Despite those somewhat intimidating statistics, I am pleased to report that I and my cycling group, composed of my brother, son, and two cousins made it up to John O’Groats unscathed and had a great time on the way. Fortunately, nobody was injured which I put down to three important daily rituals. The first was 30 minutes of intensive stretching led by my son at the end of each day. The second was eating as much as we liked. Cake and milkshakes featured prominently in our diet. I can confirm that the nation’s best coffee and walnut cake is available in Penrith! The third was our daily stop for afternoon tea. We found that if we didn’t take time out for this break, we suffered more. Our tea-stop certainly set us up for the final push each day.