Me and my 2 Wheeled Trusty Steed (and other stuff)

Category: Blog Posts Page 10 of 32

Last Night’s Accommodation

Camping near Bochum, Germany. Only tent again. Was about to pitch tent but campsite owner let me sleep in the wee communal shelter instead. Some very heavy rain over night so glad not to have to pack away a damp tent again.


Discovered that my sleeping bag is leaking “down” – found the hole – wonder if there has always been a fault as there looks as if there has been a tear melted shut – I did get it for a very reduced price in the sales 6 years ago. Hole now hopefully fixed with spinnaker tape.


Meant to be heavy rain again but sun is out just now so about to load up Bertie and head off.

Hello from Germany.

Had hoped to put more on here but haven’t had much chance to get laptop out and keeping it charged has become a nuisance and doing blog isn’t as easy on the phone – somewhere on here I have 3 drafts but how to get them is a mystery to me. But 2 weeks in and a lot of miles I am in Meerbusch in Germany.

So far, including, the one from England me and Bertie bike have been on 3 ferries.

Weather has been mixed but except for a couple of days mostly good during the day – nights have varied from cold to blooming freezing.

I’ve had 7 nights in campsites, 2 nights wild camping, 2 nights in a “Welcome to my Garden” and last night I stayed with Peter and Alice and had a bed and Alice’s fantastic home made quiche for dinner.

Anthony, whose garden I camped in, was amazing – ended up staying 2 nights there due to damaging my phone and needing it repaired. Anthony fixed my pannier rack – his eagle eyes spotted that a bolt was missing. He also supplied me with an extra, much needed, sleeping bag for the 2nd night.

Don’t normally use guy ropes on my tent but used them the other night to tie the tent to bike as a sort of safety measure – I’d stupidly left my lock at a previous campsite and by the time I realised it was too far to go back for it – I now have a new padlock.

Peter and Alice have helped plan my route for the next few days – it’s great to get some local knowledge and advice and much much appreciated.

So here’s a random mix of photos from the last 2 weeks.

Getting Ready

Bertie Bike all ready for our next big adventure. Big shout out to Stirling Cycles for all their hard work. Bertie B feels like new again.

https://www.stirlingcycles.co.uk/

Mostly Canals and Lighthouses – August 2022 Bike Tour -Part 2 – The way Home

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!

Douglas Head Lighthouse

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!

The Kelpies

Mostly Canals and Lighthouses – August 2022 Bike Tour

Other than a wee weekend trip to St Andrew – approx 55 miles each way – I haven’t done much on the bike this year, apart from commuting to work. So it was time for a bigger adventure.

The loose plan was to cycle from work towards Edinburgh, head south to Newcastle, continue to Yorkshire, head southeast to Waterhouse in Staffordshire where Bertie (the bike) was being abandoned for a few days (while I went to a festival), onto Liverpool where I would get the ferry to The Isle of Man for a few days and then head back home.

So here we go………

Day one – cycle to work (approx 8 miles) – leave work on time(ish) and cycle to Linwater Caravan Park which is about 11 miles west of Edinburgh city centre and near the Union Canal (34 miles). Get about 5 miles from work and remember that my waterproof jacket is at work – oops – opted not to go back for it as that would add on an extra 10 miles and I’d be arriving at the campsite in the dark – luckily only one heavy shower and it didn’t last long. Once I got to Falkirk nice easy cycling along the Union Canal to the campsite. Got tent up just as it was starting to get dark.

Day 2 – continue along Union Canal Tow Path to Edinburgh (with a wee detour to Halfords to buy a new high-vis jacket), on to Pentcaitland to meet my friend Dawn for lunch and then on to The Old Mill Caravan Site, West Kyloe Farm – approx 86 miles

Rainbow over Linwater Campsite

Manage to drop the plug to charge my phone into the Union Canal while taking this photo – discover that plug floats but too far away for me to reach it, even when I tried to guddle for it with my helmet. Set off again with plug still bobbing away – big apologies to the fishes and swans for littering the canal.

Fabby lunch with my friend Dawn – I’ve still got cable so I plug my phone in to charge and Dawn gives me a spare plug to take with me. Arrive at Old Mill Campsite at West Kyloe Farm, as the sun is going down – amazing sunset but unfortunately no pictures. Wait patiently for family of 4 who are hogging all the plugs so that I can charge my phone (again!) – realise that I have plug and phone but the cable is still plugged in at Dawn’s house – bugger.

Day 3 – was meant to go along the lines of cycle to St Mary’s lighthouse, Whitley Bay – about 62 miles – get there in time to fit in with tide times (as it is on a causeway) and the opening times of the lighthouse and then cycle a further 10 miles to my friend Chris’s house – she had kindly left me the keys so that I could stay there. Left in plenty of time – didn’t record my route so no idea where I went wrong but swear that I cycled much more than 62 miles and got to the lighthouse much much later than planned and it was all locked up for the day – still worth seeing though – and then things went a bit tits-up.

