Baden and I are just weeks from leaving and I keep flipping from excitement/fear about the trip we are going to take and the feeling I’m on death row as far as normal life and London are concerned.

Walking or riding around the city looking at things wistfully, taking a ridiculous number of photos of friends with glasses of red wine in their hands and generally exaggerating the amazing qualities of fairly mundane daily activities (own bed, electric toothbrush, grocery delivery – actually those things are genuinely fantastic).

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Ponder this: rolling pasture, stone fences, wildflowers, virtually traffic free roads. You might think I’m describing the idyllic plasticene world of Postman Pat but I reckon that pretty much sums up the Way of the Roses cycling route.

Just freakin do this. You won’t regret it. It’s a no fuss, highly rewarding trip through the best Mother England has to offer.

In around three hours you can be on a train out of London on a Thursday night and pitching your tent at the recommended Venture Caravan Park in Morecambe on the Lancashire coast.

We were up early the next morning and soon on Morecambe’s faded beachfront promenade at the official Way of the Roses start point. Sometimes at the start of an adventure, you can feel daunted by the task ahead, especially when distracted by the 170 miles to go sign, but I just couldn’t wait to crack into it.

As soon as we started trundling along the cycle path out of town, I knew why I was so excited: I just love cycling on purpose-made paths. It’s so great, as a cyclist, to have space that doesn’t require your to share with a car. You can relax, look around more, say hi to the walkers and watch people live their lives.

Morning on the Lune

It’s cycle path all the way to Lancaster where we stopped for some breakfast by the River Lune.

At the crook in the Lune you jump off the path and on to the quiet roads to climb for the first time. A local we met at a railway crossing recommended we keep following the river through to Hornby, saying the hill gradients would snap our chains but I was determined to stay faithful to the route and to Sustrans’ judgement and I wasn’t disappointed. The hills were steep but we have triple chainsets on our tourers so we made light work of the incline. The grind was worth it as the road opened out to some smashing views but it was only a taste of the majesty further up the road as we officially entered the Yorkshire Dales. Read More →