Fabulous day of route research cycling up over the North York Moors to Whitby, via Wheeldale Moor. This is high up on my list of most enjoyable places in the world to cycle-tour. It has all the essentials: quiet roads, climbs and descents, sweeping views, glorious solitude, friendly locals, and a Wetherspoon in Whitby by…
Author: Rob Ainsley
Milton Keynes 3: Cricket and chameleons
More exploration of routes in and around Milton Keynes.
Milton Keynes 2: Country lanes and castles
More route research in and around Milton Keynes. A lovely day cycling quiet country lanes.
Milton Keynes 1: Concrete cows, delivery robots
Takeaway-delivery robots, concrete cows (replicas), and Stone Age Circles (est. 2000): yes, I’m researching bike routes in Milton Keynes.
Pennines: High Cup Nick
More route research, cycling High Cup Nick up in the Pennines. Coming from the east is astounding and dramatic: after three hours of tarmac, farm track and bog in empty grey-brown moorland, the vast bowl of High Cup suddenly appears and fills the view, with the lush green Eden farmland beyond, and Lakes fells in…
NW 3: Grinton to High Force
Day 3 of the eighth and last of my Yorkshire Compass Rides saw gale force winds, the remote Tees valley – and the culmination of the whole project at High Force, Yorkshire’s version of Niagara Falls. Dales Bike Centre in Reeth fixed my broken spoke in under ten minutes, so I was able to set…
NW 2: Ripon to Grinton
Day 2 of the eighth and last of my Yorkshire Compass Rides saw me get caught up in a grouse shoot, lose a spoke and dodge a firing range. But if the day saw me, I didn’t see much of it back: it was zero visibility for most of the time. A morning of mist…
NW 1: York to Ripon
The last of my eight Yorkshire Compass Rides was a three-day trip to the northwesternmost reaches of historic Yorkshire, up in the remote Tees valley amid the Pennines. Day 1 involved a flood, a bridge to nowhere, a darts player’s rival to Stonehenge, and Europe’s oldest continuously performed ceremony outside a Wetherspoon. I did this…
Alnwick 2: Amble and Warkworth
More lovely cycle route research round Northumberland. Saw another enhanced road sign, this time to Shilbottle. Perhaps the same person who amended the sign to Snitter that I posted a picture of two days ago…
Alnwick 1: Road blocks, bah
Smashing first day researching cycle routes in Northumberland. The weather and scenery was fab, but the traffic occasionally got in the way, as you can see from all those sheep.