h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ben and I are planning our next holiday. We're going to drive from John O'Groats to Lands End and back again. Very slowly; without going on any dual carriage ways. After pouring over maps for hours it seems to be possible.

This way we can see Britain properly, all the little nooks and crannies... though sometimes i wonder if it will be that fun.

I think it would be brilliant. If you end up somewhere devastatingly dull, you can just skip on to somewhere else, right?

I love a good road trip You never know what's round the next corner.

Getting off the main roads is always fun. Mind you, the last time I was on that sort of a trip, we did tend to end up in places where you could hear the banjos twanging away in the distance. But maybe I'm just too urban.

I like the idea of making the journey more important than the destination! Want to borrow my MX5 to complete the look?

I'm 98.9% sure (confidence intervals 95.2-100%) that Ben would adore that and make squeaky noises at the thought.

However I'd be far too scared to drive it.

I like driving in my car

You should be able to do it and end up in some interesting places as well. The key will be to have an as up to date map/road atlas as you can. Roads can and do change overnight and so even a carefully laid plan may mean you end up unwittingly on a dual carriageway.

We've bought two new road atlases, one is a 3.5 or 4 miles per inch and one is 2.5 miles per inch. The latter is great, showing even those stretches which are a couple of hundred yards.

We've a spreadsheet. And I've posted about it on the SABRE site.

Do you know SABRE? Awesome road s

B

You KNOW I've got MX5!

B

Let us know if your route takes you anywhere near Swindon!

How long do you reckon the trip would take?

I see you've gained the interest of some very knowledgable road types there Ben.

MX5, nah, you want to do it in one of these
http://www.morgan-motor.co.uk/carpages/44/44.html

They are great, aren't they Phil?

I am assuming and average of 30mph, TC, which means that 5 hours driving (2-3 hours each) will be about 150 miles. The UK is roughly 1000 miles long; add in wiggles, and one way is a week to 10 days.

We *might* manage the whole thing - Edinburgh to John O'Groats to Lands End to Edinburgh in a two week holiday (16 days including both weekends).

The thought is to do Edinburgh to John O'Groats to Lands End without dual carraige-ways, but to be able to nip home on the motorways after that if we have to. Lands End to Edinburgh is still a 10 hour trip by motorway, nasty but doable.

B

We were thinking of doing that in the landrover last year, well, this year, but things seem to have got in the way. You have to go off the motorways because when your vehicle has a max speed of 50mph and then *seriously* drinks the petrol, slower roads are better.