With my friend Tim I’m doing a double Coast to Coast: the Reivers Route from Newcastle cross-country to Carlisle, returning back to Newcastle by Hadrian’s Cycleway. We had a convivial evening with Tim’s friends in an Ouseburn pub followed by a cosy Travelodge room with four occupants: Tim, me, and our bikes – his ancient…
Author: Rob Ainsley
Newcastle: Angel of the North, and other Gormleys
I was in Newcastle this week, with bike, obviously, researching routes, obviously. I like Newcastle, and the way it makes me feel so over-dressed and under-tattooed. More about the Toon soon, but first, the Angel of the North (right). Antony Gormley’s iconic statue is three miles or so south of the Tyne bridges, a straight…
R2R 3: Northallerton to Ravenscar
If day 1 was the Lakes, and day 2 the Dales, then day 3 was the North York Moors (above). This is just about my favourite bike-touring part of the world: a compact, beautiful landscape, where 15 minutes’ swearing gets you up to remote sheepy solitude, but three minutes’ glorious freewheel down gets you to…
R2R 2: Kendal to Northallerton
Glorious cycling with breathtaking scenery today (lots of this sort of stuff, above), in lovely weather: the forecasters were Michael-Fish-wrong, having promised daylong showers which never materialised, rather like the payments for the freelance work I do for Sky Arts. From Kendal it’s all up and down stuff to Sedbergh, which is STILL IN YORKSHIRE…
R2R 1: Ravenglass to Kendal
This trip is another Coast to Coast, along a route that simply looked fun on the map: Ravenglass (out west, in Cumbria, a bit north of Barrow) to Ravenscar (out east, a bit north of Scarborough). Not exactly rhyming, but maybe someone knows a technical term for when two similar things begin the same way,…
B2Y 7: Norwich to Yarmouth
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…
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…