After 4 days of chilling, music, lots of good food and a little bit of alcohol (not when Emma was driving) Emma successfully drove Daisy the Campervan home with no hiccups – at a previous festival Daisy kept cutting out on the way home – Daisy was fine as long as she was kept moving but as soon as Emma slowed down at junctions Daisy would cut out – I found myself pushing Daisy and when Daisy got going I tried to run and jump into Daisy’s side door while she was moving – (1) I failed at doing this and (2) I was still in my pyjamas!
Anyway I’ve gone off track and this is meant to be about my return journey home from this trip.
Day 1 – should have left Emma’s sooner but wasn’t going to turn down the offer of a roll and sausage before I left. Heading for Liverpool, I made use of another canal towpath – although “path” would be stretching things – there was some very nice sections but a lot of it was no more than a runnel in the grass and I probably should have joined the nearby road but I kept hoping that the path might get better. At a very narrow kissing gate which I wouldn’t have got Bertie through with or without panniers – a lovely older couple from Wales going in the opposite direction had just lifted their bikes over and I was about to take the panniers off and do the same with Bertie but before I knew it, the gentleman lifted my fully laden bike over the fence for me with an ease that I would never have managed, even without the panniers.
When I did leave the towpath I had about another 25 miles to go and I was conscious of time and not wanting to arrive in Liverpool in the dark. I gained time on some lovely quiet back roads but then I got to Runcorn – lots of houses – trying to avoid the main roads – lots of intertwining cycle paths – some signed some not – very difficult to make head or tail of them – I just wanted a sign that said Liverpool City Centre this way!! Eventually, with lots of to-ing and fro-ing and map checks and map checks and more map checks I eventually found myself on a bridge, with a cycle path, across the Mersey – a cycle path with lots of steps down to it – but in its defence nice long sweeping steps and not steep ones so quite easy to bump the bike down them. At this point I met an older retired gentleman on his bike – he preferred to cycle in the evening when there was less traffic about – he was on his way to the Liverpool John Lennon Airport which was close to my route – I cycled with him for the next 6 or so miles and although he was going at a slower pace than I would have liked he was good company and saved me having to navigate that stretch. Another few miles later finally arrived at my hostel for the night – much later than planned – didn’t even bother having something to eat and straight to bed – a long but interesting day, despite getting lost at times, and fueled on only one roll and sausage.
The one advantage of cycling as the sun was going down was seeing a flock of geese flying overhead with their bellies lit up by the setting sun – beautiful but no photos, I’m afraid.
Day 2 – ferry to the Isle of Man – wasn’t going until late morning so I could have had a lie in but was awake with the birdies – lovely morning and plenty of time to do a wee bit of food shopping, some sightseeing and locate the ferry terminal – the latter took some time – google maps took me to the NEW ferry terminal – THE YET TO BE FINISHED ferry terminal and no signs to the still operating old ferry terminal. I had in fact cycled past the old ferry terminal – the slip way wasn’t particularly obvious and it was dwarfed by a huge cruise liner – that’s my excuse anyway – I now knew I was in the right place as the ferry I wanted had not long docked and there was the amazing roar of hundreds of motorbikes leaving the boat on their way home after the annual TT races.
The sun gods were out when I arrived in Douglas on the Isle of Man and stayed for my 3 days there – it was so warm I could have been on the Med.
Lovely cycling on my first day on the island – roads not to busy and not too hilly and I was often following the line of the Manx Electric Railway – only saw the train once as it was heading back towards Douglas but got a friendly wave from the driver and some of the passengers, including the hairy leather clad biker at the back of the train – I like meeting motor cyclists when I am out on my bike – at car parks, viewpoints, campsites, etc they are much more likely to stop and chat compared with folks travelling by car.
First stop was the famous Laxey Wheel – the largest surviving original working waterwheel in the world and it was used to pump water out of the mines – it was being restored which meant, unfortunately, I could not climb up to the viewing platform above the wheel but was still fab to see and an excuse to go back for another visit.
