Land's End to John o'Groats: The Permaculture Way
It’s all about the journey - and the attitude you travel with - discovers Phil Moore
There are many ways to start a journey. And the end isn’t always the goal, as I came to learn as a tour leader for the Brake the Cycle Land’s End to John O’Groats ride.
One of the most iconic rides in cycling Land’s End to John O’Groats has seen professionals and amateurs alike take to the road. Cycling the breadth of the geologically diverse landscape that is the UK, LEJOG (in its Gallic rendition), guarantees stunning scenery and a formidable, but not, unconquerable challenge.
A roughly 1,000 mile journey - depending on how you do it - the ‘End to End’, as it’s also known, is a very British tradition.
The ride takes you from the south-west tip of England to the most northerly point of Scotland (although some dispute this as the most northerly tip, arguably with geography on their side, John o’Groats has accrued the cultural significance as the destination - or, more rarely, the start point - and so maintains its position as the most northerly point, in character, if not in exact latitude. The most northerly part of mainland UK goes to Duncansby Head).
According to Wikipedia the official Road Records Association have 44 hours, 4 minutes and 20 seconds for the completion of LEJOG by Gethin Butler in 2001. The fastest time cycling is claimed by Andy Wilkinson, on a recumbent tricycle, completing LEJOG in 41 hours, 4 minutes and 22 seconds.
At a more leisurely pace LEJOG takes anywhere from nine days to three weeks. Some choose to do it on a unicycle, others on a tandem; weekend troubadours cycle with instruments in tow, whilst others ride alone just to get away from it all.
And so in 2015 Brake the Cycle (BTC), a social enterprise, took to the roads for it’s third End to End. BTC aims to give riders the experience of personal transformation. The adventure consists of two journeys: the physical challenge and a tour of alternative ways of living and being.
Not your ordinary package holiday BTC is very much about community. The community of a group of strangers who will spend three weeks cycling, camping & cooking together, and who’s cycling experience and personal histories vary widely.
And more broadly speaking, the communities that BTC takes it’s challengers (as they are known) to visit.
Rather than rest & recuperation at a B&B, intentional communities, organic farms, permaculture projects and unique smallholdings - each a pocket of spirited distinction in comparison to the mainstream - are the stop points along the way.
And it is these examples of different ways of being that BTC wishes to share with it’s challengers in a bid to help take lessons learnt on the road into everyday life.
There’s something very powerful about a physical achievement where body, mind and soul strive together.
As one of four tour leaders, each day we set of with a team of riders for the day’s journey ahead.
Starting in the irredeemably hilly hills of the south-west, riding through Cornwall was a baptism of fire for many.
As a keen cyclist, and habitual rider, I had experience of many long distance rides. For some, as I came to learn, they had never ridden longer than 40 miles in a single day. Over the course of the three weeks the average ‘End to End’ was 80 miles. But they did it. And to see their relief and disbelief and joy all written on a tired face, was proof enough that when you put your mind to it your body will necessarily follow.
As with their differing experiences of riding, so too, the challenger’s personal preoccupations and life trajectories. Made up of recent graduates, retired professionals, wondering programmers, and questioning civil servants, the group all seemed to be at an important stage in their lives where decisions needed to be taken.
For BTC the bicycle is a vehicle, not just of conveyance but of achievement and self-belief; a machine for personal transformation but also a way to travel the UK and meet the people and projects that are leading ecological and low impact lives.
Starting at Land’s End with the obligatory photos the first ride to Plan It Earth, an unassuming three acre site, next to one of Britain’s many holy wells, offering nature and healing retreats in their roundhouse and natural buildings, set the tone for the spaces and projects we would encounter.
Coming inland before going north we hugged the left flank of the UK entering the beautiful Wye Valley which straddles the border of England and Wales, before cycling into Shropshire, a green jewel and overlooked county. From there, heading north through Shrewsbury, Northwich and into the industrial north, passing through Manchester city centre along its canals we re-entered the rambling Lancashire countryside and water ways leading us to Burnley for a memorable descent into the market town.
Weaving our way between the Yorkshire Dales and the Forest of Bowland AONB, heavy tourist traffic criss-crossed with quieter routes as roads began to get calmer for our stop just outside Kendal by the lake District National Park. Penrith and into Scotland provided some of the most beautiful rides with stunning scenery. We rode up, along and across Loch Lomond, Loch Ness, and Glencoe - a glen of inactive volcanic mountains in the highlands.
This was all during an unseasonably warm April, where the last days of winter muted the soon to appear colours of Spring. Bare trees and little in the way of bird song seemed incongruous with the mild temperatures.
For the people and projects we visited, Permaculture was very much the model in which they lived their lives. Broadly speaking Permaculture is about designing sustainable human settlements. Integrating ecology, organic husbandry, architecture, and landscape design, with the use of appropriate technologies, Permaculture seeks to create systems in step with the natural world and its resources.
Permaculture is a compound word joining ‘permanent’ and ‘agri-culture’ but has widened out to include ‘culture’ e.g. how we educate, how we communicate, etc.
It was one project, Sprint Mill, we visited, that for me encapsulated the spirit and ethos of Brake the Cycle.
Set amongst 15 acres on a bend of the River Sprint in Burneside, Cumbria, the old mill was both a home and art space to an utterly unique couple, Edward and Romola Acland.
Camping by their goats and chickens, we were lead on a tour of their restored 19th century water mill, after a few of us braved the cold, clear waters of the Sprint River.
An artist, smallholder and a firm believer in the use of human powered tools, Edward toured a fascinated group amongst his collections on found objects, irreverent art projects and historical items. With a quick smile and sprightly gait, he appeared to me as a sort of Patron Saint for Brake the Cycle. Welcoming a group of strangers into his home, like each of the places we would stay, his warmth and enthusiasm for hand tools and honest work resonated with the efforts needed to cycle day in and day out under your own steam. That, and carving a space where art and nature were celebrated, just on the outskirts of the village of Burneside to create place of inspiration and celebration of a way of living that in other circumstances might not be deemed normal.
Over a period of three weeks over 20 people from different walks of life, shared in laughter, food and tales from road. Celebrating birthdays and the day’s ride, each evening we would tell each other tales from road. Wild geese honking in the clear April blue air; discovering streams and wild rivers; chance encounters such as being taken to a couple’s house for tea & biscuits when a group lost their way; gifted several bags of Tunnock’s Tea Cakes from a father and son business in Glasgow; playing on the drums and singing into the small hours in the middle of Shropshire under a blanket of stars and a deep cold darkness kept at bay by fire and song; meeting a solo cyclist loyally carrying his tuba (the largest instrument in the brass family) up the Scottish highlands; consoling a challenger whose chain broke, and whilst waiting with her on the side of the road, just before the brow of the hill, for the support bus, listening, as she unfurled her life story and the challenges she had recently faced and overcome.
These snapshots of the tour mark, for me, what was the overall quality and feel of a bike ride like no other: camaraderie, serendipity, carefree, easy-going; the kindness of strangers, youthful, exciting; and friendship.
The travels and travails of a shared journey cement bonds around a unique experience that although lived by each person individually was taken together.
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Saddle up for the 2018 Land’s End to John O’Groats ride or Brake the Cycle’s new tour Dragon Dreaming — a week long ride through Wales.
Phil Moore is a keen cycle tourer and communicator. He tweets at @permapeople
