr iz z le and t im e to put the

over shoes on and jack et. I f oun d a bus stop un der cover and star ti n g t hin k in g what the he'l l

am I doing sat in a bus stop over l ook ing a very wet and m iserable Loch Ness when I coul d be

chatti ng to Sue in a warm k it chen, and at this poin t I rang home f or a motivati onal chat but



Sue didn 't pick up so I thought i t S unday morn in g, it 's race day and onl y 33 m il es to

Invern ess lets rock and rol l and 2hours 5 m in s later I was there pushing a huge gear al l the

Locati on : Unk nown but between Fortwil l iam and the Black isle

way wi th heart rate at tempo pace. The area around Invern ess was lovely and very green soon

changi ng to in ner cit y navigat ion to f in d the A9 and the bri dge to cross the ri ver and the

essent ial tea stop (sorry John ) and work out where next as Navigat or Bob was else where but a

100 mil es f ur ther south. Bob had menti oned crossing the Bl ack Isle to Cromarty a week earl ier

and using my map on the phone I decided t o overn ight at Fort rose.(see 3 Pictures below)

So another epic on the stealth bomber and as a reward the locals went out to catch me a f reshly

…………… ” End

Picture: Eileen Campbell – proprietor of the Fortrose guest house



Picture : The grounds directly opposite the guest househttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortrose_Cathedral

Evening Meal – we know speaking with Eileen that dad arrived mid-afternoon on Sunday 4TH

and askedto stay for one night. He told her why he was doing the cycling trip and that he was making his way toJohn O’Groats. He said he had been travelling with 2 companions but had left them behind. He also saidthey planned to meet up again at some point and do the last part of the journey together. Both Eileenand her daughter had spoke to Dad during the afternoon – he had a query about their internetconnection and had asked about where he could have an evening meal. He went out at 6.45pm to a

nearby restaurant (Eilean Dubh) and returned around 8 o’clock.

Eilean Dubh Restaurant

Bolton to Thurso - Friday 13

th

June

At 7.30am Mark and myself left Bolton and travelled all the way up to Thurso which took 9.5 hours.Thurso is 20 miles west of John O’Groats and is the most northerly town on mainland Scotland. A fewbeers made for a good evening !

A few beers at the Station Hotel



Saturday 14th

June

At 8am we left the hotel in Thurso and made the 20 mile journey over to John O’Groats. I was riding mydads “stealth bomber” cannondale bike and even wore his bike shoes ! Until this moment I hadn’t eventried out the bike and shoes prior to the trip - but knew dads height and feet size were very roughly thesame as me so only a few minor adjustments were required and away I went, after posing for a fewpictures.

Mark Grice and myself at John O’Groats Finger post

The first 1 hour section to Wick I took very steady – my focus was to just get used to the gears and burnoff the alcohol and breakfast. As planned from the day before we found this small café at Latheron andarrived mid morning a quick coffee and a stretch.

First Coffee stop: Latheron (38 miles int o the ride )

Lunch: Pub at Golspie (58 miles into 125 mile ride)

My driver for the weekend was Mark Grice (partner to my sister, Janine) - Mark shadowed me closelykeeping within ½ mile all the way which was pleasant company ! He would pull into lay-by’s and I wouldgive just a simple nod of the head as I passed indicating all was ok.

Our recce the previous day had provided a really good opportunity to assess the roads / traffic and wewere really quite anxious about the safety of the roads – not that I was expecting just sheep but certainly

we didn’t expect the volume of traffic to be made up with caravans and lorries on such narrow roads !However, lunch was in a great pub in a small town called Golspie. I only wanted to rest for a short 15



minute period as didn’t want to get too stiff, so cracked on into my 60th

mile, leaving Mark to finish hislunch.

Quite a number of distilleries were passed, but of note the Glenmorangie distillery seemed a good placeto do a pose ! The sun had finally come out and I was able to get out of my extra layers and put somelight weight Mercury Performance kit on which felt great.

I had a good spell up to around 90 miles and there were a number of “Firths” to cross noteably, DornochFirth, Cromarty Firth. At this point I had crossed onto The Black Isle and the garmin watch had clocked100 miles, which was a personal best distance for me by a long stretch.

The Black Isle presented me with a long drag and heavy rain but I drew quite a lot of strength “strangely”knowing I was fast approaching Fortrose ! I decided to come off the A9 and opt for some quiet backlanes. A quick look at the map saw me ride these lanes into our overnight stay at Avoch, 1 mile awayfrom Fortrose.

A shower and a deep sleep gave me enough energy to then go and venture into Fortrose and speak

with Eileen at the guest house ( for about 45 minutes or so) and then for both of us to get something toeat.

Garmin Link

For those that want to log into my ride this link provides information on the route that I took, heart rateand speed.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/521189364

Sunday 15th

June

After a good nights sleep and breakfast, Mark and I left our B & B at 8.30am and travelled home,arriving back in Bolton around 3.30pm to a lovely Sunday dinner. The next two hours were spent

relaxing before family life kicked in properly and I was back up at the park playing football for 90 minuteswith the boys. I then had to take the rental car back that night so drove into Bolton at 8pm beforerunning the 5 miles home - straight to bed as had a “sales meeting” at 7.30am the next morning !

Young Athletes Sports Grant

We now have closure on this ride and as they say in the entertainment business “the show must go on”.The Mercury performance Coaching business will continue to be developed and encouragingly we havesome very talented and highly motivated individuals involved to help the cause. We hope to continue anumber of charities and in particular raise funds for the “ young athletes sports grant” – the key objectivebeing it will give cycle coaching support to local young elite athletes to enable them to gain access to thehugely successful British Cycling Talent team program.



Sponsorships

I would sincerely like to thank everyone that has supported me on this trip both with your kind words ofencouragement and charity donations.

In particular I would like to pay a very special thank you to all that helped contribute financially to my trip,particularly Rob Cooke but also to Mark Grice who gave me 3 days of his time to be my dedicated driver.

Final Pictures

Lands End – 22nd

April 2014 John O’ Groats - 14th

June 2014

All the best

Martyn Bell

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JOG to the Black isle