Day 14 8 June 2026
A week ago, on Saturday I completed my longest and most hilly ride this year. I’ve realised that you have to forget about how far you are going; how hard its going to be and how long it’s going to take you and just enjoy the scenery. This really did make it seem easier and together with the “two thirds of the way” stop at Nick’s house for the best coffee I’ve ever tasted and the best glass of water ever, it seemed easy. This Saturday, we were talking about stalking to the magistrates’ association in Leeds so the long ride will have to wait until Tuesday.
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The first cycle ride was the English coast to coast from Whitehaven on the edge of the lake district, across the Pennines, past the quayside bar in Newcastle where Alice used to work and finally to North Shields. I can’t remember whether it was my sister-in-law Carolyn, or my brother Dave, who came up with the idea, but they quickly gathered a group of friends and supporters who thought this would be a great challenge. Dave researched the best route, and we all began to train. We were all keen to stay off road wherever possible, so I bought myself a second-hand mountain bike and invented a training schedule. Most of the group could be described as leisure cyclists (at best) and we didn’t really know what we were doing. When the actual ride happened, it was pretty brutal, but I think Alice would have really approved of the camaraderie and especially the drinking in the bar at the end of each day. I don’t think I’ll ever forget riding up Honister pass, or more accurately pushing my bike up a fair bit of it, although it was essential to ride the last hundred metres or so because there was a great crowd gathered at the top. The second day had a much greater mileage and Carolyn, Mick and I decided to skip breakfast and make an early start. Luckily Clive persuaded the hotel to make us a packed breakfast of a bacon roll and we enjoyed this a couple of hours into the ride. Prior to this we had cycled up our first challenging hill for the day and then realised that we had gone off course. Faced with the prospect of cycling back down and then up a different hill, we recalculated and changed our route. This was an enormous stroke of luck because the rest of the team, who went the correct route, discovered that there was a bridge out and came back with horrific tales of carrying their bikes along footpaths and through people’s gardens. They didn’t catch us up that day! Our second night was spent in an amazing boutique hotel where we all wheeled our bikes into their beautiful sitting room for overnight storage! The final day was very long for the amateurs amongst us and we didn’t arrive at the quayside in Newcastle until 8 at night, finally reaching the coast after 9pm. When we eventually walked into the Indian restaurant, it was just about to close, but when they realised there were ten of us, they stayed open. We had the most wonderful meal, with the best Indian bread I have ever eaten. We returned a year later on a visit to Newcastle, but sadly, when we went back after Covid, the restaurant had closed. The harsh challenge of the ride and all the painful hills were behind us and flushed with finisher’s euphoria, we agreed to tackle the Scottish, Irish and Welsh Coast to coast routes.
Two years later we cycled across Scotland (Oban to Inverness), this was less hilly and much less brutal. Part of the route involved us getting the Corran ferry across Loch Linnhe and then a lovely quiet lane alongside the loch before crossing back to Fort William. Unfortunately, we were going fairly slowly and were worried we might miss the last ferry and to add to that we worried that the ferry might not be running at all, so we would be stranded on the wrong side of the loch from Fort William. We decided that the safest option was to cycle up the A82. Once we had made this grim decision, the skies opened and so we cycled up the busy A82 in the pouring rain. This was grim! It was a relief to pile into the pub in Fort William to dry off. The following day was glorious sunshine and we pushed on leaving brilliant views of Fort William and Ben Nevis behind us. A good part of this day was along the Caledonian canal and was easy going, ending in Fort Augustus. The final day saw us reaching Inverness in good time, although finding “the coast” was trickier, and we eventually settled on a part of the estuary under the Kessoch bridge to mark the end of the ride.
This was followed by the virtual Irish coast to coast during the Covid lockdown period in 2021. We couldn’t manage Ireland because everything was shutdown, but we did “equivalent routes” based around Church Stretton (Dave and Carolyn’s home). We were allowed to socialise in groups of 6, so we had to ensure we divided up, not really difficult when cycling, but weirdly the rules meant that we could sit on adjoining tables for the lunchtime pub session. Dave had organised some lovely routes and I saw parts of Shropshire that I had rarely been to before. It was very strange saying goodbye at the end of every day and then meeting up again the next morning. Carolyn was tackling the “Challenger” virtual Lands end to John O’ Groats route so was in the interesting position of using our virtual Irish Coast to coast to complete her virtual LEJOG.
Last year we decided that the real Irish Coast to Coast had to be tackled. This was a great adventure. Mick Boulton of Boulton’s buses took some seats out of one of his coaches to fit the bikes in and drove us to Holyhead. He then left the coach there and joined us as we caught the ferry. With bikes, this was more complex than we thought. Previous incidents had meant that bikes were no longer allowed to be ridden onto the ferry, so we had to squeeze all our bikes onto the ferry service bus (which seemed way more dangerous!), then unpack them onto the car deck. Once in Ireland, Dave caught a taxi to the van rental depot, arriving just before it closed. Carolyn and I stayed with the bikes and the rest of the team rushed to the station to catch the train to Galway, which they caught by the skin of their teeth. After an evening sampling Guiness and Irish folk music we were ready to go the next morning. It turned out that Dave’s equivalent routes in Shropshire had been way harder than the real thing, which was pretty much flat including an amazing section on a cycle track down an old railway line and then another easy section alongside the Royal Canal to Dublin. Some highlights of the trip were turning up at a bar in rural mid Ireland in the pouring rain and being given free cups of coffee by the owner. Of course, it was only polite to sample a few jars of Guinness as a thank-you to him. The Guiness was much enjoyed by everyone, and the Irish hospitality was legendary.
This year is going to be the hardest of all, but it’s been carefully designed to end each day in places with good bars, we’ve all done a load of training and I’m pretty sure that everyone will make it.
