Cycling adventures across Yorkshire, Britain and beyond
Day 2 of my Bridges End to End featured awesome Moors landscapes all to myself, and the bizarre Meccano-monster bridge at the top of Yorkshire. I resumed from Malton where I finished Day 1, and conscious of its ‘food town’ image, stocked up with a sausage roll and pork pie from Thomas the Baker in…
Another Yorkshire End to End, this time between two remarkable bridges. Humber to Tees; Suspension to Transporter. South to north; Wolds to Moors. The Humber Bridge, opened in 1981, links Hull – 2017 City of Culture, and home to 300,000 down-to-earth souls – with some fields on the other side. The result of a 1960s…
Before the railways, drove roads were how livestock got from farm to market. Drovers followed well-drained ridgeways, avoiding both bogs and costly turnpikes down below; they were used to handling stubborn, lumbering beasts. All of which also applied to me today, with my trekking bike as the beast in question, and the route being Hambleton…
Day 4 of my Yorks Bottom to Top ride involved Yorkshire’s top shepherdess, a zebra crossing a zebra crossing, illegally altered signs, zebra-free MOD ranges, a solar eclipse washout, a Roman Bridge, the northern border at the Tees – and of course the highlight of the trip, Zebra Hill itself. I earned my stripes today….
Day 3 of my Yorks Start to Finish ride involved a gender-identity pioneer, Britain’s toughest cycle climb, smoots and lunkies, Ilkley Moor baht ’at, mighty tunnels, viaducts and canals, and wonderful Wharfedale. My rather confusing morning tick-list consisted of Shibden Hall, Shibden Wall, and Shibden Great Wall, but not Shibden Great Hall. Shibden Hall is…
Day 2 of my Yorks Alpha to Omega ride was watery. Countless reservoirs, linked by vertiginous Pennine lanes; canals; puddles; incessant drizzle. But plenty of variety, including a mystery sculpture, a comedy legend, Huddersfield’s most famous son, and Halifax’s remarkable Regency plaza mayor. With Abbeydale investigated yesterday, I could ride on through Sheffield centre and…
Yorkshire is a country in its own right. Sort of. So, with my international End to End collection on hold, I was happy enough to ride it from bottom to top. But this trip had a twist. I started in Abbeydale, down on the Derbyshire border south of Sheffield, and cycled the length of the…
A loop west of KL (Lynn, not ‘Kuala Lumpur’, obvs) today, in the flat fenlands, in contrast to the gently hilly loops east of the previous days. We explored KL itself a bit in the morning, and much enjoyed the tiny ferry between the town and West Lynn, across the Great Ouse. I’d been to…
Back to Sandringham this morning, this time doing a gravel-bike circuit, now accompanied by Mark again. We took the cycle path (rather than the Coach Road) through the royal estate, and it’s utterly gorgeous. The red and yellow stripes on the ‘cycle path’ post made me feel like we were about to enter Germany through…
A fabulous day-ride, full of variety, that showcased North Norfolk at its best. Sunny weather, quiet lanes with friendly drivers, and an almost bewildering succession of sights, from stunning stately-home parks to England’s holiest shrine via beaches that could have come out of the Netherlands. Mark was off on a training walk today, so I…