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Scotland, fully clothed, with bikes, having found somewhere to stay every night and food
for nearly all of our meals. I felt immensely proud.
The actual finish line lies, randomly, in the hotel's car park, and we crossed it valiantly
watched by a welcome party of none.
'You're not crying are you?' said Ben accusingly, as we came to a stop.
'No. As if! It must just be the wind,' I said, and I looked up to see his eyes welling up,
too. I gave him a big hug.
'You big gaylord,' he said.
Wehadbeen given an'official' EndtoEndcard fromJemma at Land'sEndthat wehad
to get stamped in the John O'Groats hotel to prove that we had made it. Although, I'm not
quite sure who we needed to prove this to.
The hotel bar was empty apart from the barman, who was leaning on the bar whilst
watching a TV across the room.
'Hello.IsthiswherewegettheLand'sEndtoJohnO'Groatscertificatethingstamped?'
I asked.
'Can do,' he said, not taking his eyes off the TV.
'Great,thanks,'Isaid,slidingthepieceofpaperalongthebartohim.'We'vejustcycled
the whole way from Land's End without spending any money and we had to blag all of our
clothes and food and accommodation and we stayed in a stable with a bull and with a hit-
man and in a poshhotel and in a polytunnel and in a canal boat and we had to workforlots
ofourmealsandwedidn'tevenhaveabikepumpandthenthisonetimewegotapuncture
and then we had to...'
'Thereyougo,'heinterrupted,stampingthecardandpassingitbacktome,stillwithout
averting his gaze from the TV.
To us, we were the most courageous human beings to have ever stepped foot into the
JohnO'GroatsHotel.Tothebarman,wewerejustthelatestinthelonglineofpeoplecom-
pleting the trip, often, like us, with their own 'wacky' take on it. He had seen it all before,
andhedidn'tgiveashit.Hejustwantedhisshifttofinishsothathecouldgohome.Iloved
him for this, and it was almost preferable to a cheesy greeting from an over-enthusiastic
welcome party. It certainly brought us right back down to earth.
My body was drained of all life, but my mind was alive and racing at thoughts of what
we had achieved and of the things that we had experienced.
I had fallen deeply in love with Great Britain. I secretly always had been, but I was no
longer afraid to admit it. As a nation, we don't give ourselves enough credit. We are, ac-
cording to public perception, a country full of ASBOs, underage drinkers, bitter, arrogant
moaners and pregnant teenagers. Yes, we have our problems, but it truly is a wonderful
place to live. Britain is far from broken; it just needs a bit of love and affection.
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