Sustrans Route 4 - Fishguard to Greenwich - July 2022

Ticking off the single digit route numbers, Route 4 was chosen for July 2022 for the simple reason that a friend was crossing the Irish Sea and landing at Fishguard on 5 July and passing a night there. Thus we could enjoy a relaxed dinner and head off the next morning after a big breakfast via car and bicycle respectively on the same journey back to Barnet.

5 July 22: Easy cycle parking on the Transport for Wales train.

I use different coloured pannier bags so I know what is in which.

Getting from Clarbeston Road railway station to my overnight accommodation in Newport, Pembrokeshire was a tough starter

6 July: An easy start, only to St Davids in order to bed my legs in a bit.

Managed to go a bit off route but then found this lovely old shop (which another Barnet rider had been at the previous day).

7 July: To Tenby.

Tremendous bays but all followed by a stiff climb out of them.

8 July: to Burry Port

Fish made of waste plastic.

9 July: to Bridgend.

I love being underneath busy roads just slowly wending my own way. The worst of the hills are now behind me.

10 July: To Newport, Gwent.

The Newport transporter bridge (temporarily closed until Summer 2024 for a refurb).

11 July: to Bristol.

Bye Wales, nice knowing you.

12 July: to Devizes.

Joined by a mate in Bristol. Cycles and canals go together well. These are the Caen Hill locks, a lot faster to get up on two wheels than in a narrowboat.

13 July: to Newbury, joined by another mate for the 'short' journey home. A white horse in the distance.

14 July: to Teddington.

There are 1000 of these marker posts on routes dotted around the Sustrans network.

15 July: to Greenwich and on to home.

Much prefer to be in the countryside in the saddle than in a cruise liner such as this monster.

Route 4 is wonderful, if you have the time to do it.

Derek

Edinburgh to Barnet on route 1

In was back on 26 May that I took a train back to Edinburgh and picked up my bike from being serviced and stored for a week whilst I popped home. They mentioned a slight bit of play in the bottom bracket and said it would be ok and given that I had only ridden 2,000 miles on my new bike I didn't think any more about it.

Pre ride I stoked up the evening before on Tapas and whilst the building was exquisite the food was merely OK.

The route out of Edinburgh took an unexpected turn and being led into a private housing estate but then...

and you found countryside at the exit of the tunnel.

The Temple of the Muses is to be found at Dryburgh, overlooking the River Tweed

Today I added extra miles and cycled over to Lindisfarne and as I was happy you get 3 photos today, me on a happy bench, the crossing to Lindisfarne and a pile of lobster pots

I love cycling along the coast of Northumberland (much of it is just a goat track to follow)

Had nobody been around I might have had a slide down these

Splendid views in Northumberland heading down through Yorkshire

Sometimes you just find yourself on your own for hours.

A very rough track had shaken some spokes loose in my rear wheel. This great bike shop & cafe straightened the back wheel.

Today I went over the Humber Bridge so headed towards my home county. I like to spot the fingerposts.

Drainage is taken seriously in Lincolnshire

You would be a long time with the hedge clippers

Having come so far south, I have seen a great variety in the terrain

Permission granted.

You get much closer to nature when walking or cycling

It was near Ipswich that the bottom bracket decided, after groaning for a few days, to spit its ball bearings onto the road. The local breakdown service hadn't rescued a cyclist before but they duly came to the rescue; you probably didn't know you can have breakdown cover for cycles just like you can for cars. Less should go wrong but a catastrophic failure like this one does call for transport help.

This is why there is a gap in the map at the top of the page. I will go back and do the missing miles of route 1 at some point.

Lovely Manningtree. Time for an ice cream and to just sit and stare.

Never did I think that one day I would look at Chelmsford and think how easy it would be to cycle from there to Barnet and be home in time for tea.

On this trip I managed to keep the average miles per day to the 50 that I find about right. How hilly it is is beyond my control.

Why don't you try a Sustrans route or two? You don't have to choose the long ones like me. Just have fun.
 

