A final leg that was further than planned. And somewhat damper – with rain all day I sometimes wasn’t sure if I was going through the Broads or underneath them. I had a quick look round Narch in the morning. The riverside path (above) and the cathedral (below) are well explored by bike, and the…
Author: Rob Ainsley
B2Y 6: Spalding to Norwich
A day of glorious sunshine, big skies, richly chilled saturated colours, and a tailwind that scooted me over 75 miles of flat East Anglia backroads with ease. Elevenses was at Kings Lynn (above). It’s good to have your preconceptions about a place challenged; I’d always thought KL was a weird terminus town, full of staring…
B2Y 5: Leicester to Spalding
Another wind-assisted day, from Rutland’s rolling hills to south Lincs’s pancake flatness: Oakham for elevenses, Stamford for lunch, Spalding for dinner. This bloke outside Oakham (above) was ‘walking’ his dog in the laziest way possible: not just doing it on his bike, but with that conveyor-belt tailwind, meaning he didn’t even have to pedal. The…
B2Y 4: Stafford to Leicester
East out of Stafford town centre this morning. Luckily there was a nice wide cycle track on the pavement (below). For today’s ride, Mark came up with several recommendations for things to investigate en route. They were all spot on, a slideshow of charming Middle Englishness: thatchy villages (Abbots Bromley, Newtown Linford), picturesque forest lanes…
B2Y 3: Oswestry to Stafford
A day of unmremitting feathery drizzle and cloud, which was just as well, as there’s little scenic interest between Oswestry and Stafford. In fact, the only thing of note above my head all day has been the magnificent vaulted art-nouveau ceiling of Stafford Wetherspoons, an old picture house (above). The chief points of interest today…
B2Y 2: Dolgellau to Oswestry
I did two of Wales’s biggest passes this morning: Bwlch Oerddrws and Bwlch y Groes, both of which sound like someone being sick, which is appropriate. I don’t know how high Bwlch Oerddrws (above) goes, because the Wikipedia page suddenly switched from English into Welsh when it knew I was reading it. Bwlch y Groes…
B2Y 1: Barmouth to Dolgellau
[This was my second go at riding from Barmouth to Yarmouth. My previous attempt, in August 2010, was aborted when rain stopped play at Shrewsbury.] So here we go again. After four changes of train from York, I rolled into Barmouth at noon today. The weather wasn’t promising: low cloud meant nothing was visible, not…
Birmingham: Christmas and canals
German Christmas Markets seem to be everywhere these days. We’ve been visiting a few – Leeds, Sheffield, York, Birmingham – in the echt German way. That is, on bikes, and not spending more than we can afford. Which means not spending anything, when they want four quid for a sausage. The Birmingham trip was an…
Cramond Island: Rebel with a causeway
Cramond Island, five miles or so from central Edinburgh along the coast, is a kind of mini-Lindisfarne: a small isle connected to the mainland by a narrow concrete causeway. Most of the time the causeway is under water. But for a couple of hours at low tide, when the waters recede, it’s perfectly cyclable. Go…
Ireland 13: Buncrana to Malin Head (to Derry)
Grey, damp, lonely roads spattered by drizzle and swathed in cloud this morning, but I was happy. I was heading to the end of the End to End, at Malin Head, somewhere I’d only ever heard mentioned on the shipping forecast. This horse was evidently trying to hitch-hike north (pic). The drivers were having none…