What could be more bracing than a cold shower in the morning? Now I know: it’s putting on yesterday’s washing that’s still wet, thanks to having forgotten to pack spare clothing. Still, once I’d got over that, I could get on my bike and get going. Except I couldn’t. My back tyre was flat, the…
Category: End to Ends
Ireland 1: (Dublin to) Mizen Head to Glengarriff
Mizen Head (pic) isn’t actually the southernmost point in Ireland – that’s Brow Head, a couple of miles east – but it’s the traditional End Point of the island, so that’s where I was going to start. But first I had to get there. (I’m not a multitasker; I work linearly.) My ferry docked in…
Ireland 0: York to Dublin
I set off from my rented house in York pleased with myself. I’m an experienced cycle tourist. It comes automatically to me now to pack instinctively what I need, without being lumbered by what I don’t. What could possibly go wrong? Panniers full – well, actually surprisingly light, I couldn’t help thinking – I trundled…
Britain 19: London to Dover
I wasn’t looking forward to my final day. The forecast was for showers, followed by heavy rain, followed by showers. Well, the forecast was wrong. It was heavy rain all day. So today was just a long, long day at the office, into unremitting grey drizzle, with lorries booming past on the A20 in a…
Britain 18: Cambridge to London
Delightful, fast, rural tailwind cycling on a grey day. It was drizzly as we left Cambridge. In a nod to the city’s role in bioscience research, the cycle path is adorned with a representation of the sequence of the gene BRCA2, which is linked to breast cancer, and Great Shelford. From the top of the…
Britain 17: Rutland Water to Cambridge
Round a bit of Rutland Water this morning. The reservoir was still farmland when Abba were in the charts. Now it’s England’s largest lake in its smallest county, and it has a bike track all around it, as well as a half-submerged Italianate church that looks as though it’s taking to sea. It was windy…
Britain 16: Derby to Rutland Water
It rained today. All day. Luckily we were cycling in the frankly dull country round East Midlands Airport, so there was no scenery to miss. We found brief shelter from the rain in this curious bus stop in the village of Kingston on Soar, which has its own two-seater library. As you enter Melton Mowbray,…
Britain 15: Hathersage to Derby
I was staying at Mark’s last night, which means an early start was always going to be unlikely. We went swimming in Hathersage’s delightful open air heated pool, joined by Nigel, who’ll be cycling with me to London, looked at some local gardens, chatted over tea and toast on Mark’s balcony, and waited for the…
Britain 14: Wheelton to Hathersage
Another very early start, hacking out into the Lancashire road system at a drizzly half seven. But with a big tailwind, firmly track-pumped tyres, and all my camping gear left at Si and Sue’s for shipment home and hence half-weight luggage, it felt like the bike was pedalling itself. Maybe I just hadn’t woken up…
Britain 13: Dent to Wheelton
Three big, big climbs over the roof of England today, from Dales Yorkshire into Lancashire: up and out from Dent; up from High Bentham to Slaidburn; and up Jeffrey Hill. The effort was worthwhile (a) because of the long, life-affirming downhills and (b) because of the splendid evening at Si and Sue’s of curry, vodka,…