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Maps 126, 127, 128, 129 – Prickled and Goosed

Today I rode almost exactly 100 miles. I also caught up with 5 friends and was treated to a full Sunday roast dinner AND crumble with lashings of custard. Not to mention cheese. That is pretty decent going for single day. Add to that a puncture that I had to repair on the streets of […]

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18 Holyhead to Skegness Other

Maps 120 to 122 – long, flat and straight

Today’s eastward cycling began where yesterday’s left off: in a small lay-by on the moors above Hathersage. There is a very successful herd of red deer that live up here, within sight of Sheffield; but I didn’t see any of them this morning. It was an overcast, breezy start to the day – quite different […]

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October plans

This next month – if it happens as it still could – will be pretty relentless and I have only really got myself fully organized for the next week. But since I know that much, let me share it with the world! Friday 30th September – evening – drive Hathersage to Nefyn, North Wales (avoiding […]

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18 Holyhead to Skegness Other

Maps 118 & 119 – To Boldly Go (from 10am)

Today I rode from the Cheshire plain up and over the Peak District hills on a glorious sunny September day. I ended up at home, because it was too close to justify staying anywhere else. In the morning I will get a lift to where I reached in map 119 and resume my journey with […]

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18 Holyhead to Skegness Other

Map 116 & 117 – a very windy day!

There are times when travelling by bicycle is much better done west to east than the other way around. In Britain, for the most part, that has to do with the prevailing wind. Today, as we made our way along the North Wales coast from Llandudno, on the spectacular national cycle route 5, I was […]

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18 Holyhead to Skegness Other

Maps 114 & 115 – Anglesey and the Conwy coast

And so to Wales. It took two trains and a morning to get from home to Holyhead, one of the main ferry ports for Dublin, and the start of my 17th crossing of the country. The town is the biggest in the island of Anglesey, although a pedant might point out that Holyhead actually sits […]

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17 West Kirby to Cleethorpes Other

Maps 111, 112 and 113 – Old Lincs Renewed

Today was the one time in this entire adventure that I could leave my own house on a bike and simply ride. I was in my own OS Map, Landranger 110, where I ended the day yesterday after starting on the west coast. Today I would ride all the way to Cleethorpes on the east […]

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17 West Kirby to Cleethorpes Other

Maps 108, 109 & 110 – Above Us Only Sky

Today was a three map day. If I have any chance of completing the country this year, that will be the first of many in the coming weeks. It required an early start. The first west bound train of the day from my village goes all the way to Liverpool (rather than Manchester only, as […]

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16 Blackpool to Spurn Point Other

Map 107 – Spurn Point

From time to time in this adventure, the opportunity arises to visit somewhere truly different. Today was one of those days. Map 107 contains an extremity so extreme that it has to be put in its own box. Spurn Point is a narrow spit of land that hooks around from the northern entrance of the […]

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16 Blackpool to Spurn Point Other

Maps 106 & 107 – Tall Tales from East Yorkshire

Today was probably the flattest day of the entire journey so far. I can’t think of anywhere else this vertically challenged over so many hours of riding. The first section, from York to the wolds at Market Weighton, was particularly flat and not especially interesting. It was mostly just ploughed fields and hedgerows, with the […]