Cycling adventures across Yorkshire, Britain and beyond
This is a leisurely cycle-camp down the 130-mile River Wye. (Route map below.) Day 1 featured a bit of Japan on a house, a pub Dylan Thomas never drank in, remote reservoirs, a puncture, and the source up in the mid-Welsh hills just a stone’s throw from that of the Severn. Please don’t throw stones…
Day 5 of the KAW involved plenty of lovely Ridgeway, an ancient burial site with a poignant modern twist, a bizarre split church, and the completion of the circle back at Reading. The railtrail swiftly got us from Marlborough back to the route at Ogbourne St George, where we resumed our pleasant eastward progress on…
Day 4 of the KAW involved Stonehenge at solstice, bangs and crashes on Salisbury Plain, giant white horses, a canalside pub, mystical Avebury, a man carrying a dog to his ear, and the fabulous Ridgeway. From Amesbury we took a rather roundabout offroad way to Stonehenge. We’d forgotten it was midsummer day: later in the…
Day 3 of the KAW involved more South Downs Way, Alfred’s statue in Winchester, more muttering about bad surfaces and dull views, and the windy hilltop fort of Old Sarum. Breakfast at the Sustainability Centre was fruity and healthy, but I still enjoyed it. We shuddered at the memory of yesterday’s surfaces, much as our…
Day 2 of the KAW involved a tame wild swim, more woodland trails, elevated heaths and sunken lanes, an alcohol-free Devil’s Punchbowl, a pub with an internal border, some bridleway-dodging, and the cradle of first-class cricket. It was a cool and cloudy day – a relief after yesterday’s heat. Back lanes to Farnham revealed the…
Day 1 of the KAW involved offroad trails through woods and heaths and alongside water, plus unburnt cakes, sauna-like heat, a secret cafe, and (trigger warning) two references to nudity. The KAW has little to do with King Alfred, apart from starting and finishing at his statue in Winchester. Well, I’m starting and finishing in…
‘A wild-swims-cycle-route photoshoot’ sounds more glamorous than it is. No film crew, make-up tents, Michelin-star cuisine, or five-star hotels for me and photographer Joe. Just him on his Condor gravel bike toting a camera bag, and me on my tourer carting trunks and wetsuit. We stayed in pub rooms, ate fish and chips, and I…
I just spent a few days exploring Utrecht, inside and outside the city, for another article. Even by Dutch standards, this is a bike-friendly place: over 60% of city-centre trips are pedalled, and outstanding cycleways – wide, smooth, continuous, and with priority at junctions – are everywhere. Nobody knows how many kilometres of bike path…
Returning to England from Slovakia, I had a final layover in Amsterdam between overnight bus and Eurostar. I spent a very happy five hours in the chilly sunshine exploring the centre easily and efficiently, thanks to the city’s cycle path system. With all those cyclists intent on getting somewhere, things can be hectic in the…
I had a couple of days spare after finishing the Slovakia End to End, so I went to Prague. I had no plan, but I had a bike, and that’s all you need. The city is justly feted as one of Europe’s most elegant and visitable, and the cheap but excellent beer is a welcome…