I rode out of Inveraray at just after 8 am. The hill that I’d been dreading from the day before turned out to be a bit of an optical illusion. It did indeed look near vertical when it first came into view, as it had done the afternoon before but, once closer, […]
8.15 saw me away from the Queens Hotel in Largs, on up the A78 heading for Gourock and the ferry. A cold breeze was blowing off the sea and a leaden sky threatened rain but none was presently falling. I didn’t wish to repeat the clothing mistake of yesterday. On the other […]
The dining room at Newark Farm in Sanquhar was olde-worlde too; silver cutlery, a pewter teapot and what looked like truly antique serving dishes. The landlady and I continued our wide and varied conversation in the morning and we got round to discussing food and diet. Like me she was a great believer […]
Breakfast at the Premier Inn just north of Carlisle that morning was a conventional English affair; no porridge available though. I was definitely going to cross into Scotland today so, the night before I’d borrowed a UK road atlas from the hotel reception in order to confirm that I’d made the right route decision […]
I’m always awake early when camping but it normally takes me the best part of a couple of hours to pack up, cook and eat breakfast, do my ablutions and be on the road. In spite of such a well-populated site, I didn’t see any of my fellow campers in all that time. […]
It was a somewhat bleary-eyed camper who cooked his porridge and packed up his tent that morning. However, the weather was fine and the therapeutic action of pedalling along in the early morning sunshine with only light Saturday traffic soon worked its wonders. I was going well. The A49 continued north through […]
I was up and away early from the little camp site just north of Church Stretton. With a good bowl of porridge topped of with dried blueberries and walnuts in my stomach I made the first 20 or so miles up through Shrewsbury and onto whitchurch in a very fast time, for me that […]
As usual, I awoke early at the camp site on Meridith Farm near Llancloudy and went about my morning routine; cycling clothes on then other clothes and bedding packed away so as to clear the inside of the tent, then light the stove and get the porridge on the go. Before packing the tent, […]
After a conventional English breakfast at the B & B on the A38 I was back on the road by 8 am and pushed in a very quick first 20 or so miles. This time the CTC route was spot on. Short of using the M5, it was probably the most direct way […]
I came down for breakfast promptly at 7 o’clock at the Jury’s Inn in Exeter, expecting to be first in the queue. Not so. I ended up joining a long line of slightly portly, middle-aged Germans; a coach party that must have arrived late evening. Stereotypes of towels reserving sun loungers at […]