Lontoon rakeita

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Last weekend I kickstarted my bikepacking season with a two-day trip from London to Bristol – a ride that I had been wanting to do for a long time. The weather forecast was looking very good, the calendar was empty for the entire weekend, and a friend of mine had a nice route for the first half of the trip. In other words: all systems go.

Day 1

The day's goal was Salisbury, or more specifically Cholderton 20 km north of Salisbury, where I had booked a room at the YHA Stonehenge hostel.

I headed out in the early-ish morning in immaculately sunny weather towards Kingston, where I was due to meet a friend who would join me for the day's ride – me on my fully kitted and fully loaded touring monster, my friend on his light-as-a-feather super-bike. Luckily (for me) the route didn't include very much climbing.

Apart from a quick coffee and cake stop in Odiham we rode mostly non-stop to Salisbury. There we had dinner, after which we parted ways. I carried on towards the hostel in the middle of nowhere, while my friend headed back to London.

Total mileage was a whopping 180 km and nearly 7 hours in the saddle. A cold beer and a refreshing shower was quite the relief. There were no issues falling asleep that night.

Day 2

To my great enjoyment morning broke in equally fantastic weather with blue skies and not a cloud in sight. I enjoyed a hearty full English breakfast, then lazily packed and loaded up my bike again, and pedalled onwards.

A slight routing mishap led me to a very busy A-road, which did not seem cycleable. A quickly improvised rerouting around the problem led me to start the day with a short ride on a bridleway, followed by a narrow muddy path – thankfully only very briefly. After this diversion I reached perhaps the most enjoyable part of the whole ride: near traffic-free country roads, winding their way through picture postcard villages.

Just before reaching Bath I joined the Two Tunnels Greenway, which follows a disused railway line all the way to Bristol. (If you're ever in either Bath or Bristol, I highly suggest taking advantage of this completely car free cycling path between the cities.)

After 280 km and almost 11 hours I finally reached Bristol. There I was greeted by an old friend, whom with we took in what remained of the sunny day from the Mud Dock Cafe's rooftop terrace in the Bristol harbour. A few beers, and a Three Brothers burger later I found myself on a London-bound train, my mini-adventure coming to an end.

All in all it was a successful and profoundly enjoyable experience - as long as one ignores the slightly sore backside.

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Section 1 of the Capital Ring was only partially completed, due to waning daylight. (Not because we wanted to stop for a drink, honest!) Sadly, Charlton House, ostensibly the finest example of Jacobean architecture in London was closed for visitors and we were left admiring it from the outside only.

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After nearly two years since embarking on our Capital Ring adventure, and almost a year and a half since making any progress, we once more donned our walking shoes and got back on the road for Section 15 of the route.

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We recently spent a weekend in Cambridge. Activities included a guided tour around the town, a hike to nearby Grantchester, punting along the river Cam, and plenty of food, drinks and great company.

Cambridge was very compact, packed with history, and beautiful buildings to be awed by. Also tourists, lots of tourists – us included, of course. Something which made me glad was seeing the amount of bicycles speeding about the city.

There were still plenty of things we missed out on on our visit, so we’ll need to go back some day, which we’ll be happy to do, as we rather enjoyed our quick visit.

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A flock of ugly ducklings in the Grand Union Canal

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Always watching, ever vigilant.

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King of Kentish Town watching over a busy road

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Day 3 from York to Bridlington didn’t quite live up to the previous two days, as it was mostly flat farmland and smelt a lot like poo. View-wise the most interesting bit was the only hilly stretch in the middle. The highlight was of course arriving at the sea on the east coast, having finished the 170 miles ride. I awarded myself by having fish and chips on the beach, and bathing my feet in the refreshingly chilly sea.

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Day 2 from Malham to York proved challenging in the way of hills, but also highly rewarding in the way of views. Falling asleep at the end of the day proved to be a very simple affair indeed.

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Last weekend I cycled coast to coast on the well-known Way of the Roses route. The first leg was from Morecambe on the west coast to Malham, where the day was rounded off with a well-deserved beer on top of Malham Cove, where a scene from the Harry Potter film Deathly Hallows was filmed.

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Last weekend I took part in the Etape Loch Ness sportive in Inverness, Scotland. I had never attended any cycling events before and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. If, like me, you're a keen cyclist, I can't recommend joining a closed roads event enough.

Riding on closed roads is a truly awesome experience. You can just fly along and as long as you dodge slower cyclists you're fine. I ended up outdoing myself and breaking all my expectations, finishing the 66 mile course in 3 hours and 37 minutes - it's wonderful how much faster you can go when you don't have to look out for cars. (Ok, I suppose there might have been some adrenaline involved, too.)

As a bonus the course ran along some pretty spectacular views, of which my poor snaps do no justice at all, but just look at that happy face in the last picture, it sums it all up well enough.

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Heading north on the Caledonian Sleeper to Inverness in Scotland to cycle around Loch Ness. Check out the complimentary, ultra cool sleeping masks.

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Spending the day in a pub with friends, planning a summer weekend, while the snow is falling down. Happy St. Patrick's!

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While lazy Sundays spent lounging at home can be fun, this Sunday we instead decided to lazily meander from Shepherd’s Bush to Belgo in Chalk Farm, via Notting Hill and Regent’s Canal. There we devoured some scrumptious mussels along with some delicious Belgian beer. Yum!

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Last weekend we joined Explorer UK to hike The Ridgeway in The Chilterns from Tring to the Ivinghoe Beacon and back, via The Bridgewater monument. The weather was pleasant despite a few sprinkles of rain. The pub at the end, The Valiant Trooper, was serving the classiest stout I’ve ever had, as well as a tasty burger.