Back on the road again. This time with no rain. Still cool and cloudy out there, mind, and the forecast afternoon sunshine never put in an appearance.Some bigwig did, though. Police motorbike outriders stopped all traffic at Crossgate Moor near Durham, and then a few...
Heeding the forecast of early morning sunshine I was out and photographing Skipton castle by 5.15am. Drone photography, that is. Took loads of pix; will sort after this train journey to Newcastle. The forecast was spot on, although I don’t remember any wind warnings...
In expectation of a certain famous victory in today’s Tour de France I took a drone pic this morning of Bolton Abbey’s Cavendish monument. Congrats Cav!Bolton Abbey was on today’s book loop so no GPS plot of that. I left Skipton expecting to get wet but the weather...
Seven or so hours after leaving Clitheroe for the Trough of Bowland book loop I returned and still had 22 miles to do to get to my next hotel. That’s on top of the 11 early morning miles so today was a hilly 100 miles or so in total. Felt like it.Despite a forecast...
Despite having a signature suite at the Mercure Hotel Dunkenhalgh I left early. Still dark early. Dark enough to turn on the Exposure lights, front and rear. Stiff climb over Whalley Knab before dropping into a gloomy Clitheroe. Too gloomy for photography but I’ve...
Family tickets to the Tom Odell concert at the stunning Piece Hall dictated that I start a week or more* riding through northern England by packing the bike in my wife’s car for a journey to Halifax.The concert was great, and despite being well to the rear of the...
Oban to Glasgow then Edinburgh then Newcastle by train. The Oban train to Glasgow was the Highland Explorer which is Scotrail’s bike-specific service — it can carry 24 bikes. Late into Glasgow, mind, and then we only just got the LNER service by the skin of our teeth....
default “You won’t be able to get to Oban today,” we were told at breakfast in the Pierhouse hotel this morning. Overnight there had been a fatality in a 2am crash on the A85 between Oban and Connel. (A pedestrian was hit by the driver of an HGV.) I assumed we’d be...
Didn’t think this part of Scotland was all that busy with tourists until we turned up at the Glenfinnan viaduct at 10am. The place was heaving! Long queues for the car park payment machines. And all because of the Jacobite Steam Train set to arrive on the viaduct at...
Jude’s with me now and my wife is no slouch. In fact, I’ve had to dig in to catch her after my photography halts. We left from the seaside village of Plockton — it has palm trees and, in the right light, which we got last night, it looks like a cold Caribbean from...