Pendeen to Land's End

Many thanks to Liz and Mike for accommodating me at short notice, and being such excellent hosts.     It was a really relaxing stay. As I left their house, for the final ride of this journey, it was under a largely blue sky, with warm sunshine. The road took me the ten miles from Pendeen, through St Just, past Land's End airport, to Land's End itself. Regular flights go from the airport to the Isles of Scilly. I noticed the man in the control tower at the airport excitedly grabbing his iPad as I cycled past. We exchanged a wave as he took a photo. I can't imagine that happening at Heathrow! I stopped for a couple of hours in St Just, and enjoyed a traditional Cornish pasty, a large mug of coffee, and some flapjack. The penny attracted a lot of attention. An old lady jokingly asked if she could have a go. A man and his son came and admired the bike, though the boy, who I guess was no older than eight or nine, had no idea as to why the bike was called a penny farthing. And why would he, when pennies today are so small? I gave him one of my Victorian pennies, and his father explained what a farthing was. Before I knew it, I had been approached by organisers of tomorrow's Lafrowda procession through the town. Lafrowda is a two week community arts festival of theatre, dance, musical performances, quizzes, workshops, and processions, that has been running in St Just since 1996; the name 'lafrowda' being the ancient name for the church lands where the village of St Just in Penwith stands today. I sat for some time soaking up the sense of excitement. Everyone seemed to be talking about the festival, and there were stages being erected, official T shirts being distributed, and bunting waving in the breeze. As I left the town, I saw a monster tea cup and saucer being moved from one building to another.    

The closer I got to the End, so the more motorists were excitedly tooting and waving. A Swedish couple on a motorbike stopped to take a photo, and I raised my hat as I cycled past. Unfortunately, I was going down a hill at the time, and my hat subsequently blew off. By the time I had brought the bike to a standstill, I had a walk of several hundred yards to retrieve it. A van drove past, the horn honking repeatedly, and the boy I had given the Victorian penny to in St Just, stuck his head out of the passenger window. He gestured to show how he was holding the penny in his hand, a huge grin across his face.

Whilst I waited for Kathy and Chanti to arrive, I spent a coupe of hours in the First and Last Inn in Sennen, just under a mile from Land's End, enjoying a pint or two of cool Guinness. I don't know if it's true or not, but this pub is reputed to have once been the haunt of smugglers. There is a tunnel, known as 'Annie's Well,' covered with a plate of thick glass, which is said to extend all the way to the cliffs. There are a number of different stories, but as I understand it, a former landlady in the 1800's, Ann Treeve, was said to have been involved in extensive smuggling and wrecking, along with the local parson at the time. Eventually, I guess involved in some sort of dispute between smugglers, she gave evidence against Dionysius William, a farmer from Sennen. For such service to the crown, she was staked out by disgruntled locals on Sennen beach, and allowed to drown with an incoming tide. Whilst waiting at the inn, I was interviewed for BBC Radio Devon. BBC Spotlight were unable to attend the end of the ride, due to a shortage of staff.

Thirty four years ago, when I left for John O'Groats, Land's End was a fairly deserted place. As I recall, I had to phone a number in order for someone to bring the road sign and take a photograph. Today Land's End is, in my opinion, a garish holiday complex, with amusement arcades and a theme park, including a 4D film experience and 'Arthur's Quest.' There is also a 'Land's End Doughnut Co,' and a shopping village. The site was purchased by Peter de Savary in1987 for £7 million, outbidding the National Trust. The site was subsequently sold to Graham Ferguson Lacey in 1991, and then in 1996 to the current owners, Heritage Great Britain PLC. Beyond the complex, one can still get a feel for what Land's End once looked like, a remote headland, from which, on a clear day, are views across the Atlantic, pounding the cliffs below, to the Scillies.

