Cycling the coastline and borders — A lap of Englandshire

After sinking the best part of a kilo of overnight oats and being my usual tardy self, I finally hit the road around 7:30am... an hour and a half later than planned.



A beautiful morning helped me to make some good progress as I headed out to the west coast and around the Solway, joining the Hadrians wall… read more

The 5am alarm was not a welcoming sound, and with just over four hours of sleep I had to peel myself out of the bed. A few slices of toast and a crack with the farmers and I was buzzing to get back out in the rain and wind... 🤥😂



As soon as I was back on the bike and heading down the quiet country lanes… read more

5am came around too quick again and back out into the rain I headed, pretty grateful I wasn’t having to pack up a wet tent.



Down the coast I pedalled, passing large scale industrial processing plants aided by a tail wind. Across the river Tees I continued, and down through Whitby and Scarborough where… read more

This morning I woke up to something magical... The sun! ☀️



What a welcome sight it was, and my spirits were lifted so much as I pedalled down the coast in the first rays of the day. Not even the continuation of the industrial processing plants could dampen my mood as I headed out of Yorkshire across the… read more

When the alarm went off at 5am I became immediately aware of the difference of a night's sleep in the tent compared to a proper bed. I felt as though I’d been hit by a bus, my neck, back and hips ached as I crawled out of my tent onto the dewy grass. It had been a dry night but as I packed up the tent… read more

Despite less than 5 hours sleep again, I felt fresh getting on the bike and was beginning to settle into a good routine. Sunrise is my fave time to ride anyway, it’s so peaceful, the roads are quiet and the light can be really amazing.



After navigating the busy city of Ipswich I continued following the… read more

I was buzzing this morning hopping back on the bike with freshly washed threads, at least 10% gains right there! I hadn’t anticipated how far-reaching the London urban sprawl would reach as I headed east from Southend, running the traffic light gauntlet in the early morning rush hour to catch the ferry… read more

After the best night's sleep, we threw my bike into the back of Emma’s car and back to Folkestone, the point where they had picked me up the night before. Heading west now along the coast, the terrain started to get a little more undulating and the headwind really started to pick up. It turned out to… read more

Another beautiful morning gave me the chance to enjoy the sunrise riding out of Chichester and along towards Portsmouth. It was another morning of traffic lights... the whole stretch for the past couple of days since Southend On Sea was just a long line of traffic lights and I was really looking forward… read more

You know it's going to be a good day when your elevation profile looks like a hedgehog. I loved the coast of Dorset and Devon...was so beautiful.



The perfect day for cycling with blue skies, hills and light traffic. There was barely a flat road all day, with short and steep climbing with rewarding views… read more

The amazing day yesterday was mirrored by an equally amazing day today... and I was again surprised by how awesome the weather had been since the first few bad days!



I did have an early morning clip in fall though, which I don’t understand how they keep happening to me. Will I ever learn!?



I also banked… read more

Another amazing sunrise this morning as I headed up the peninsula surrounded by orange sky. Another day in the south west goes like this; up a mile, down a mile, repeat until exhaustion and then keep going some more!



I managed to find myself a vegan Cornish pasty to make my day, but not so lucky on the… read more

The 5am alarm came around too soon again after just about 4 hours sleep and it took a lot of persuading my legs to get out of bed, especially my creaky swollen Achilles which I was trying my best to ignore.



The morning started off nice and flat as I made my way towards the Severn Bridge, but the hills… read more

These four hour sleeps were starting to take their toll now as I rolled out of bed again around 5am promising myself a decent breakfast in a couple of hours if I got my ass on the road by 6am.



The vegan gods obviously heard my promises and presented me with the best hipster vegan cafe vibes Chester could… read more

This morning's motivation for the 5am get up was the promise that if I hurried up n got on the road tomorrow there would be no alarm! I managed to get up, but also managed to not get on the road until 7am as I couldn’t stop talking to my amazing host.



Heading along the coast through Morecambe and up to… read more