The Thurrock London Ibis hotel, where I was staying, is just a couple of hundred metres from the free shuttle service for cyclists needing to hop over the Thames at the Dartford crossing. This service, a statutory obligation, operates 365 days a year and almost 24...
"You're alright, I'm not riding with you," was what I said to the incredulous-looking Ipswich Bicycle Club members waiting to leave for a club run from St. Peter's Dock at 9am this morning. What I should have said was, "OK. I'll lead. Do you think you'll be able to...
Day 40! Blimey. Note that if you’re reading this on Strava rather than bestbritishbikerides.com then I’m still on Day 37. I counted wrong; the blog is right, Strava isn’t. Today was a book loop so won’t be uploading that GPX file, but some of today’s photos are on the...
A much touted — and true if you go hard enough — benefit of long-distance, multi-day cycle touring is the fat loss. I'm getting skinnier day by day. My highest calorie burn so far on this trip, on 7th June, has been 4,597 calories and I'm burning about 2,000 on an...
As you'll know by now I don't publish the book loop routes but I'll be picking out some highlights in a blog posting soon about East Anglia's rich aviation history. I'll also explain about the photograph of the large stone seen in a Harleston alleyway and why a bed...
Yesterday evening I squeezed in a 25-mile ride to make sure I visited a few hopefully familiar places in Harleston. I lived there for about five years from the age of seven. Harleston was on today's book loop route, but only the main street, so I spent a while last...
As I left Norwich I couldn’t resist riding on the BMX track. Will post some film footage of that tomorrow. Today was a day of two halves. Just twenty or so miles from Norwich to Tibenham, and then — as will be recounted in part two — a 25-mile evening circuit aroud...
I’ve been staying in Mercure’s Norwich hotel on the outskirts of the city. Because it has lots of guests who work for the offshore industry, and who leave early from the nearby airport, breakfast starts at 5am. That’s my kind of breakfast time; perfect for golden-hour...
With my historian's hat on I'm practised at pegging people to places, working out which buildings would have been extant in their day, and perhaps, however faintly, seeing at least some of the world through their eyes. Today I researched myself, riding for 17 miles...
Today was book-ended with pastel colours and quintessential English scents. Last night I wild bivvied in a North Norfolk field margin overflowing with wild flowers, and, near Norwich, at the end of my 34th day in the saddle, I rode across a dual-carriageway-spanning...