I spent a sleepless 36 hours getting from York to Colombo, the idea being to cycle the Sri Lankan End to End. Etihad’s seatback entertainment didn’t entice me, and I spent most of the 12 plane hours staring at the live map. But I was disappointed when I clicked on the heading ‘Cycle Maps’. It…
Category: End to Ends
Isle of Man 2: Douglas to Point of Ayre (to Douglas)
So, having started yesterday, this is our final day. We rode up the road that serves as part of the TT (‘Tourist Trophy’) course, the legendary annual motorbike race much loved for its lethal danger, which has been won by legendary riders such as Joey Dunlop and George Formby. On a previous trip with Tim…
Isle of Man 1: (Douglas to) Calf Sound to Douglas
I was here in the Isle of Man to cycle its End to End – a modest few dozen miles that, frankly, you could do without stopping – with my friend Nigel. We came from Belfast by ferry having just completed the Northern Ireland End to End, a comparative ultra-marathon at 193 miles. The Isle…
N Ireland 4: Ballycastle to Giant’s Causeway (to Derry)
A short hop into headwind and drizzle to the notional end of the End to End: Giant’s Causeway. The natural wonder consists of 40,000 hexagonal columns of basalt – the same sort of volcanic stuff the moon is made of – looking like a giant’s clumsily-laid garden patio. Visiting by bike isn’t all that convenient…
N Ireland 3: Straid to Ballycastle
Yet more tailwinds helping us on to Larne, where a shouty, belligerent local was furious that we didn’t follow his unsolicited directions. It was the last unpleasant thing of the day, though: from here is one of the loveliest stretches of coastal road in the United Kingdom that Mr Shouty was so keen on belonging…
N Ireland 2: Portaferry to Straid
We circumnavigated the bottom of scenic Ards peninsula, and north through shore towns with Union Flags and kerbstones painted red, white and blue. We took and coffee and light lunch in Newtownards, a friendly little loyalist town, with its pipe band braying away benignly in the market-stall square. A local chap admired my Raleigh. ‘Made…
N Ireland 1: (Dundalk to) Cranfield Point to Portaferry
Whatever your position on its relation to Great Britain or Ireland, and whether you call it a country or a region or a province, Northern Ireland has its own football team, which is enough to justify it for me as a standalone End to End country. I did it with my chum Nigel, on a…
Britain 21: Melvich to John o’Groats
From Melvich I passed Dounreay, site of the famous fast breeder (picture). Obviously, I wore a radiation suit for cycling. After all, can’t do any harm, and cycling is DANGEROUS, and the fact that the suit split after I passed the reactor PROVES IT SAVED MY LIFE. I think radiation suits for cyclists should be…
Britain 20: Lairg to Melvich
A wonderful day of cycling experiences, stories, and pleasant encounters – plus a panic with a happy ending. The A836 north from Lairg (picture) is a great cycling experience: narrow tarmac, gentle gradients if any, little traffic, and going 20 miles across scenic uninhabited landscape. It’s more like a Sustrans railtrail than an A road….
Britain 19: Drumnadrochit to Lairg
After the scenic overload of the previous two days, today was consolidation: drizzly and grey progress, over brooding moorlands and along plains. There were two spectacular sights to thrill the heart though. The first was the semi-panorama over Dornoch Firth before the final descent to Bonar Bridge (picture); the second, the line-up of marked-down sandwiches…