Ullapool to Edinburgh - Route 1 from Tain

 

The recently shortened official Sustrans route 1 now starts at Tain. I landed from the Hebrides in Ullapool and had two choices of cycling route to get to Tain (or I could have recovered my cycle at Inverness and then taken a train north), either the southerly route via Dingwall and then north to Tain (a route I took on Land's End - John O'Groats two years ago) or the new to me route north out of Ullapool and then south east to Tain so I went for the new route.

The date I departed Ullapool was fixed and I had already been away for a week when I decided to tack the 1,000 mile route 1 onto the end of it. My girlfriend is very understanding but being away for a month isn't cricket so we agreed to meet, at first in Edinburgh, for a weekend and I also needed to be back in London for some meetings that week. I thought the simple answer was to leave my bike in Edinburgh to be serviced and then pop back to London by train as that is a good way to travel if you can't cycle. The weekend away was moved to York as being more central and meaning quicker train journeys for both of us. By chance we met a man from Sustrans near York station. 

The weekend and the end of the Hebrides trip set the number of days available for me to cycle to Edinburgh. I had checked distances on google and they didn't seem to exceed 60 a day so off I went. Google takes the shorter route for its distances. I should have used ridewithgps which is more accurate.

Here is the punishing schedule I ended up with, only Tain to Inverness being less than challenging.

Prior to this trip my previous longest day was 89.55 miles which included Shap Fell and that was without 2 panniers (one contains a small laptop! and the other a D-lock which also weighs at least a kilogram) with my day clothes, wash bag, spare cycling kit, tools & spares etc.

Lots of climbing is as hard as long distances and I really don't recommend that you replicate the overnight stops that I used (although you may be much quicker than me) but you do want or need time to stop and eat and take photographs. I have Schwalbe Marathon tyres on the bike and they are pretty robust but losing 30 minutes to fix a puncture on this schedule would hurt. I would add in two more nights if I found myself in this corner of Scotland again.

I now have a longest ride of 91 miles but that involves rolling into your hotel after 10pm so dinner isn't an option although they kindly opened the bar for me.

Here are some of the photos I took. You can get all these live on instagram on my hashtag of @dishbike.

It is funny to see a sign for somewhere north when you are going south.

In the background you may be able to see a man walking. He was headed to Dover or Folkestone, I can't remember which. I was also headed to Folkestone but we were going in opposite direction. These two cyclists were from Folkestone or thereabouts, they had just enjoyed their best ever coffee with the view, a coffee they made themsleves as they were camping. They thought the encounter of us all, basically in the middle of nowhere, was the most bizarre event of their trip so far.

Just look at the views.

This was the view from where I met the two cyclists above.

Love a ferry, this one took 2 cars, drive on reverse off, and anything else which would fit.

An agricultural area, such colour.

I had been along the river here when travelling the other way on LEJOG two years ago, it was comforting.

At some point I will cycle route 7.

Love a viaduct. I seem to recall a murderous hill once I passed it.

The views, again.

These cows rowed up like  a welcoming committee.

A lovely breakfast at the Royal Oak in Cullen to set me up for the day. A very hilly town.

Thought I was suddenly in Essex.

I kept encountering diversion signs, can I sneak through or not? I usually give it a go.

Old railway lines usually make good cycle tracks.

More views. Scotland is endlessly beautiful.

I had a choice of a road or a track, I took the track and so came across this unofficial distance post.

A closed route did not have a diversion posted, I found out how unpassable it was the hard way.

This footpath was closed but it would have been better to bar the route.

Super view number 4.

The hotel was very grand (once but it had faded a bit).

Great safe route for cycles.

Forth Bridge, nearly in Edinburgh.

Although I accidentally set myself a stupid schedule I did it and survived. I also whacked out more miles than expected and learnt something which made the rest of the journey easier. I also had a rest for a week before continuing southwards.

Scotland is beautiful. You need to plan your stops carefully and pack food and drink as you may go many miles without seeing any sort of shop.

The end, for now.