And so to the end of this journey, what can I say? Rainer Maria Rilke said 'The only journey is the one within.' John Steinbeck, in 'Travels with Charley: In Search of America,' said 'A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is think you control it.' Walt Whitman, in 'Song of Myself,' said 'I tread a perpetual journey.' Anatole France, said 'If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.' Steve Maraboli, in 'Unapologetically you: Reflections on life and the Human Experience,' said 'If you fuel your journey on the opinion of others, you are going to run out of gas.' Finally, Seneca, a Roman philosopher in the mid 1st Century, said 'Every new beginning comes from some  other beginnings end.' These are just a few of the hundreds of quotes I have come across about journeying.

A number of consistent themes, in regard to what makes for the best journeying through life, have come out of the interviews undertaken on this John O'Groat's to Land's End penny farthing ride. 'A Penny for your Thoughts,' has revealed the importance of the journey itself and not the destination; the need to challenge limiting societal formulas, narratives, or discourses about what is the 'right,' 'normal' or 'expected' path to follow; the need to let go of an attempt to control outcomes or try and manipulate where our paths in life might lead; a preference for living in the 'now,' vs living defined by a past to be regretted, or a future to be feared; the need for authentic connection with others, including owning our own vulnerability; that it is never to late to start out on any new venture; the need to take risks, overcome fears, and move beyond boundaries; and that life can change dramatically, as a consequence of loss or illness, and so the need to embrace life fully in each precious moment. Listening to the stories of all the contributors has certainly left me reflecting on my inner 'map; where that map came from, what directions on that map help or hinder my journey, and what I might choose to leave behind and what I may choose to take with me as I continue to journey through life. Like most people, I have many unanswered questions. However, as Rilke says, in one of my favourite quotes:

Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then, gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

In this blog, I mentioned when referring to my battle with the elements over Dartmoor, when my morale was low, and I was cycling through thick cloud, being blasted with rain and wind, how the thumbs up from a passing motorcyclist significantly raised my spirits. He probably had no idea of the impact of that simple gesture. We all have an influence on one another, often in ways we cannot ever fully know or appreciate. Just as the big wheel on the penny farthing cannot function without the little wheel, and just as the little wheel needs the big wheel, so every contribution that we make, however big or small, seen or unseen, heard or unheard, counts on our journeys through life.

I want to say a big thank you to all those people who have helped me along the way on this journey; to the numerous people who have stopped and chatted, offered encouragement, cheered, clapped, given me the thumbs up, or provided tea, coffee, cake, sandwiches, and bacon butties; to Jude from Beauly for her assistance in finding me accommodation, and her deliciously squidgy banana cake; to Ross and Emma, Alan and Lori, Joey and Verna, Twig and Carol, Benjo, Adele and James, Bev and Nick, Dave and Ann, Carla and Jeremy, Gill and Nigel, Juliet, Mark and Rowena, Nick and Debbie and family, and Liz and Mike, for offering me overnight stays and their hospitality; to Jean, the landlady of the first bed and breakfast I stayed in for her generosity of spirit, and not charging for accommodation; to the numerous people who have liberally shared their thoughts in exchange for a Victorian penny; to Matthew Trott for sending me spare spokes; to Jeremy for lending me the wheel from his Moulton; to Alan for accommodating the bike overnight in his shed; to Steve Browne, who first had the idea of introducing 'Cycling without Age' in Exeter, who has sent me numerous texts of encouragement along the way, and who together with his partner Carolin, helped me pack the penny farthing to be taken by courier to Wick; to Martin from Ride-On in Exeter for his support and encouragement; to all those people on Facebook who have been supportive, particularly Marc's comments; to John S for his helpful texts; to people who have left their thoughts on the Blog; and to you the reader for sharing this journey with me. Thanks too for all those people who have sponsored 'Ride-on' and 'Cycling without Age,' or stopped me on route and provided donations. Then there is a special big thank you to Kathy for her support in enabling me to have the time and space in which to make this journey, and her daily texts and encouraging words; and to Chanti - who is, she tells me, my number one fan - for setting up this blog, for the wonderful JOGLE T shirt, for promotion of the ride through the 'One' magazine - an article she produced in her job as a graphic designer - and for requesting the involvement of the BBC Spotlight programme and Radio Devon. I was deeply touched to see Kathy and Chanti waiting at Land's End for me with a banner. It's official, I am a 'wheel man!' Though I won't be shaving my legs.