An early start, into the sheepy fields. I climbed laboriously up the mountain road towards Machynlleth past Dylife Gorge (pic). I was heading towards the highest point on the Lôn Las Cymru after Gospel Pass – 510m above sea level, and usually 100m above bottom of the cloud level. Indeed, when I did this bit…
Category: End to Ends
Wales 3: Llandrindod Wells to Hafren Forest
I had a quick morning spin around Llandrindod Wells’s lake (pic). Locals proudly told me about the new cycle path around its kilometre or so circumference. ‘Cycle path’ sounds grander than it is, which is a solid-line lane marked off from the perimeter road, but it’s wide and pleasant enough. LW is a Victorian spa…
Wales 2: Abergavenny to Llandrindod Wells
I pedalled up from my bargain Premier Inn room to meet Jack – who was riding with me for the day – at his house on the edge of Abergavenny. We picked some apples from his orchard to take with us and scooted along the back lanes up to Gospel Pass, Wales’s highest road at…
Wales 1: Chepstow to Abergavenny
I’ve done End to Ends of Britain, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, even the Isle of Man. Not Wales though – well, not exactly. I did Cardiff to Holyhead in 2000, and St David’s to Llandudno in 2013, both of them traverses of sorts. That first trip was along the Lôn Las…
Poland ≥17: Berlin
After a few days mixing writing work with exploring Gdansk, I still had five days to spare. So I took a train to Berlin. I had no plan, but I had a bike, which is all you need. This post covers those five days. The first morning I cycled across Tempelhof, on possibly the world’s…
Poland 16: Hel
With the business part of the trip completed, today was a fun add-on: a trip to Hel and back. Hel is a resort village at the end of a 30km long sand spit that juts out south-east from Poland’s northern coast into the Baltic. On a map the spit resembles Spurn Point, my favourite place…
Poland 15: Gdynia to Jastrzębia Góra
The final day of my Polish End to End was the hottest, sunniest day of the trip so far. It started with yet more miles of mostly decent urban cycleways, continued with rough and unready tracks through country parks with lots of other leisure cyclists, and finished up at Poland’s most northerly point, overlooking an…
Poland 14: Starogard Gdański to Gdynia
The penultimate day of the End to End, and the day I finally set eyes on the Baltic. Today started with yet more flat, easy miles on quiet back roads through woods, and finished with an extraordinarily 35km-long run through bike-friendly Gdańsk on segregated cycleways. I knew I was close to the sea when I…
Poland 13: Grudziądz to Starogard Gdański
The river levels, if anything, rose overnight. No chance of taking the waterfront cycle path this morning (pic). Though it would have been a chance for me to use my trunks, about the only thing in my panniers I haven’t managed to use since arriving in Albania so long ago. After a week and a…
Poland 12: Toruń to Grudziądz
The longest mileage of the trip so far – but it felt wonderfully easy, thanks to a good railtrail, quiet flat roads, sunny but not overhot weather, and no wind. And a cream horn. A good, 21st-century standard, segregated cycleway took me out from the centre of lovely Toruń, eventually turning into a surprisingly good,…