Mark My Words

Borders (not the bookshop)

I was very fortunate yesterday to cycle past Palace Cycles in Carlisle. I needed the front derailleur looking at so took the bike in and not only did they do that but the main man drew me a map of how to get to Gretna without tangling with the dreaded A74. This route is completely unsigned and takes you through an industrial estate and past the tip to emerge by the backdoor into Scotland.

Took on or two photies and continued up the B7076 which is the old A74 now made redundant by the motorway. There is virtually no traffic on what was the main road into Scotland going from the border to Glasgow for 100 miles. So initially I thought "whoopee" I can put in a huge day, not having to think about navigation. However there is nothing on this road for mile after mile... talk about bleak. In 50 miles I went past about 2 hotels and zero petrol stations. Boredom set in in a big way, which means you have nothing to do but concentrate on your aches and pains (of which I have plenty).

I was starting to get a bit nervous about where I may stay tonight so provisionally booked a B&B Lesmahagow (thought he was the lead singer in The Bay City Rollers) after 75 miles or so, but after 60 miles I went past The Abington Hotel and decided that would do me. I could have gone further but had no idea where I might get an evening meal in Lesmahagow.

Emergency food stock:

Irn Bru x 2 (good for hangovers and other emergencies) Flapjack x 2.5 Custard creams x 2 (courtesy of hotel) Shortbreads x 2 (courtesy of hotel) Jelly babies.... large bag

Best moment of the day: a dutch car pulling alongside and the driver returning my hat which had come off the rack a mile or two back.

Song of the day: Wheels of Steel, Saxon

Update from the Frontier

Tonight finds me in a B&B in Carlisle catching up on the last few days.

Thursday

Set off from Paul's in Manchester following a rest and planning day. I was not looking forward to fighting my way across the city but it turned out not to be a problem. Big A roads out via Salford, Eccles and Wigan. Eventually hit Preston which as particularly horrible (sorry Carl). Several motorway converge there and big A roads go through the middle. It's tricky to go anywhere there without find yourself on a motorway slip road. Anyway... stumbled across National Cycle Route 6 that took me out of Preston on a quiet but slow route North.

After 61 miles I arrived in Bilsburrow to stay with Michael, Sadie and Connell... parents and brother of my old mate Jevon. It was great to see them and the hospitality was much appreciated. Oh... we also came 3rd in the pub quiz!

Friday

Bilsburrow to Windermere. Took the A6 North rather than NCN6 on Michael's advice. A good steer. Was soon in Lancaster and along the canal on another cycle route. Somewhere along the way I lost this and ended up back on the A6. I just wanted to get there now so took the A591 to Windermere which was a dreadful dual carraigeway but got me there fast.

Saturday

Windermere to Carlisle. Up the Kirkstone Pass... see photo.

Familiar Territory

This will be a brief post as I've spent most of the day planning and it's now a quarter to twelve, with me setting off in the morning for the next leg.

Yesterday saw me depart Stone in Staffs and after a few lanes join the towpath to the Trent & Mersey Canal which was also National Cycle Route 55. A pleasant pedal which took me through Stoke (a blessing), passing old potteries, etc and nearly to Kidsgrove. At this point the canal disappeared into a hole in the ground and I had to bike over the mountain that the canal tunnelled through.

I joined the Macclesfield Canal at Kidsgrove and the towpath was in pretty good order for a while but I was soon bumping along the barest of trails. A summer shower then turned this into a bog which was no fun to cycle along with the water a couple of feet away and your feet clipped to the pedals.

I diverted onto the road and took an A road into Macclesfield and then on to the outskirts of Manchester. At this point the planned route took the Hyde Canal towards Droylsden (which is where I wanted to be). A man-haul of the bike up some stone steps had me pedalling along this canal, once again impressed with the fine towpath. I'd assumed this city canal would be in a similar state to the one going through Stoke i.e. good towpath. But pretty soon this towpath was also down to a rocky swamp and for the second time I had to man-haul the bike to a nearby road and set off up a super highway into Manchester. 7pm had me rolling up at our friend, Paul Tam's, in Manchester to be presenting with a few cold beers and leaving one hell of a tidemark in his bath.

After Tuesday's trials today was declared a rest day and I spent it researching my next steps... oh and having a mega-curry in Rusholme on The Curry Mile.

Tales of the Riverbank

Route: Kinver, Staffs & Worcs Canal to Wolverhampton and Stafford. Trent and Mersey Canal & roads to Stone.

Sports Nutrition: Cooked breakfast, steak & chips lunch, pickled egg in a bag of crisps, Turkish mixed grill dinner... misc bananas. Maybe I ought to eat some pasta, or something... ho hum. Not sure what Lance would think.

