I am pretty sure my fellow cyclists love their bikes as much as I love Charlene (yes I call her Charlene). Seriously, you need to think about where you will both rest each night and get it sorted ASAP.
At first I kind of liked the idea of being free and booking into which ever place caught my eye when I got tired at the end of each day BUT when I thought more about it I really did not want to do a search after cycling all day and possibly getting nowhere nice or having to pay over my budget just to get a bed for the night.
I also grew to like the idea of having a target mileage to achieve each day and a guaranteed pre paid bed in a place I had already checked out and was happy with. However, the downside is I needed to commit to the dates & the mileage whatever weather or problems came my way. It was also going to be a bit like dominos as if I got delayed all the future plans needed to be shifted on a day. Bit of a risk but knowing now what I found out when trying to book the first and last nights places I am so glad I did it.
Basically, Lands End and JoG have a very very limited and highly sought after number of B&B's, Hotels, Hostels, etc. So if you do it I recommend you book these days first and get a rough idea of how many days you want to do it in. I chose to do it in 8 days which was a push for me but I really did not want to spend more time away from family that I had to for this quest. 8 days is an average of 117 a day. 10 would be 93 a day. If you can ride at say 15 miles an hour on long days cycling this means I would be on the road for about 8 hours a day, add on 2 for stops and 1 more for mishaps and 11 hours is doable and OK. If I aim to leave at 7:30 each day I should be at each target venue by 6-6:30 each night. So I committed to Sunday 19th June to get down to Lands End, Monday 20th to start and hope I can then achieve Bovey Tracey night 1, Nailsworth night 2, Home in Ellesmere night 3, etc, etc.....
I have read so many blogs, books and stories about people doing the end to end in many different ways and the one outstanding memory people bring up is the highlight was meeting the people along the way. Some stayed in the poshest hotels they could find as a treat, some stayed in cheap as chips hostels, some camp, some sleep rough, some beg a room on a sofa, pubs, etc, etc.
My choice quickly emerged from a search on google for bed and breakfasts in Bovey Tracey and I found a website called airbnb.co.uk
https://www.airbnb.co.uk/
It is basically, people with spare rooms becoming amateur bed and breakfast hosts. they build up feedback ratings based on the travellers opinions and it is fair to say there are some good and bad ones out there. I found it to be perfect for me as I could choose from a really large range of properties in an area where I knew I would get a bed, breakfast, shower, toiletries and best of all staying with interesting people in their houses. I cheekily asked for food, clothes and a washing machine and never failed to be amazed at peoples kindness and willingness to help a weary traveller.
Best thing I did, and the costs were around £30-35 a night too.
