This is the online version of the talk I gave at the online Cycle Touring Festival 2021 on 15 Feb 2021. You can watch a video of the talk on their YouTube channel.
An article based on the talk was published in the June/July 2021 issue of Cycle magazine. You can see the online version of that printed article at Cycling UK’s ‘Great Rides: Britain’s Rivers’.
Some of my most enjoyable short tours have come in the series of River Rides that I did recently (and managed to finish between lockdowns in 2020).
Below I reveal my Top Ten British Rivers for Cycle Touring. But first…
Britain’s riverside paths don’t compete with Germany’s. Trying to follow the Severn, or the Thames, just doesn’t work like the Danube. There are some highlights, but the roads rarely follow the waterside.
The nearest we have to a Danube-style experience, I reckon, is the Great Glen. Cycle the sixty-odd miles from Fort William up to Inverness and you have endless stunning waterside scenery, much of it traffic-free or very quiet.
Britain’s rivers certainly don’t lack interest though. A quick glance at a gazetteer of its watercourses throws up some intriguing and quirky lists…
EXTREME RIVERS
Longest Severn (220mi) or Churn-Thames (230mi)
Shortest Morar (W Highlands) (3/5 mile)
Fastest Swale (Yorks)
Deadliest Wharfe, at The Strid (Yorks)
Dirtiest Lea/Lee (London)
Shortest Name O (Devon)
TEN RIVER AVONS
Avon (Bristol) x2
Avon (Devon)
Avon (Warks)
Avon (Hants) x2
Avon (Glos)
Avon (Falkirk)
Avon (Strathspey)
Avon (Motherwell)
RIVERS THAT SOUND LIKE OLD MEN
Ray (Bucks)
Sid (Devon)
Don, Douglas (Yorks)
Dick (Worcs)
Sid, Ted, Ben, Kenn (Devon)
Len (Kent)
Allen (Nbld)
SILLIEST RIVERS
Piddle (Dorset)
Looe, Camel (Cornwall)
Shittlehope Burn (Co Durham)
Granny Gill, Gypsey Race (Yorks)
Horsey Pill (Som)
Erewash (Derbys)
Lemon (Devon)
Eea (Cumbria)
There are various ways of crossing rivers: everything from stepping stones to cable cars (over the Thames at Greenwich). Here’s some of the most scenic…
At Symonds Yat there’s still a hand-operated cable ferry for hauling you and bike across the Wye. There used to be many more, now sadly closed (such as Hampton Loade on the Severn, and Bablock Hythe on the Thames).
I’ve used various bikes to explore Britain’s rivers. Yorkshire’s dales often have roads alongside the river, and plenty of places to camp, so I used my tourer (Spa Cycles Steel Tourer) for those. Some required access by bus, so I used my touring folder (a Dahon Speed TR). Most of the time, my trekker (an old Scott MX1 mountain bike kitted with a rack and raised handlebars) was ideal for the mix of road, track and bridleway that river-following usually involves – following the River Derwent, for instance.
This is a more specialised setup, though: my ‘disposable’ folder (an ancient Tactic) and my inflatable canoe (a Sevylor Colorado). The deflated boat fits on the back of the bike; the folded bike fits inside the inflated boat, enabling linear journeys. I’ve used this setup many times on the Ouse near my home in York, particularly for the ice-cream boat by the Millennium Bridge. (We recommend the Lemon Curd flavour…)
Top Ten British Rivers
Anyway, here’s my Top Ten British rivers for cycle-touring. They all form convenient two- or three-day trips, easy to organise and with lots of accommodation opportunities.
I’ve chosen rivers that offer a range of scenery, from remote hillsides and mountains up by the source, to pleasant lower reaches; a combination of explorable villages, towns and cities; a feeling of distinctive character; and a sense of narrative, of story and development, from source to mouth.
It’s unashamedly biased towards Yorkshire and its great dales, because that’s what I’m most familiar with. You may well have your own preferences – and know about hidden gems of rivers that I don’t. (Someone’s suggested the River Lune, for example, which goes through Tebay, Sedbergh, Kirkby Lonsdale and Lancaster… it’s now on my to-do list!)
