Signed up so far are :-Jim Prince, Jack Gillespie, Paul Johnson
Jock Edwards, Ella Noble, Richard Burn, Alastair Dawson

 
Jim Prince – I’m an almost 50 year old outdoor instructor. I run a small outdoor adventure company with my wife specialising in hill walking and canoeing expeditions throughout Scotland, and occasionally further afield. I moved to Strathdon from Ellon in 1986 with my wife Mahri. We commenced work “doing up” an old cottage and raising a family. However, like all these things our two children have now left home, the cottage is still not finished and Mahri and I are the ones requiring renovation.

I use a mountain bike for commuting into the hills and the occasional bit of self harm. My road biking experience commenced this March and since then I’ve been working on some of the classic cycle routes which are in abundance around the Don and Deeside areas. It was once explained to me that anything in the outdoors that uses of the word “classic” really means pain, however good cycle shorts and gloves seem to have rectified this condition so far.

The only thing that concerns me about this trip is the wind and cars that get to close. For the latter I’m considering attaching horizontal swords to my wheels in the style of a roman chariot. For the former I’ll get something from the surgery beforehand.

I’m looking forward to the crack, the challenge and the charity.

 
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Jack Gillespie - I’m 56 and currently I work at the Lecht Ski Centre in the winter and help run B&B and self-catering accommodation in the summer.Originally from Glasgow I moved north by degrees and eventually had the good  fortune to move to Corgarff in 1980 with my wife Cath and first child,Rona, who was one year old at the time.We quickly discovered that Strathdon was a great place to live with a strong sense of community and I don’t think we could consider  living anywhere else now.

I had fancied doing the Lands end trip for some time and had got as far as buying a guide book and a bike( several years ago) but there was no sign of me actually making a move and doing it so when
I heard about it from Jim Prince it was  the catalyst  to get me motivated.

I once cycled from Aberdeen to Edinburgh and back(two days) but that was 30 years ago and I haven’t done any long trips since so I see this as a real challenge. I reckon I can do 80 miles in a day but to do that for two weeks solid will be really hard. I see that I’m the oldest in the group so maybe I can be thrown a towrope if I’m lagging behind!

Hopefully we can raise a decent amount of money for Strathdon School and the other charity- Cash for Kids- and have a great time in the process.

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Paul Johnson – I’m a 55 year old hydrographic surveyor, originally from North Wales, brought up in various places including Zambia (funnily enough in the same small town as Jock) and London. I’ve resided in the Strathdon area for the last 27 years and live with my partner, Isobel in Glenbuchat. Like Richard, I’ve worked for many years on survey vessels in various parts of the world, but in the dim distant past have worked as a mountaineering instructor and as a land surveyor.

A lifelong, all abiding passion for the hills has led me in stages from walking (getting lost), climbing (getting lost vertically), cross country skiing (getting lost more quickly), to mountain biking (not lost again?), confirming the well known fact that surveyors don’t use maps, only make them.

I’m very grateful for the huge degree of freedom given to me as a small boy and which I appreciated to the full at every opportunity. The wisdom of this trust must have given my parents a few tremors of self doubt at times. My first bicycling experiences as an 8 year old explorer in Zambia were not without incident;  mountain biking before such was invented:
- getting lost of course;
- colliding with unerring accuracy and uncanny frequency with the few protruding and easily avoidable rocks in the area, on one occasion causing gruesome looking, but fortunately not serious injury;
- turning up at a friend’s house many miles through the bush and many hours from home, having been inspired by a reported story of a long distance cyclist peddling through Africa…”Mrs Johnson, I think you should know your son’s here, don’t worry, he’s quite safe”… I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about…after all, this time I wasn’t lost.

When Jim mooted the idea of cycling from Lands End to John O’Groats…following roads with signposts!… I felt this was an opportunity not to be missed. It’s one of those things many people would like to do, but with busy lives somehow never get round to, unless there’s a sudden and arresting reason to do so. We have been lucky; the reason has arrived and here we are with a great personal challenge ahead of us and a very worthwhile cause to support. Hopefully those entertained by our website will find time to donate whatever they can to the combined needs of Strathdon School and the charity ‘Cash for Kids’.

Jock Edwards - I am a 47 year old ex outdoor instructor currently working as a postman.  British born but brought up in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Cutting a long story short, ended up in Strathdon in 1994 working with fellow Lonach Highwayman Jim Prince and his wife Mahri, which proved to be a life enriching experience.

