Why too late to organise Mr Woppit? If you fancy it, just go do it. It’s a great experience. You don’t necessarily have to do it as a charity thang. ….Although after the 100th person asks you what charity you’re doing it for …(and then looks at you like you’re a bad person when you say you’re just doing it for yourself) ..you might think differently.
I reckon at that level of commuting, you’ll be fine
12 days for me to go from John O Groats to Lands End t’other year- self supporting on an old GT hardtail
It was harder than I reckoned because the weight of tent, sleeping bag, camping stove etc, slowed my average daily speed down a lot more than I’d anticipated – so ended up doing some very long days in the saddle.
Biggest issue for me was arse pain (mainly due to an SDG saddle) and wrist pain.
Starting from Lands End, in theory, but not guaranteed, means the wind will be kind of behind you. Downside is you will hit hills from day 1 and they are never ending down there. Other downside is you finish in John O Groats. The two nearest stations don’t have regular trains like Penzance and the trains have limited bike carrying capacity, and lots of cyclists finishing their rides up there at similar times. One section of the Scottish train route won’t allow you to reserve bike carriage in advance. I heard stories of people being stuck for 3 or 4 days up there and someone getting a hire car down to Inverness rather than wait. No such issues with Penzance due to volume of trains and entire journey back to MCR allows for bike reservations in advance
The other plus of starting from JoG is you are fairly fit for the Conwall Devon hills by the time you get there.
Downside of starting from JOG is the riding gets progressively less nice the further South you go. Cornwall/Devon you’ll more than likely be on main roads with fast traffic around if you want to finish in under a fortnight roads. I took a detour thru Exmoor(B3223) to try and get away from them for a bit – and see the Exmoor National Park – which I was surprised to find fairly underwhelming. Any view in the Peak District, Lakes, Wales, Yorks, Scotland would make (what I saw of) Exmoor, instantly forgettable – nowt like eg Dartmoor or Bodmin Moor (apologies to anyone who’s a fan of the place)
The riding down to ~ Garstang however is brilliant. Some of the scenery is just brilliant. If you are camping then you won’t need to go all the way along the N coast of Scotand to the YHA at Tongue. Instead turn S a lot earlier and head down the Strathnaver valley (top tip from a local). This was probably the most spectacular bit of riding of the journey for me. Other impressive bits are the sections just N and S of Innerleithen. Pitlochry cycle path over Drumochter Pass. Eskdalemuir Forest down to Langholm – has a very “Canadian” feel to it.
I thought I would be a fitness god by the time I got back. Bizarrely, it just didn’t work like that, as I discovered when I went out on the SS in the peaks a couple of days later 🙁