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

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.

 

Sustrans route 2 - Dover to St Austell

In March I decided to ride Sustrans / National Cycle Network route 2 which takes you from Dover to St Austell or vice versa. I cycled down to Broadstairs to stay with friends so I was near the start and then passed a weekend at leisure in Folkestone before setting off on the route proper. Here is the consolidated Strava route.

I now put my photos on Instagram so if you follow 'dishbike' you can see my daily progress as I go. This is a quick summary with one photo per day.

Day 1 - Broadstairs to Folkestone - 33 miles - 2,149 feet of climbing

A short stage but surprisingly hilly. The start point of each numbered route isn't always obvious and part of this one was closed.

Day 2 - Folkestone to Eastbourne - 62 miles - climbing 1070 feet

The stage is flat with all of the climbing done in one hit, Battery Hill at Fairlight.

A naked lady saw me off on my ride, this sculpture was modelled on a resident.

Day 3 - Eastbourne to Chichester - 59 Miles - Climbing 1,847 feet

Eastbourne Beach - wonderful

I took the wrong route out of Eastbourne which added to the climbing.

Day 4 - Chichester to Christchurch - 70 miles - climbing 1,713 feet

My planning didn't take account of the fact that I needed to take 4 ferries today so time ebbed away. One jetty was so far out in the creek that foot passengers got to take the train - bikes don't fit.

Day 5 - Christchurch to Dorchester - 41 miles - climbing 1,411 feet

I managed to get one day down below 50 miles and a brewery opposite the hotel at the end.

Day 6 - Dorchester to Seaton - 46 miles - climbing 3,579 feet

Up and down all day. The climb up to the monument was well worth it though for the view.

Day 7 - Seaton to Bovey Tracey - 50 miles - climbing 5,007 feet

I have friends in Bovey Tracey and they asked me on arrival if I wanted to go to a quiz to help raise money to send local scouts to the annual jamboree in South Korea which is scheduled for August 2023. We came about 7th out of 20 teams as I recall (probably badly after a lot of beer).

I used the dry bridge route.

Day 8 - Bovey Tracey to Plymouth - 34 miles - Climbing 3,159 feet

Another shorter day but plenty of hills. The views are the reward. This is near Buckfastleigh.

Day 9 - Plymouth to St Austell - 42 miles - climbing 4,636 feet

Cornwall is just so hilly and seeing the final Sustrans finger post is such a pleasure.

So that is a tick next to route 2 and I am 90% through route 1, the longest route. I have 2.5 days of it to complete, half a day near Ipswich which I missed due to breakdown and the two days from Enfield Lock to Dover (will actually only go as far as Sandwich as did the final section of route 1 when starting route 2).

The start of route 4 is planned for July.

End.

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