I’d rather have been on my bike, but… this was an enjoyable day on a succession of trains from home in York up to the Inner Hebrides. I’m doing Mull to Hull, which barely qualifies as a ‘rhyming coast to coast’ seeing as Mull is an island, not a locality. But it’s Scotland in May,…
Category: Coast to Coasts
F2B 4: Ashington to Bamburgh
Another glorious day of bluesky coastal cycling, a day of space and air and seasmells and freshness and fish and chips. And some lager drinking with Newcastle fans. From Ashington I headed east out to NCN1, which runs picturesquely up the coast. It was (mostly) fab, a series of backroads and not-too-muddy-tracks and paths that…
F2B 3: Durham to Ashington
A delightful day of windless sunshine up the flattish north-east coast. After the headwinds and hills of the previous two days, my bike felt like an electric-assist model. I struck north from Durham this morning to Chester-le-Street, where I joined the Coast to Coast route east to Sunderland. On the rare bit of scenic path…
F2B 2: Whitby to Durham
Lots of hills and headwinds today, but I didn’t swear once. That once was at about 4 o’clock. From the hostel it was all downhill into Whitby, some 100m away. Very steeply downhill, as you can see. The road, Donkey Track, is marked ‘Unsuitable for Motors’. Indeed. At the bottom, this photo suggests that the…
F2B 1: Flamborough to Whitby
This is the latest Rhyming Coast to Coast: Flamborough to Bamburgh, F2B. Pedants among you will protest that it isn’t a proper Coast to Coast as it doesn’t cross the country, and merely follows a shoreline. But they rhyme and it looks fun, and I’d rather be happy than right any day. I’ll tell you…
Britain 13 (D2S 3): Clatteringshaws Loch to Stranraer
A glorious morning, and what a view to wake up to: the mirrorlike waters of Clatteringshaws Loch in the heart of Galloway Forest Park, right there in front of my tent (picture). And all mine: not another soul for, literally, miles. Not quite mirrorlike enough to see my haggard reflection clearly, which after two weeks…
Britain 12 (D2S 2): St Mary’s Loch to Clatteringshaws Loch
It rained all night, and it was a miserable cold squelchy start from the lochside campsite. Even the mad hen was taking shelter. But with a hefty tailwind, the long downhill into Moffat was a delight (picture). As was Moffat itself, a handsome town with a good line in cherry trees and Scotch pies. Outside…
Britain 11 (D2S 1): Dunbar to St Mary’s Loch
So, this morning I left Dunbar (picture). A friendly small town that acts as the administrative centre for the agricultural area and a dormitory town for Edinburgh, it’s the home of John Muir, who established the conservation movement; Belhaven Brewery; a nuclear power station; a fishing harbour; and a cement factory. A mixed economy, I’d…
W2W 3: Barnard Castle to Sunderland
The pub breakfast, served by a friendly lass wearing a dressing gown and a smile, was a fryup that could have set up a bodybuilder for a cage fight, or even a touring cyclist for a sixty-mile jaunt to the end of the W2W. I stopped to gawp at the remarkably impressive Bowes Museum, an…
W2W 2: Kendal to Barnard Castle
The fire alarm jolted me awake at 7am, but it quickly became apparent it was a toast-related false alarm. At least it got me out of bed in time for early breakfast – and yes, the toast did have a taste of charcoal – and I was on the road by eight. I like supporting…