Not So Adventurous Adventures

One last adventure for 2021! Much better than the North Norfolk cycleway. Lots of sea and interesting sights. Several centuries of military history to take in. Fantastic scenery. Quite a lot of excellent cycle paths. Only a handful of more unpleasant sections. Bet it gets busy in summer. Pretty quiet on a stormy weekend at the end of November! Day 1 Train to Brighton Massive storm Arwen on Friday night, so waiting few hours Much dissipated by time it reached south east corner of UK. Brighton unpleasant as per normal. Weather wasnt too bad when I got going, only rained heavily once. Nice cycleway but a few steep hills Taken the last minute decision not to follow the NCN inland and instead brave the A259 and a climb hovering around 10%. This plan was better when if I had got out of bed early and been on that stretch of road at 8am but it wasnt too bad. Had lunch at East Dean in really nice cafe. Then rode round Beachy Head. Slick road. Lots of boy racers. More than one cop car I assume k...

I spent the whole of lockdown reading accounts of other people's trips in previous years and living vicariously through their Youtube videos. Throughout the autumn and winter I made lots of plans for 2021 and here we are, five thousand happy miles later!  Here are my ten favourite rides of the last year. 2021 Strava Heatmap Number 10: London to Brighton on the Brompton  Sixty plus miles from London Blackfriars to Queens Road Station in Brighton. Several climbs and one killer ascent. Couple of things made this special: it was my first long ride on a Brompton; it included Ditchling Beacon; it was a beautiful clear cool spring day; I had South London pretty much to myself at 5am on a Saturday morning just a few weeks after lockdown had been relaxed. Highlight: Climbing Ditchling Beacon Lowlight: Climbing Ditchling Beacon

Living in St Albans I have been cycling quite a lot in the section of the Chilterns around Ashridge and Tring. Over the years I have done a few local sportives which have taken in the hills around Princes Risbrough and further west towards Reading. Many times my route has intersected or run along the Chilterns Cycleway and therefore its been a long held ambition to try and cycle the entire route over a few days. I never got around to it for a couple of years but in 2019 I got my act together and rode the circuit over three (half) days in a long weekend. https://flickr.com/photos/anderew/albums/72157710473020076 Almost 200 miles (by the time cycled to YHA) 2.5 times up Ben Nevis Three days Contemplated doing it one day, once would have been within my capability. Couple of hours on the Saturday morning Set off late Sunday to avoid avoiding too early at Streatley, turned out not to be a problem Back by lunch time on third day Wanted to do it for few years Met lady who was f...

At the back end of August the kids and I finally made it up to the Highlands to visit mum and dad. There was a temporary cessation to lockdown, mum was out of the highest category of shielding post chemo and the kids and I had done a 14 day isolation period to make sure that we didn't bring any unwelcome gifts north. We loaded up the car, new to us in November and barely driven since, fitted a new roof rack and made the familiar trip up beyond the Moray Firth.  Usually the day after that drive I would be shattered and need to keep it pretty simple. This trip, new car was a dream to drive, so much easier and less tiring than our decade old Toyota. I got up on the Sunday morning feeling like I could manage a decent ride, nothing extreme but better than a quick orbit of Dingwall and up the heights.  I spent half an hour or so exploring possible routes on Strava and RideWithGps with more than half an eye on the climb starting at Stuie Bridge, just up the coast. On the penultimate ...

Edith at Lewes YHA What was I thinking? Edith and I cycled part of the South Downs Way back in 2016 when she was ten years old and I was recovering from a bad cycle crash (I remember some of my scars started bleeding after getting sun burnt). Towards the end of 2017 we started planning another 'adventure weekend' for the following summer. After much debate and enjoyable research, we decided to do something really epic and try and complete the South Downs Way in its entirety. We knew it was going to be a challenge but if a ten year old can do almost forty miles in a day and a half, then a twelve year old can do one hundred miles in four full days, can't they? The Plan The South Downs Way is pretty much 100 miles long from Winchester to Eastbourne. There are a lot  of blogs, websites, books, leaflets etc describing the route. The excellent  Cicerone guide describes a three day plan of roughly equal segments by distance. Although my daughter is tall and strong ...