10 Calder
From Todmorden on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border, through ruggedly sophisticated Calderdale (and bohemian Hebden Bridge) to Wakefield’s fine waterside Hepworth Gallery.
9 Nidd
The bikes-only road up to the source at Scar House Reservoir is a spectacular secret. Downstream, individual Knaresborough is stacked up the gorgeside hills like a vision of southern France.
8 Spey
The Tay’s angler-friendly waters may be a tad more spectacular, but Speyside means something special: whisky. Distilleries are plenty (Dufftown has six) and the signed whisky trail takes you to most of them.
7 Aire
No sooner has it started, from wonderful Malham Tarn, than it disappears mysteriously into the ground, only to emerge two miles later out of a hillside. After that it’s mighty farm, factory and canal scenery, to, through, and right under, Leeds train station.
6 Tyne
Not one but two thrilling sources: the North Tyne up at Kielder Water, the South Tyne near Alston in the Pennines. The finish, through Newcastle and Gateshead, is a parade of world-famous bridges (and a tunnel) through the vibrant town centre.
5 Exe
The nearest to a Yorkshire Dales-style river in the south, this starts thrillingly on Exmoor and heads south, with roads alongside almost all the way, to a splendid long, picturesque finish through Exeter.
4 Wharfe
Trickling down from some of Yorkshire’s loftiest landscapes through honeypot villages such as Kettlewell and Grassington, passing by Bolton Abbey, the Wharfe is a contender for Britain’s most scenic riverside road ride. Watch your step at The Strid though!
3 Swale
The recently resurfaced Swale Trail, between Keld and Reeth, is an easy MTB ride through dramatic dalescapes. Beyond Richmond’s castle it’s flat and agricultural, but that first half is something very special.
2 Wye
Probably the longest river that you can follow fairly closely and pleasantly from source in the Welsh mountains to mouth at Chepstow, the Wye – separating England and Wales – has a succession of awesome valleys, including Symonds Yat.
Really one river, one of England’s longest, and the most varied: landscapes, people, history aplenty here, plus all kinds of villages, towns and cities. ‘Uredale’ is actually Wensleydale, and ranges from mountains to breweries to cathedrals.
The Ure becomes the Ouse just outside York, flowing grandly through (and often flooding) the historic centre. After quiet, low-lying farmland, the Trans Pennine Trail joins the river as it heads east to the sea.
The Ouse and Trent join to form the Humber, offering a curious range of sights: the Bridge, still the world’s longest cyclable; Hull’s Deep; quiet Larkinesque plains; and Spurn Point, the extraordinary spit of land that is now England’s newest island.
Always finish with a song…
I finished my talk with a sung farewell to the Dawes Galaxy, the iconic but now discontinued tourer, to the tune of a well-known Elton John song…
Goodbye Galaxy
Though I never had one myself
I know lots of folks who do
Who bought one off the shelf
They bought themselves a tourer
Drop handlebars, and pannier rack,
Low gears for climbing hills
With tent strapped on the back
And it seems to me I spend my life
Always cycling in the wind
And sheltering in a bus stop
When the rain sets in
My pair of lycra longs
Cost a hundred quid
But my lycra wore out long before
The Galaxy ever did
The End to End was tough
The toughest route I ever rode
’Cos it rained every single day
Except for one, when it snowed
I got to John o’Groats
Freezing cold and tired and wet
And then there was no bike space on the train from Thurso
So I wasn’t finished yet
And it seems to me I spend my life
Always cycling in the wind
And sheltering in a bus stop
When the rain sets in
My Ortlieb pannier set
Cost a hundred quid
But my panniers wore out long before
The Galaxy ever did
Goodbye Galaxy
Though I never had one myself
I know lots of folks who do
Who bought one off the shelf
Goodbye Galaxy
From experts and beginners alike
Who see you as something more than a machine
More than just a brand of touring bike
And it seems to me I spend my life
Always cycling in the wind
And sheltering in a bus stop
When the rain sets in
My Brooks B17
Cost a hundred quid
But my saddle worn out long before
The Galaxy ever did
With apologies to Elton John. Not to Bernie Taupin though.