Land's End to John o' Groats
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Land's End to John o' Groats is a journey - the traversal of the whole of the island of Great Britain from southwest to northeast.
- Land's End is the extreme westward point of the English mainland, situated in western Cornwall at the end of the Penwith Peninsula.
- John o' Groats is the traditionally acknowledged extreme northern point of Great Britain, in northeastern Caithness. The actual northernmost point is at nearby Dunnet Head.
Expeditions from Land's End to John o' Groats (sometimes referred to as end-to-end or LE-JOG) have been untertaken using numerous forms of transport, and are often sponsored as charity fundraisers. The distance is around 875 miles (1400 km), depending on the route. This is similar to the longest regular scheduled Audax ride, the 875 mile London-Edinburgh-London or LEL.
The record for cycling from Land's End to John o'Groats is held by Andy Wilkinson, who completed the journey in 41 hours 4 min 22 sec on a Windcheetah recumbent tricycle.
Motoring events between the two extremities have been held since the first decade of the 20th century, when the Auto-Cycle Union organised a series of runs for motorcycles. The Motor Cycling Club (who had been running the London to Land's End Trial since 1908, still held today at least in name) put on an annual Land's End to John o'Groats Run from 1923 to 1928 which included cars as well as motorcycles. These events were also known as the End to End, perhaps the origin of this term.
In 1993 John Brown coined the term LE JOG, otherwise known as the Land's End to John o'Groats Historic Reliability Trial [citation needed]. Held each December, this tough three-day rally for vintage and classic cars, ranging in era from the 1920s to the 1970s, continues in 2006 as a popular and demanding annual event, taking a long 1,400 mile (2,200 km) route through the remote upland roads of the West of England, Wales (at night), the Pennines and Scotland. Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals are awarded for meritorious performances.