Phone has next to no charge and I need to navigate to Chris’s house – phone goes completely flat but I am able to get directions from people I ask and find my way to the WRONG house – in fact I find myself at a flat with no chickens in the back garden – there should have been chickens!! Phone box nearby is out of action (no surprise there) and nearby pub doesn’t have a phone. End up at local police station – which was surprisingly quite for a Saturday night – and they are able to charge my phone for me (I still need to get a charging cable for my phone) – very nice police lady figures out where I have gone wrong – me (muppet brain) had looked up address on google map but had not entered the postcode and had not noticed that there was more than one of the same street name and of course I have gone to the wrong one! Another 5 miles / approx 1/2 an hour later I find my way to the right address – Big Thank You Chris for roof over my head, fabby shower and the tin of cider.

Day 4 – lots of lighthouse and a wee ferry crossing across the River Tyne

After ticking off lighthouses, buying a replacement cable for my phone and having lunch I headed south west towards Darlington and stayed at Westholme Campsite – and for the first time this trip I actually arrived somewhere in daylight.

Day 5 – no photos today – rained quite a lot and I was gubbed – what possessed me to cycle through some of Yorkshire – knew it was going to be hillier – knew it was going to be tougher – but this had me beat and had to push a well laden Bertie up some of the hills.

One of the downhill nearly got me too – steep and slippy and I wasn’t sure my cycling ability or brakes were up to the job – panicked and veered up the slightly uphill drive of a posh house to try and lose momentum and it worked and both me and Bertie were still upright.

Dark and very wet by the time I arrived at today’s campsite – Ghyll House Campsite – the “cycle route” takes you over a narrow footbridge – with a few steps at one end and lots of steps and a steepish path at the other end – the alternative was an extra 6 miles on the road – I took the bridge and shuttled the bike and panniers across it in 2 trips. I had to push Bertie up the last long uphill and when I finally arrived in the pouring rain I wondered where I had taken us to, as I walked through a grave yard of rusting tractors, trailers and other farm equipment – however just beyond is a lovely basic campsite and in the morning I got brief views of the surrounding hills. The fellow who runs the campsite is lovely – he also drives a cattle truck and knows the markets at Stirling and Dingwall – he wasn’t bothered by the rain at all while we chatted but I was now soaked to the skin. Into dry clothes and an early night for me as I had another tough day ahead of me.

Day 6 – Rain was off when I got up but very misty – every now and again the sky cleared and I got some views from the campsite as I packed a very wet tent – I’d like to come back to this campsite again and explore the area – hopefully in better weather though.

Downhill to start and the sun trying to come out led me into a false sense of security. 10 miles further on I should have skirted passed Haworth (famous for the Bronte Sisters) – instead I took a wrong turn and a great ride as I flew down into Haworth, realised my mistake and then had to push Bertie up a very steep street to re-join the main road.

Another 8 or so miles took me to Hebden Bridge – hot and sweaty on the uphill and chilly on the downhills and the rain was on again – stopped in a cafe and pondered life over a bacon butty and a mug of hot water and wondered what the hell I was doing and why wasn’t I on a beach in Ibiza and delayed leaving for as long as possible.

When I did leave I had another 50 miles to go to my proposed campsite for that night and it was going to be a hilly route in places – the first stretch saw me on a canal tow path, a canal tow path with signs that indicated that it went to Manchester and Manchester was only 23 miles away and canal paths are dead easy to cycle on (aren’t they) – and Manchester is on the way to my Sisters where I was aiming for the following day – a plan was brewed – cancel spot at campsite and book bed in hostel in Manchester. This definitely made for a shorter and easier day but not as easy as I expected – not all canal towpaths are the same! I’ve cycled the Union Canal and the Forth and Clyde canal a number of time – both have well maintained paths and gain very little height and are easy peasy to cycle. The Rochdale Canal is well maintained but has more height gain and therefore more locks – this in itself is not a problem but there are a number of short but steep cobbled ups and down to allow for water to run into the canal (I think) and these were tricky on a laden bike and I passed one poor gentleman who had fallen off his bike and if he hadn’t broken his noise he was certainly very bruised and bleeding but luckily being attended to – I decided it was safer to dismount the bike and push these bit. Definitely glad that I had changed my route to Manchester though and had a good night’s sleep at the Rahman Hostel.

Day 7 – cycle to Waterhouses, Stoke on Trent to stay with my sister, brother-in-law and nephew – googlemaps says it is just over 40 miles – I think it lied. A right mix of cycling today. First 3 or so miles on Manchester City’s fantastic cycle lanes – proper designated cycle lanes and not one that you have to share with pedestrians – this is not meant to be offensive to pedestrians – it’s much better for both cyclists and pedestrians if they are seperate. Then another few miles of completely useless cycle lanes – completely useless because there are cars parked on them. Finally away from the suburbs of Manchester and onto nice quiet back roads and then onto the shared track at Rudyard Lake (Staffordshire) – sun was out and I was glad to see that the wee steam train was running. Last 10 or miles back on road to Emma’s house and time to air tent and sleeping bag and make good use of the washing machine before putting my feet up.

Next 4 days it was festival time – good music, grub and company and a different mode of transport – Daisy the Campervan – although nobody was willing to swap place and I was still sleeping in the tent.

Daisy the Campervan (at a previous festival)

Part 2- Cycle Home via The Isle of Man, to follow

Page 10 of 32

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén