Criss crossing Essex in February 2022

 

After riding from London to Glasgow my mind turned to other possible rides. I fancy doing a lap of France but then thought I might fit that into a ride from the north of Norway to the south of Portugal but would probably exceed the maximum time I can go abroad without a visa. I also wanted to stay near home to avoid any covid related shutdowns and have also sighed up to ride across the Hebrides which I am looking forward to as I have never been having often motorcycled to France as it is quicker to get to than Scotland.

Then the mad idea formed to cycle every single Sustrans National Cycle Network route in the UK which amounts to 12.500 miles + some joining up mileage. I decided to test out the possibility of cycling them one map page at a time (there are 56 individually printed maps) and it was just warm enough in February to give Essex a go. I missed a few sections as I was too ambitious in terms of miles to cover, too slow on muddy off road sections and short of daylight but still managed 90% of the routes. This was a test to see what it was like to go back on yourself in order to join up with other routes. The conclusion was that it made navigating slower and more complex and going back the way you just pedalled wasn't all that satisfying.

Thus I changed the plan to one of ticking off the numbered routes one at a time. Having already cycled route 3 (more or less) from Lands End to Bristol, on my way to John O'Groats in 2020, I won't repeat it and route 1 is from Tain, north of Inverness to Dover which I will do once I have cycled the Hebrides. My attention turned to route 2 from Dover to St Austell so that is what I did next, in that direction. Generally I'm going to take the train to the end and head back towards London as that will be riding in the direction of home, always a welcome sight.

Riding every day for a week in February was OK, I wasn't roasting, it was usually 8-10 degrees, and I wore long cycling bottoms with ski socks and two shirts under a wind proof cycling jacket so wasn't cold either. I was lucky, just the one awful morning when hailstones were bouncing off the road when I wanted to set off, I let those stop and then cycled in the steady rain with my hotel shower cap over my cycle helmet, a vision to behold.

I cycled 303 miles during the week, so still over 12,000 to go. I have refined my plan though. To me 50 miles is a good day of riding so I'm not going to ride any cycle route which is shorter (unless it joins up two longer ones).

So that's the plan which will form most of my cycling in 2022 and 2023.

Derek