Next stop was the Maughold Head Lighthouse – always got to tick a lighthouse off and well worth a visit – the hardest bit of today’s bike ride was the short but sharp uphill to return back to the main road but no pushing was required.
I stopped the night at Crossags campsite, near Ramsay – nice cheap basic campsite – good hot showers, an indoor area with plenty of chairs and a kettle and microwave – perfect. Although a lot of the motor bikers had left the island today there was still a fair number still on the island and there was a group of about 10 of them in the communal area – age ranged from about late teens to mid 70’s and maybe more and for most of them this was there annual visit to the island – they told me the communal area wasn’t in as good nick as it used to be and pointed out the strategically placed pans and buckets to catch the leeks when it started raining.
Day 3 – Headed back to Ramsay again so that I could pick up the coastal road and head to Point of Ayre Lighthouse. Needed a wee stop on the way and stopped at the public toilets in Bride – glad I needed to stop or I might not have seen the fabby mosaics on the toilet block wall.
Spent time wandering the shingle beech at Point of Ayre and taking too many photos of the lighthouse – this would have been a fab wild camping spot but too early in the day and time to move on.
By chance saw signs to the Isle of Man Motor Museum – too nice a day to go in a museum normally and at £16.50 per adult expensive too I thought, or maybe that’s because I’m so used to getting into the Glasgow Motor Museum for free but glad I went in and def worth a visit – great museum – of course a large part of it is given over to motor bikes but I loved seeing the collection of bubble cars and the DeLorean especially.
Onwards to Peel Campsite – not the prettiest of campsites but great in every other sense – cheap, flat, good showers, indoor communal area for cyclists and walkers, supermarket near by and a 2.5 mile walk from the campsite takes you to the old town, harbour and castle and to the top of Peel Hill – great wee walk and would def do it again.
Day 4 – ride from Peel to the South Easterly Point of the Isle of Man with views over to the Calf of Man (no time, on this trip, to do the wee boat crossing – another excuse to come back again) and then return to Douglas to catch the ferry back to England. When I posted pictures of my first day on the Island on Facebook a friend posted back about the hills on the island – my response back was just a wee bit too cocky – “the hills haven’t got me so far – Yorkshire kicked my arse though – brutal” but Ken was right – in terms of hills on the Isle of Man I’d saved the worst till last and had to do some pushing uphill – but still think doing the island anti-clockwise was the best way. Apart from Douglas this was the busiest spot of the island, and with good reason – everyone was there for the views. Back in Douglas I killed some time in the museum and then got some grub and a wee cider or 2 in a pub close to the ferry – the ferry wasn’t leaving until 7:45pm and arriving in Heysham at 11:30pm – I’d purposely chosen the late ferry as it gave me about an extra 1/2 day on the island and it was a heck of a lot cheaper – having the extra time on the island was definitely worth it but I was still pondering about where to stay once I got back on the mainland – do I find a cheap B&B or hostel – do I cycle to a campsite – or do I just start cycling in a northerly direction for home – being a bit tight I didn’t really want to spend money on accommodation I wasn’t going to arrive at until after midnight and I couldn’t really be arsed to pitch the tent in the dark only to be taking it down a few hours later – also being inspired by friends, Janine and Stuart, who had recently done the London to Edinburgh and back to London bike ride – which was actually the London to over the Forth and into Fife and back to London bike ride in the amazing time of about 83 hours with only a few hours sleep, I decided to start cycling in a homeward direction!
