So Far So Good

Just arrived in Fort William, in glorious weather.

I don't have time to write too much, as I'm on limited time at the Tourist Information Centre.

After a meltingly hot week heading up to Sheffield we were almost looking forward to cooler and damper weather. The novelty, however, wore off after about 2 miles of riding through lashing rain in deep puddles out of Sheffield, and into the Peak District.

By the time we reached Holmfirth, we were both soaking wet, and perishingly cold. After an hour drying out in a cafe, drinking endless cups of tea, we headed to Jack's Grandma's, for some extra warmth and further cups of tea.

By 1 o'clock, the rain had stopped and the sky looked brighter, so we cracked on through Huddersfield, Halifax and Kieliegh, into Skipton and the Yorkshire Dales - the spiritual home of terrible weather! As we camped at the bottom of Malham Cove the sky looked bleak, and rain looked imminent. We were lucky, however, and it stayed dry. Incidentally, we have not had any rain since that day.

We headed up through the hills of the Dales, cutting the top corner of the Lake District through Penrith, to Carlisle. We crossed the broder into Scotland in fine weather, crossing over on the ferry to the Isle of Arran two days later.

Arran is quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been, and I strongly recommend it. Having camped early, we went for a short walk, which turned into a 5-hour epic, climbing Arrans tallest peak, Goat Fell.

Passing some more beautiful Lochs along amazing roads, we now find ourselves in Fort William, where we have a proper bed for the night, couresty of Jack's brother, and his caravan somewhere nearby, which we must now try and find!

We now plan to head up into the north-west, described to us by someone the other day as 'bandit country', so it should be interesting. Hope the weather stays fine!

The Story So Far...

I'm writing now in Sheffield, where we've just ridden all the way from Lands' End.

We got to Lands' End late on the 26th May, where we jumped on our bikes and rode as far as St Ives, arriving after the campsite office closed. Setting off early the next day (about 7am) meant that we camped for free! A brilliant start!

The weather the next day, however, was not quite so brilliant. It rained steadily for most of the day, stopping briefly for us to put them up again about 50 gruelling and hilly miles later, just beyond Newquay.

The next day the weather was considerably better, although we saw little direct sunlight. We made exactly 50 miles, arriving at a campsite just beyond Bude at 5 o'clock, exactly as planned!

Over the next few days the weather got unbearably hot, and the hills got much steeper (25% descents, followed by 20% ascents in Devon!), making the riding pretty difficult at times. We made relatively good progress though, doing at least our planned 50 miles per day, plus a little extra on some, usually when our camping plans went pear shaped. In north Somerset, we were trying to find a campsite near Burnham-on-sea. The campsites around those parts, though, look more like refugee camps, with shiny new caravans crammed in, almost to the point of touching. Many did not even accept tents. So after riding around, almost as far as Weston-super-mere, we finally found a site that accepted tents. It was, however, more like a canvas council estate. While we were brushing our teeth to go to bed, everyone else was walking around with tinny R&B music blaring out of the mobile phones, and preparing to go to the local disco. Other nights, though, we did find proper campsites - a field owned by a farmer, with little more than a tap and a toilet (and an honestly box to pay the £3.50 fee in one case). Brilliant.

With a massive 88 miles covered yesterday (our longest day by far), having ridden from the far side of Shropshire to the edge of the Peak District, we had but a steady mornings' ride across North Derbyshire, stopping off for a full English in Bakewell, arriving in Sheffield just after 1 o'clock.

We're both looking forward to a comfortable nights' rest in proper beds, and a steady day of rest tomorrow, before we crack on towards Scotland on Friday.

I'll try to keep this slightly more up-to-date over the next couple of weeks, but I recon internet cafe's are few and far between in Scotland!

To be continued…