Very enjoyable day of route research in Nottingham. The quirky Park Tunnel, underneath Street-View-invisible, gas-lit Park Estate; the delightful long stretches of bike path by the Trent; the Market Square; and the tram system, roamable on a four-quid day pass.
Category: Route research
Speyside 3: Straight to mouth
Final day of route research on the Speyside Trail, finishing at the mouth not far from Elgin. Which, incidentally, has a distillery.
Speyside 2: Spirit of cycling
Day of whisk… er, route research in distillery country. I mean, Speyside.
Speyside 1: Takes a lot of bottle
Excellent first day of route research on the Speyside Trail up in the Scottish Highlands.
Birmingham: Christmas and canals
German Christmas Markets seem to be everywhere these days. We’ve been visiting a few – Leeds, Sheffield, York, Birmingham – in the echt German way. That is, on bikes, and not spending more than we can afford. Which means not spending anything, when they want four quid for a sausage. The Birmingham trip was an…
Cramond Island: Rebel with a causeway
Cramond Island, five miles or so from central Edinburgh along the coast, is a kind of mini-Lindisfarne: a small isle connected to the mainland by a narrow concrete causeway. Most of the time the causeway is under water. But for a couple of hours at low tide, when the waters recede, it’s perfectly cyclable. Go…
Bealach na Bà: Height of achievement
The road west over the hills to Applecross, on the north-west coast of Scotland, is Britain’s longest steep hill. Simon Warren’s book on Britain’s top 100 cycling hills rated every one out of ten; this one rated eleven. And today, fulfilling a long-held ambition, I rode it. The hill is Bealach na Bà, usually translated…
Gloucester: What a bore (the Severn’s)
It was the year’s only five-star Severn Bore today, a remarkable natural phenomenon that’s ideally visited by bike. So I did, all in the name of route research. The bore is a tsunami-like wave caused by particularly high incoming tides being funnelled up the narrows just south of Gloucester. Like a 168 bus overtaking you…
London: Waterlink Way
The Waterlink Way, ambling six or so miles south from Greenwich to South Norwood, is one of south London’s pleasantest leisure rides. For most of its length it runs through traffic-free parks alongside the Ravensbourne, a watercourse that can’t decide if it wants to be a stream, a river, or clump of reeds. Today was…
Abergwesyn Pass: Wales song
The Abergwesyn Pass (all pics), which bucks and rolls twenty miles between Abergwesyn and Tregaron across a remote part of mid-Wales, is one of the most scenic and spectacular roads in England and Wales. The single-track tarmac filament surfs the massive mountain breakers of Elenydd, a virtually uninhabited upland expanse slashed by lush quiet valleys….