JOGLE route and planning

[alec saunders]

Hi, im planning to do the JOGLE/LEJOG cycle over the summer. I've never done anything like this before so help would be appreciated! Does anyone have a detailed day by day map for a trip lasting around 14-15 days. I already have a decent bike so how much do you think the trip would cost including accomodation (hopefully youth hostels) trasport kit food etc...

Thank you

 

[dand_uk]

Hi Alec,

I did the JOGLE last year in August, it was AMAZING. We did it 10 days with a day train travel at either end. Our route was:

Wick>JOG>Tongue>Inverness>Oban>Glasgow>Carlisle>Preston>Bridgnorth>Bristol>Okehampton>LE>Penzance.

We stayed in hostels for most nights. Total cost to each of us was £1000 for the whole trip (travel, food, accomodation). Possible to do it cheaper by doing more hostels. try hostelbookers website. Oh and the cost excludes bike supplies as I can still use those - 3 of us rode it and we got a total of ZERO punctures/crashes (unless you count clipless incidents! hehe!)

Depending where you're coming from you can get decent train prices in advance. I got a ticket from Brum to Wick for 40 with bike reserved (use east coast trains website). Journey from Inverness to Wick is very slow tho so take a book!

In regards to daily mileage we were riding pretty much from 9ish until dark most days, doing an average of between 11 and 14mph. We were carrying an extra 15kg each as we were unsupported so you can probably get a better speed. Also our route was not the most direct, but I am happy with the route we choose, some amazing sights, in particular between Oban and Glasgow, and the Lake District - Kirkstone Pass.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[alec saunders]

Thanks, that info is great How long is the train journey to wick and does it envolve alot of changes?

Thanks again

 

[snorri]

How long is the train journey to wick and does it envolve alot of changes?

Inverness to Wick, 4.5 hours, up to 24 stops but no changes.
Departures from Inverness at 07.06, 10.38, 13.59, 18.14 Mon -Fri
Thurso which is roughly equidistant from JOG has same departure times from Inverness, takes just 4 hours, no changes and only 22 stops.

 

[Rebel Ian]

If you go onto the bikely.com site and search for a route near "lejog" you get lots of alternatives. You can then split the various routes into however many days you want.

 

[delport]

My john o'groats- lands end trip was probably as cheap as you can possibly get, done last October, It was less than £200 for 3 weeks. Roughly £5 a day was enough.
For the whole of the 1st week i got by on £2 a day.
I am certainly not mean with money, just skint at times.
I camped wild every night, spent money on food and little else.Train fares were incredibly low, booked in advance.
my train costs to inverness:

£ 4-50 Southampton-London [megatrain]
£14-70 London- edinburgh [advance fare]
£10-30 Edinburgh-Inverness [advance fare]

Most folk wouldn't want to do the things i did i suppose though.I dawdled along at times , i was in no great rush, no one sponsored me, i was doing it for my own achievement, and something to test the mind and body.I did 1200 miles by the end,the final few days i was up at near 100 miles a day, but i started off only doing 30 to 40.

My route was
inverness and then up to john o'groats
john o'groats
inverness
fort william
glasgow
carlisle
shap
wigan
shrewsbury
ludlow
monmouth
the old severn bridge [really enjoyable surprisingly]
bristol
tiverton
tavistock
st austell
camborne
penzance
lands end

I had one puncture during the whole 1200 miles, fitted a new back tyre before departing, i had quite a few broken spokes.
I was kitted out to repair them myself [my back wheel has been hopeless and i break spokes frequently].
Apart from that barely anything went wrong.

I should also add i carried 4 panniers, and the bike was far too heavy with that amount of gear.
I'm still building my trailer for future trips as i don't fancy hauling 4 panniers on the bike again.

 

[troose]

Hi

I cycled a JOGLE in 2009.

I must say that I found the train to be very expensive. But maybe that was just in 2009. I flew to Wick via Edinburgh. It was much cheaper than the triain and much quicker.

I B&Bed my way down the country and averaged about £30 a night.

Food costs really depend on what you want to eat I suppose. I budgetted about £50 per day to cover everything, including B&B. Was under budget at the end.

In terms of a detailed route... I tried to look at other people's routes and found that none of them really went the way I wanted to so ended up creating my own in the end. I cribbed various bits though. I used bikely.com at the time. Trouble is it doesn't give written directions, so it's fine if you want a gpx file for a sat nav but not much use if you want written directions on your handle bars. If I was doing it now I would use Google Maps. A draw back to Google maps is that you can't get a saved map and a gpx file out of it. Having said that I think you can if you know what you are doing, but it isn't straight forward. Haven't tried it out but someone recommeded www.landsend-to-johnogroats.co.uk as having a solution to the google maps thing.

The JOGLE is great fun. I think Scotland was the highlight for me. Took lots of photos there!

 

[Charlie-S]

I am planning a JOGLE in July and this is the route I have planned : JOGLE Route
note: when I started it was going to be a LEJoG and I started but haven't finished inserting all the Travelodges / Premier Inns and Youth Hostels on route.

Hoping to complete in 12-14 days. This route follows much of the CTC B&B route but diverts to go via Arran (saves going through Glasgow & is prettier route).

Hope you enjoy.

 

[patpalloon]

If you book in advance the train is quite cheap. I'm going the other way - LEJOG. Train from London to Penzance £16.50 lowest fare, Wick or Thurso to London £47 cheapest fare and of course it is free to reserve your bike on to the train. You can only book from 12 weeks prior to departure.
I am using the following as my route (10 dayer)

http://www.bikely.com/listpaths/by/Supermatt

 

[PpPete]

Routewise this may, or may not, be of interest.

 

[bigfoot]

I am using the following as my route (10 dayer)

http://www.bikely.co...hs/by/Supermatt

quick route : but lots of fast/dangerous roads on that route! Good luck.

 

[robgul]

Just go to www.cycle-endtoend.org.uk - loads of resources and a ready made route that works for the time mentioned in the OP - you can make a donation to Macmillan and get a CD with route map ready to print.

Rob (webmaster for the Cycle : End-to-End site)

 

[Ceedee]

A couple of us from work are riding Lejog in May this year, so far we have booked 7 Travelodges and a 4 star Hotel for the last night http://www.kingsmillshotel.com/ which is normally £40 per night per person if booked on the internet but after writing to them and explaining the ride was for charity they have offered a 50% discount (very nice of them). Total cost so far for the hotels, £106(bargain), two sharing twin rooms.

Food and drink wise, we are expecting about £400 for the 10 days. I don't expect to be having too many beers on a night, maybe on the last one so I think that should be enough.

 

[robgul]

Hi, im planning to do the JOGLE/LEJOG cycle over the summer. I've never done anything like this before so help would be appreciated! Does anyone have a detailed day by day map for a trip lasting around 14-15 days. I already have a decent bike so how much do you think the trip would cost including accomodation (hopefully youth hostels) trasport kit food etc...

Thank you

Have a look at www.cycle-endtoend.org.uk - loads of Journals and a ready-made route (with 200 page map) that you can get for a modest charity donation

Rob
Cycle:E2E webmaster

 

[Jacabus]

I did a relay LEJOG last July. We had favourable South Westerly wind behind us, so worth considering starting at Land's End if you are doing it in the Summer. Our route was pretty good, but was the shortest we could find because we did it non-stop. The route is on our web site: http://ride4heroes.webs.com/

Hope your ride goes well.

Ian.