Category: Going to Extremes

Although I didn’t strictly need to, I was hardly going to ride right across Ireland and not see the sea on the far side. So my day began with a short ride to the seaside at the town of Bundoran, where I found a pleasant café with outdoor seats and a sea view. It was […]

Having got myself half way across the Irish Midlands yesterday, my task for today was simple enough: to get across the other half of the country to within just a couple of miles of the Atlantic coast. I would, as before, be seeking to maintain my straight line in the most pleasant way available, and […]

A day of different parts: first, the three hour ferry trip across the Irish Sea from Holyhead to Dublin. Then, an exciting urban cycling experience right through the centre of Dublin along the banks of the River Liffey – past modern dockland redevelopment and classical Georgian streets – and on through the vast open spaces […]

England had won their World Cup football match, and it was time to get back on the road and continue my cycling adventure. It would be much harder now to nip back home like this, because I was heading a lot further away, to other countries, and across the sea. This would mark the beginning […]

On the seaside promenade in Colwyn Bay is a special new piece of public art, and I wasn’t going to leave town this morning without seeing it. The new bronze statue, by sculptor Nick Elphick, is a life-size depiction of Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, as the infamous naked organist who featured in some […]

This was a long day. A really good one, too, but I almost ran out of time at the end. I knew I’d bitten off a lot, but daylight was in abundance and I’ve cycled 100 miles many times before. I admit I was a little thrown to discover that check-in closed at my Colwyn […]

The further you get from home, the less straightforward – and therefore less likely – it gets to pop back again. But today I didn’t need to be concerned about that. I was setting off from my own front door with the objective of getting myself over the Peak District hills as far as a […]

It was always likely that my journey between the eastern and western extremities of the UK would take me past my home in the Peak District, which sits pretty centrally in the country. This had the advantage of allowing easy hops in and out by train for the days either side, saving me accommodation costs […]

At some point in an east to west journey across the middle of England it is likely that you will find yourself crossing the Fens, the wide expanse of flat, drained land that sits below and to the west of The Wash. It is some of the most important agricultural land in the country, but […]

Now that I was away from the coast, the heat was stifling. This had to be the hottest of all the hot days I had experienced so far in this heatwave, and I decided to make it a modest day of cycling across Norfolk, leaving the morning free to enjoy some history and culture. I […]