Day in Newcastle on my disposable folder researching routes and facilities, ie tunnels, metro, cake.
Author: Rob Ainsley
Petersfield 3: Cricket, sharks
Final day investigating cycle routes in Hampshire. We visited the historic home of cricket, Broadhalfpenny Down, which excited me very much. Sorry for mentioning religion.
Petersfield 2: Butser busters
Another very nice half-day cycling the South Downs, on the East Hampshire Cycle Route. We got back to the hotel just as the heavy rain started, as forecast accurately by the Met Office. As opposed to the BBC website, which was hopeless as usual.
Petersfield 1: The Treachery of Images
Ace day researching cycle routes in the South Downs, down Hants way. None of your Northern mud here. It’s posh Home Counties mud.
Ladybower Reservoir: Red sky at night
Our annual between-Christmas-and-New-Year ride round Ladybower Reservoir, but I’m calling it ‘cycle route research’ to make it tax-deductible. Fine weather and a spectacular sunset which, it turned out, had to be best viewed from the Yorkshire Bridge Inn.
Hunmanby: Good spirits
Yorkshire being a sort-of-country in its own right, it was only a matter of time before we got a National Whisky. Wales has one after all: Penderyn, based in the Beacons and launched in 2004. And England – the nation bordering Yorkshire – has had St George’s, in Thetford, since 2006. But in May 2016,…
Saffron Walden: Cake stop
Cycle-cafe article research in Saffron Walden, which sounds like a singer-songwriter rather than a well-to-do Essex town. It has a Wetherspoon, a Waitrose, a castle, and quite a lot of cafes. Something for everyone, then.
Derwent 3: Kexby to Barmby
Day 3 of the River Derwent ride featured a lot of flooding, and… well, that was it, really. Flooding. But also a fascinating end, with an unexpected tour of a tidal barrage opposite a mighty power station. Now having switched to my touring bike, anticipating a day of tarmac on-road cycling, I resumed. The first…
Derwent 2: Malton to Kexby
Day 2 of the River Derwent ride featured the world’s biggest Yorkshire Pudding recipe, kamikaze hedgehogs, a fine old ruined abbey, and a satnav-cockup legend. Malton doesn’t make much of its position on the Derwent: no riverside cafes, promenades or costanera tapas bars. It’s equally uninterested in encouraging cyclists, to judge by the total absence…
Derwent 1: Lilla Rig to Malton
River Derwent Source Lilla Rig, North York Moors Mouth River Ouse, Barmby Length 72 miles Towns Malton, Stamford Bridge The fifth of my Rivers Rides was a varied three-day, 120-mile trip from remote moortop to muddy estuary along the River Derwent. Day 1 featured full-size plastic cows, a Dark Ages assassination, Cold War espionage, white…