Lands End

EDINBURGH TO JOHN O’GROATS TO LAND’S END TO LONDON DOM DEMPERS AND ANDREW BONAMOUR

- Dom Dempers And Andrew Bonamour

DAY ONE: “LOVELY DAY?” EDINBURGH TO JOHN O’GROATS (290 MILES)

And so, roughly a year after we tackled Route 66, the mighty mother road that stretches from Chicago to LA in the US, we embarked this morning on our next epic journey; Edinburgh to John O’Groats to Land’s End to London, and in so doing, reaching one of Britain’s northern most and southern most points. Day one starts tend to be a bit clunky and today was no different. New bike (a sexy Triumph Tiger) to get used to and a new challenge to figure out how to best pack and secure our luggage on the new bike. But we managed to get going without too much fuss until not more than a mile into our journey when a bird shat all over me. Not the best feeling but supposedly brings good luck I hear. A quick pull over in the Edinburgh morning traffic for a wipe down and we were on our way again. The rented Tigers were kitted with GPS which had very cleverly been pre-programmed with our daily routes - a massive plus not having to pull over regularly, haul out the phone and check Google Maps.

So with a steely determination to break with the stereotypes and find some generous Scotsmen, some Englishmen with a decent set of teeth and at least one Welshman whose surname is not Jones or Williams, we roared north out of Edinburgh, buoyed by the dry weather, the partial sunshine and the excellent visibility (by Scottish standards). We took the M90 north to Perth and then the A9 through Cairngorms National Park, a quick fuel stop in Inverness, a hop across Loch Ness (no site of the monster) and all the way up the east coast to John O’Groats.