Distance: 48 miles. Much on towpath which varied between cycle super-highway and ploughed field taken at 5mph getting bumped out of the saddle. Wrists and elbows throbbing by the end. Bum impervious after getting kicked by customers and VPs of Sales for 25 years.

Three Counties

Todays route: Gloucester, past Tewkesbury, Upton-on-Severn (nice), East of Gt Malvern to Worcester where stopped for pub lunch. Worcester to Stourport, joined Staffs & Worcs Canal and went through Kidderminster to Kinver. B&B.
Counties : Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Staffs.
Mileage: 58
Places worth visiting again: Upton and Kinver.
Song of the day: Many Rivers To Cross, Jimmy Cliff.

Time for a Catch-up

Sorry to avid readers for the lack of posts, although you will have seen some tweets. By the time I've got where I'm going, had a shower, found something to eat and planned the route and accom for the next day there's not much time left. Anyway here's a few days in one post.
Also I don't think pics have been posting to the album as expected... will check out the prob.

Day 4. Okehampton to Willand (nr Taunton)
The proprietor at our B&B in the morning gave me a good steer and suggested going via Exeter rather than straight over the monster hills near Dartmoor. A wise move.

Day 5. Willand to Wells.
A character building day. Lashed down for most of the day. A long ride of 60 miles or so and a few good hills. Stayed in a cellar room at a crappy B&B. Found a slug on the ceiling and left it in a jar for the proprietors to examine. Shades of Fungus the Bogeyman.

Day 6. Wells to Bath.
Booked into Youth Hostel for 2 days. Walked into Bath to meet my old mate, Bob (that's Professor Snowden to you). Had a great evening but thought Bob was a world authority on cyclepaths... turns out he's a world authority on psychopaths... what a disappointment.

Day 7. Rest day in Bath.
Got the bike fixed, spent some time at the spa and took the waters at one or two CAMRA national inventory pubs.

Day 8. Bath to Gloucester.
Good route planning (assisted by Bec at Mission Control, Cambridge) and fine weather made for probably the best day yet. Took the Bristol-Bath railway cyclepath, the Bristol ring road cyclepath and then up the Severn valley.

Over the Top - Day 3

Having hooned into St Neot down a near vertical hill on Day 2 it only stood to reason that I would have to do the opposite the following morning. I came near to losing my farmhouse B&B breakfast at the top. It's a well known fact that there isn't a square foot of level ground in the whole of the county. I'd planned the route by drawing a straight line between St Neot and Okehampton, aiming to do a few miles on the blissfully flat Granite Way disused railway line. After climbing several thousand feet I went past Cornwall's highest pub next to the radio mast at the top of Bodmin Moor. It slowly dawned on me that my home-brewed route through the South-West might be non-optimal. Following a fearless descent from the moor to some lower but hideously jagged hinterland it started to lash down which it did for the rest of the day. The highlight of the day was passing into Devon on the Taymar and having a nice pint at The Royal Inn which has its own brewery and bar billiards... nuff said. To cut a long story short, I arrived at the Oakhampton YHA soaked to the skin to meet Bec (who had been walking and swimming) and found that the place was full of youths so had to get a B&B. Pah! PS. Due to computational issues (doing this all fm my phone) have a shufty at the album on the left for photos.

The Beast of Bodmin - Day 2 - Sunday

... or more accurately, the beast that is Bodmin. Set off from Truro at a pleasantly late time. After half an hour or so I was tonking along a B road impressing myself with my supreme fitness and cleverness with my training regime. A further half hour saw me wheezing up a 1-in-3 at 2.8mph according to the GPS. This set the scene for the day culminating in a monster climb up on to the top of Bodmin Moor. Nice B&B in St Neot.

Day One - Land's End to Truro

Itinerary: Lands End to Truro. 41 miles.

Terrain: Hills. Moor. More hills. Moor. Hills. Even more hills.

Sports Nutrition:

Lunch: The Crown Inn, Goldsithney. Big breakfast, unfortunately they were out of Hogs Pudding.

Dinner: Lamb Chilli Madras (hey it works for the India Cricket Team)

High point: Arriving back in back in Truro to a cold beer courtesy of Ken & Kira

Low point: Being peppered with shot (albeit it feebly) by some silly sod shooting in the undergrowth near the road. I hear they don't like tourists round here.

Hero to Zero: Bumped into a fellow cyclist en-route and asked him some directions. In the ensuing conversation he told me he cycled End-to-End in three days as part of a Navy cycling team. Pah!

Let's Begin at the Beginning

No not Land's End but Scunthorpe, July 13th 1972. Mark passes his Cycling Proficiency Test. Little did PC Wood, a bobby of the old school, know what he had unleashed on the roads. 37 years later the fat lad on the Raleigh Chopper has evolved into... a fat lad on an altogether different bike about to undertake a Land's End to John O'Groats bicycle ride (or End-to-End in cycling parlance).
Read on...