Target smashed - and ready for the off

Firstly a massive thank-you to all my supporters and sponsors out there; I'm delighted to announce that today we reached the target of £2000, all of which is going to Lochaber Mountain Rescue. As I write the total is £2063 plus another £327 in gift aid.

It's a fantastic achievement, but there's no need to stop there... maybe you didn't get around to it before or are feeling particularly generous today? In any case you can still donate at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jogiow

The adventure starts on Saturday, when I fly up to Inverness. As you can see, the bike is all nicely packed up, protected and ready to go. It's not that I don't trust the baggage handlers to take care of it, it's just that... well actually I don't trust them to take care of it.

Once I get to Inverness airport, I have a couple of hours to assemble the bike, cycle into town, buy some gas, find some lunch and catch the 2.30pm train to Wick on the Far North Line. It's a slow, wiggly and spectacularly scenic route, some of which I will see on the way home as well.

Then it's about another hour and a half cycle to John O'Groats where I'll set up on the campsite all ready for the first day on Sunday.

I have also - just in time - finished planning the route and preparing and printing out my backup maps. 

The grand total distance as planned is, coincidentally, 1111 miles. My mapping program is claiming 104,127' of ascent, which I rather hope is not correct. The official figure for the Great North Trail, which is the first 800 miles of my route and includes most of the hilly bits, is 56,430', so it's probably more like 75,000' total. Which is still two-and-a-half times the height of Everest. I rather wish I had not worked that out...

If you are so inclined, you can see my backup maps and GPX files here. The GPX files will load into any mapping program you may have, including Google Maps, but MemoryMap is the best option. The backup map images should load straight into your browser.

Communications in the far north of Scotland are likely to be a bit patchy, but I will try to keep this blog up to date, either directly or by relaying messages via Bev.

Well that's it - wish me luck. I shall need it!