Day 5, 6 & 7 – Heading Home – cars and motor homes and then motorbikes and then the few cyclists were the last to depart the ferry – must have been about midnight when I started cycling – too warm to have my high vis jacket on but I wanted to make sure I was seen. Cycled about 41 miles to Shap in the lake district when I gave up for a couple of hours. About the first 3/4’s was nice easy cycling and then as expected hillier as I approached the Lake District – more of a pull up and into Kendal but then got very cold on the nice swoopy descent out of the town – sweat combined with the windchill on the descent cooling me down significantly – a harder pull up to Shap – warmed up again and then very quickly cooled down on the down hill as I approached the other side of the town – now too cold and too tired – neither brain or legs were functioning properly and I decided it was better to stop before I had an accident – I found a bit of grass underneath a tree, not far from someones house, wrapped myself up in the outer of my tent – too tired and cold to actually erect the tent and wanted to make a sharp exit in the morning as it wasn’t exactly the most subtle of places for wild camping.
Woke up about 90 minutes later and once I’d engaged brain felt, surprisingly fresh and ready to go. Another nice and sunny day but the forecast was due to change to heavy rain at some point and I now I was on the homeward stretch I just wanted to get as many miles as I could under my belt. About 34 miles took me to Carlisle where I stopped and bought some food but then kept going before stopping at Gretna Green to have my lunch about another 12 miles away. Gretna Green seemed like a good place to stop – it was just over the border into Scotland and I hadn’t been there for sometime – for the few folks who don’t know it, it was famed for couples eloping from England into Scotland as you can get married younger in Scotland than England – maybe very romantic once upon a time but now it’s incredibly busy and a tourist trap – but I did find a park bench in the sun to have my lunch and saw one newly married couple having their photos taken and I’m afraid I giggled under my breath – not as quietly as thought as the lady at the opposite end of the bench heard me but she giggled too – this was definitely not a 16 year old couple running from England to Scotland to get married – add at least 5 decades on – but that’s not what made me laugh – they had their 3 West Highland Terriers with them for the photo shoot – the 2 older ones posing pretty as a picture – the younger one yapping away and not for facing the camera – the photographer was literally snap snap move on and pretty dam sure they never got more than this wee dugs arse in the photo.
From here made good use of the Cycle Route 74 – closely follows the M74 and very little traffic as most cars and lorries are on the motorway – super easy to follow so no checking for directions – a couple of miles though was so badly potholed I’m surprised I didn’t get any punctures or broken spokes. The only section that got busy was near a truck stop but even then it wasn’t too bad and short lived.
I somehow missed the campsite I was looking for but found a good wild camping spot – close enough to the road that I didn’t have to make a big detour and was well hidden – the only thing that was missing was a way to charge my phone which was running low and I’d already drained my back up power pack – need to get better at keep phone charged up!
Somehow managed about 140 miles – not too many uphills helped – maybe I should start cycling about midnight more often??
First stop the next morning was only about 10 miles away – Cairn Lodge Services – for breakfast and to charge my phone up – wouldn’t normally stop at a motorway service but this one was easily accessed from the cycle route – is family run and not the usual big chain services and did a dam good breakfast – definitely worth a stop. Dithered about taking a longer but easier route for the last stretch home – easier in terms of navigation and it also made use of the Forth and Clyde tow path which I knew well and made for easy cycling or a shorter but more direct route which I didn’t know – there was about a 10 mile difference in it – I should have stuck to the longer route but didn’t – by the time I made a navigation error and accidentally dropped into New Lanark I hadn’t saved any time or distance – New Lanark is lovely and famed for The Falls of Clyde but has a hell of dip down and back up again and I was pushing the bike once more – must improve on my hill fitness.
Finally made it to the Kelpies and the rain has started – since my very wet day in Yorkshire, overall I’ve been really lucky with the weather and had plenty of sunshine – final 10 miles home and I know the last stretch well and made it home just before the heavens open.
Fab trip – covered a lot of land and ticked off one new island – longest bike trip in a while – got to spend time with my sister and my nephew – and it’s given me the confidence to jump back in the saddle and go for a longer trip – much longer – in just over 4 weeks time me and Bertie Bike are heading off on a bike trip across Europe – from Alloa to Romania and back, all going to plan – Bertie is currently at the bike shop getting a full service done and I just need to get organised and get rid of Covid!