A phone call from Jim with him talking about “Do you have a bike Jock?”  He knew the answer to that as I had bought his old mountain bike years ago!!   This was followed with a reference to 1066 (the approximate distance in miles of this cycle ride.)  Of course I was hooked from the start.

Whilst living in the USA I had purchased a road bike.  It stayed in its box for the last four years.  Came out of its wrapping last week (mid-March).  My first road bike ride was from Corgarff to Alford.  Departure at 04.00(am) in darkness with only a bike torch illuminating my path.  I somehow managed to ride ..  a strange bike with strange gears, brakes, seat and extremely thin tyres.  I survived the trip!  Only to forget my feet were clipped into the pedals and proceeded to agree with the law of gravity .. by falling over once my forward momentum had ceased. 

We are a bit of a motley bunch, but I think we are all looking forward to the challenge.  It’s all for a great cause with the added bonus of getting fit and the motivation for me to quit smoking!

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Ella Noble – – I am 38 year old artist, graduated in art and design at Dundee 
college of Art .
At the moment I do a bit of everything but mostly trying to be a good parent – I guess nothing can be as difficult as that! so, hopefully this challenge will be half as daunting
and a great way to make some money for the wonderful school they attend.
To be honest walking and swimming have been my “thing” but since getting back on the
saddle I remember how brilliant cycling is – which is just as well I guess!
Whether I can keep it up for such a long stretch is another thing but 
I am willing to give anything a try, after all you only live once!

Richard Burn – I am a 55 year old geophysicist and have been living  in Strathdon for about 20years.  During most of this period, I have worked mainly in survey contractors offices in Aberdeen and on survey vessels in the North Sea and  abroad.  More recently I have been working at Senergy Survey and Geoengineering (previously Floyd and Associates) in Alford.

I have been a moderately keen cyclist since I was a kid, although was frustrated by repeated failed attempts to gain the cyclist badge in the Scouts, which entailed completing 50miles in 3½hours (which I felt was an unduly stringent test for a 14year old with a heavy bike!). To add insult to injury my dad insisted that it would have been be no problem at all for him at that age (although I don’t recall ever seeing him on a bike until he came up to Strathdon for a visit years later).  Over the years I have generally used a bike as a means of transport to get to school, college, work, the shops, pub etc, with a couple of low key tours of about a weeks duration, (I once persuaded Liz and the kids to come on a weeks cycle/camping tour through Brittany, which worked out OK, but there was never much of a request for more!).  I bought a mountain bike soon after moving to Strathdon, on seeing the huge potential for off road trips in hills in the Northeast. However, I have never previously managed to build up the stamina for 50-80miles a day on roads (without serious pain/exhaustion), so that is the personal challenge for me.  I am also looking forward to a journey through the byways of England and Scotland without being cocooned inside a vehicle.

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Alastair Dawson
I am the most recent person to join the Lonach Highwaymen and being 57  have just deprived Jack of the honour of being the oldest in the group. I’ve lived in Glenkindie for 34 years, most of that time working in the Grampian area as an outdoor instructor. For the last few years I’ve been spending my winters working for a French ski school in Chamonix and I was out there when I started hearing rumours that previously sane grown men were being seen whizzing around Strathdon on very fancy road bikes wearing lycra. I’m not so sure about the lycra but when I heard that a bunch of my mates were planning to cycle Lands End to John O’Groats my thoughts were, they must be mad!! & count me in!!!! 

As a kid growing up on the outskirts of Edinburgh I spent most of my time either on a bike or taking them to bits & rebuilding them and at the grand age of 15 decided to cycle all the way to Keith to visit my granny, coincidentally seeing Glenkindie for the first time on the way. Having managed to cycle over the “Devil’s Elbow” on my first ever days cycle touring I thought I could do anything so for my next summer holidays I decided to try and cycle round Scotland’s coast, presumably less hilly! How wrong was I!!! I should have looked bit more closely at my father’s pre-war Bartholomew maps before I set off!!!

My main concern about cycle touring today is that the roads are a lot busier than they were 40 years ago. The development of many National Cycle Routes and dedicated cycle paths has improved the situation in some areas but a lot more could be done to make cycling safer and available to more people. Cycling is a great way to help the environment and keep fit, in fact now that I’ve joined the Lonach Highwaymen I always use my bike to go to the pub.

So the time has come for me to scrape the rust off my bike and see if the wheels still go round and get out training, (I wonder if my bike remembers the way to John O ‘Groats)

Although from Glenkindie and not Strathdon I’ve always felt myself to be part on the Strathdon community and am very happy to be doing this for Strathdon School.