7th March 2016
Producing the website is a new experience, lots of trial and error with WordPress software.
One thing we needed was some artwork for a logo, we planned to approach an artist friend but then Laura came to our party and when she heard about snailcycle she drew us a great picture and so with a bit of manipulation to make it suitable for the Web we now have original artwork of a snail sat on a saddle.
Thank you Laura
Laura’s original artwork
7th March 2016
Having perhaps rather rashly come up with the idea of extending the traditional Land End to John O’Groats route to include the Scilly and Shetland Isles we have been working away looking at the route options- it is further than we thought!
Google plots a direct route of 1222 miles, ours will be a fair bit longer as we propose to weave around on smaller roads and also have some detours to visit friends on the way, probably the total will be 1300 to 1400 miles .
Googles estimate
An extra incentive to do more cycling in the next few weeks
6th March 2016
There are things we feel pretty knowledgeable about our trip- the cycling , camping, route planning and first aid etc, but one area we had little knowledge of at all- social media.
We have been putting together our website and blog but how to interact with Twitter and Facebook was a complete mystery – so we are immensely grateful to have some help from a real professional expert- the wonderful Louisa Clack from London PR gave up her Sunday morning to share some of her professional expertise and walk us through how to get started.
Any successes in this feild are hers, any failures are clearly down to our lack of knowledge!
1st March 2016
We are starting to prepare for our end to end, tweaking the bikes, renewing the worn out mudguards and more importantly doing plenty of cycling with our club the Chesterfield Spire cycling club. We are hoping to average 40 to 50 miles a day on our trip but this will be when we are carrying all our luggage, we are currently doing about 50 miles a day without luggage and not every day so clearly have some more work to do
13th January 2016
So what is the whole Snail Cycle project?
We are two doctors from Chesterfield in Derbyshire
We plan to cycle from the southernmost part of the British Isles (St Agnes on the Isles of Scilly) to the most Northerly inhabited point (Unst in the Shetlands) , unsupported and camping most of the time.
Why Snail Cycle?
Some people cycle from Lands End to John o’Groats in incredible times, this is usually done with a support team in a van or motorhome to carry their luggage, provide food and support and help with all the logistics.
We aim to do the opposite- we will carry our own tent and clothes (our house on our back) , not always take the straightest coarse as we will stick to quieter rural roads and will definitely not be the fastest