I just knocked off my 200th tweet and was browsing the tweets of the people I follow, including @cyclingtotheashes (aka Oli Broom)who is currently in India (he is the guy who is, as you may have guessed,cycling to the Ashes cricket in Australia which starts later in the […]
I just came across these webpages which have been archived on the BBC website. They are about Jane Tomlinson and how she cycled from Rome to Leeds in May 2004. Here is an extract about Jane Tomlinson from Wikipedia; Jane Emily Goward was born in Wakefield in Yorkshire in […]
Yesterday’s practical pilgrimage day got me thinking about crossing the Alps again. The Via Francigena crosses the mountains at the Great St. Bernard Pass. The Eurovelo 5 crosses at via the Saint Gotthard Pass. I have just found a useful website all about cycling in the Alps. Its […]
Meeting my niece in London after the meeting yesterday was the thin end of the wedge. Several beers later I arrived home in Reading and then tackled a bottle of wine so, as I write, I have a little bit of a hangover. What follows is a more […]
On 1st August 2007 I caught a train from Reading to London at 9.42am, wearing something white in celebration of it being Yorkshire Day. The sky was blue and the moon nearly full. I was going to Paris with a friend on the start of a round Europe […]
I honestly don’t write this blog for anyone apart from myself and to begin with that was fortunate as no-one else read it. However, as Google began to pick me up and as links began to appear elsewhere on the Internet directing people to this blog, I have […]
…from a very snowy Yorkshire to all readers of my blogs.
Knowing that I had cycled from the North East to Derby earlier in the year, someone did ask me last week if I were planning on cycling to Yorkshire this Christmas. It had crossed my mind but then I thought better of it. Winter long distance cycling really […]
It’s been a while since I have mentioned any of the cycling adventurers who have inspired me over the past 18 months or so….Mark Beaumont: he is in Peru and still going strong. Not sure when he is due to arrive in Ushuaia, Argentina – his final destination. […]
I have enjoyed every minute of it – far more than I actually thought I would. The cycling, the places, the scenery, the people, the weather, the accommodation, the relaxation, the fun…. I could good on. I can’t fault any of them! I would even go so far […]
Writing up today’s events for the book (once I secure that elusive publishing contract… I’m open to offers) and planning tomorrow’s cycling. Day 7 will see me back in familiar territory: West Yorkshire and my family so at least I am guaranteed a sprung bed to sleep on. […]
Not another pub but an addition to the signage here in the Yorkshire Dales. Prettier they may be, but far less frequent than earlier in the journey.
My thumb shows my position on the map – about half way along the full length of the Pennine Cycleway route. Arrived in Ingleton at 4pm. Despite the spectacular short cut from Appleby to Tebay over the moors which knocked about 8 miles off today’s planned 44 from […]
And with a view like this, Yorkshire can't be far!
OK, a bit of Internet research has poured scorn on my first choice of tent (see below: the Karrimor which is a nice colour but which one reviewer witheringly described as a “…Peter Storm tent [those are the very cheap ones you get from Millets] with a different […]
Call me fickle, I don’t care! Waking up with thoughts of boredom on my mind and a desire to spice up my trip to Yorkshire this summer, I have abandoned it! This is great news. I don’t now have to trudge from Reading through to the Peak District […]
40 years ago today, Man first walked on the Moon. I walked home from Reading earlier this afternoon counting the number of people I passed who I thought were likely candidates for an adventure cycling to southern Italy. I counted zero. So on a day that we celebrate […]
So, can I really buy the essentials needed to travel to Yorkshire this summer on £300. Let’s have a go. I need to think about three things: the bike, myself & camping. All prices rough estimatesfollowing today’s foray into the outdoor adventure shops of Reading.Panniers £70Handlebar bag £40Cycling […]
The bike is having a rest for a week – my aim is not to use it at all until next weekend – so this morning I set off on foot to window shop in the bike / adventure shops of Reading. I only found two that were […]
Ian Hendry, the guy from Adelaide has been in touch again and gives some useful musings about distances etc (he is in blue, my comments in red):I was anticipating 100km+ per day from Waterloo to Central Rome (only going to Rome as it will easier to fly out […]
I wrote a couple of days ago about having decided upon a date to set off: Monday 19th July 2010. This shall be known as P-Day. P being of course for Puglia.Next Sunday is therefore P-365. A whole year.I’m going to give myself two full weeks to prepare […]
To state the obvious, I have arrived. In Trafalger Square to be exact. It hasn’t been the most strenuous of rides. Around 50 miles – the kind of distance I will need to knock off each day en route to Yorkshire. Anyway, back in the Square, a phalanx […]
This is Sian and Alexa and Sian’s sixteen week old son, Owen. We had a barbecue at Alexa’s flat this afternoon although it rained so we decamped inside. I mentioned my plans for this coming summer – Berkshire to Yorkshire – and Sian was very concerned about my […]
There is a fun supplement in today’s Sunday Times all about cycling. With features by Alistair Campbell (pictured here), Olympic gold medalist Victoria Pembleton and Robert Elms amongst others. Cycling does seem to be increasingly the reserve of the middle-aged man, which is no bad thing for me […]
OK. More progress planning my trip to Yorkshire this summer. I have identified some Youth Hostels en route, or just off the route in some cases, that I could use. Although they are by no means equidistant from each other, they do split the journey into a 6-day […]
OK. Three maps and one route from Reading to Yorkshire. The middle map – Leicester, Coventry & Rugby – is twice the size of the other two so that section is a bit enlarged on the second picture. When you mark the route on the maps it doesn’t […]
My focus must now be on what I have predictably called “Yorkshire 2009” (no change of website however!). And I am making good progress already. Thanks to the National Cycle Network, my route planning is more or less done for me. This probably won’t be the case next […]
Today will go down as a milestone on my road to Puglia 2010. Many good things have happened, one an out of the blue but “why didn’t I think of that earlier?” idea that I shall come to in a few moments (the map on the left is […]
