Another very good, if puddly, day researching cycle routes round Stevenage in Bucks, Herts and Beds, which sounds like a dating agency.
Author: Rob Ainsley
Stevenage 1: Old Town, New Town
Excellent first day researching bike routes with Nigel around Stevenage, a traditional New Town with a modern Old Town. And two Wetherspoons.
Chilterns: Ups and Downs
Excellent first day researching bike routes in the Chilterns. Good job Nigel got his low gears fixed up beforehand. They’re hilly. Fine picnic lunch at Dunstable Downs, but no, we didn’t have those mushrooms. We had sandwiches from Tesco.
Aire 2: Shipley to Airmyn
Day 2 of the River Aire ride featured a river under a railway station, a tale of three power plants, more reminders of the county’s cycling pre-eminence – and a lot of mud, both under my wheels and at the mouth of the river. I was out bright and early along the canal, heading to…
Aire 1: Malham to Shipley
River Aire Source Tarn Foot, Malham Mouth River Ouse, Airmyn Length 92 miles Towns Skipton, Keighley, Shipley, Leeds, Castleford, Knottingley The fourth of my Rivers Rides was a splendid two-day, 100-mile trip from Yorkshire’s one-lake Lake District to its three-power-station powerhouse along the River Aire. Day 1 featured England’s highest lake, a disappearing river, stunning…
Cottingley: Fairy story
The suburban village of Cottingley, a few miles northwest of Bradford, is one of those placenames you can’t help mentally auto-completing. Ilkley Moor… Baht ’at; Piltdown… Man; Loch Ness… Monster. And, thanks to capers by the stream in the back garden of this house (pic) in Main St, Cottingley… Fairies. Because in the 1920s, after…
Nun Monkton: Lighter moments
I’d wanted to ride the new Nun Monkton Ferry, over the Ouse about eight miles northwest of York (pic), for ages. Particularly when I found they welcome bikes. In the 1800s, Yorkshire’s (and England’s) rivers were plied with tiny boat crossings. There apparently were seven between Aldwark Bridge and Nun Monkton alone. Now there are…
Edinburgh 2: ‘Town centre’
Cycle route research in Edinburgh town centre…
Edinburgh 1: View from the Seat
Cycle route research round Edinburgh, one of my favourite Scottish capitals.
Wharfe 2: Bolton Abbey to Cawood
Day 2 of the River Wharfe ride featured a cyclists’ favourite back lane, the inadvisability of no headgear, a beer town’s strange tendency for unfinished bridges, and the unscenic dénouement of this most scenic of rivers in a field. As I was camping last night, I had the bike fully loaded — front and back…