Cornish family of four cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats

A Cornish family is about 300 miles (483km) from the end of a cycle ride from Land's End to John O'Groats.

Ben and Leanda Daddow, and children Liam, 11, and Sophia, nine, from Redruth, set off on their mountain bikes with a trailer on 5 April.

They are raising money for charities, hoping to inspire others to go on an adventure and hoping to "reconnect" after the pandemic.

They are expecting to reach John O'Groats by 18 or 19 June.

Speaking from the village of Killin, north of Glasgow, Mr Daddow said: "We'd cycled 22 miles (35km) maximum before this trip.

"We'd never towed the trailer and we had not done a great deal of camping so we are sort of making it up as we go along."

Sophia has been dubbed the "puncture queen" with seven punctures while everyone else has had none.

The entire journey with detours is expected to be 1,400 miles and so far the weather has been "glorious", said Mr Daddow.

The motivation for the trip came from the coronavirus pandemic and the need to "get off the hamster wheel and reconnect" as a family, said Mrs Daddow.

The family are also raising money for four charities who helped them during the pandemic when they suffered a number of bereavements.

The children have been home-schooled on the adventure, which has been an education in itself, said Mrs Daddow.

"It's about spending time together," she said.

"It's really important to get off that hamster wheel and maybe other people will realise there's other ways that you can do things."

She said she was fortunate as an accountant to be able to work along the journey with a laptop.

"It's just about looking at the different options available to let you do fun stuff, while working and living as well," she said.

Follow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]