Headwinds and Heat. Exploring the UK
I had a lot of plans for foreign travel this year, I was due to visit the Scottish islands, Spain for a race called Badlands, Italy for the Veneto Trail and a trip to Finland guiding with RPM90. Then Covid-19 happened and all plans went out the window.
My job has been put on hold so I’ve been doing lots of exploring my local area during lockdown, its been lovely to have the time to find new trails and places locally but after three months I was ready to see somewhere new.
Restrictions for lockdown were relaxed meaning it was ok to travel further afield as long as we abide by rules on distancing and face coverings so touring by bike somewhere in the UK became a great option.
Jo has a lot of friends around the country so we decided to ride a loop of the South East of England, dropping in to visit some of them on route and seeing a big chunk of the UK that I’ve never seen before on route.
Coming from an area with a lot of hills I thought the first couple of days would be easy, the landscape east of Cambridge is very flat, the first two days we travelled over 320km with only 1500m of climbing, about the height we would climb on an afternoons ride locally.
The flat terrain meant constant pedalling all day, no standing up for climbs or resting on the downhills, my body isn’t used to being stuck in one position all day and I was glad of having an extra position on the Tri bars Jo had lent me, although the real reason for his kindness became apparent on day 2.
We stopped at Norwich where we saw the first Cathedral of the trip, glad of food, coffee and a chance to get off the bike for a bit. Onwards from here to the coast, the promise of Fish and Chip on the beach at sunset gave me a burst of energy to push on forwards.
The north sea came into view just as the sun was getting low and the sky was turning orange, Hiding behind the sea wall from the suddenly cold wind we put on warm jackets, tucking into dinner as the sun set.
Snacks were purchased for breakfast at the petrol station before we headed off up the coast to find a place to sleep for the night, the headwind was cold so we found a patch or woodland as shelter and set up our bivi bags for the night.
We woke early with the sun at 5.30, eating a breakfast of bananas, muffins and a bottle of fruit smoothie before loading up our bags and getting back on the road into a relentless headwind that would last most of the day. Here's where the real reason for the tri-bar loan came in, I had to do my share of turns on the front (although the time ratio was still very much in my favour)
The village of Holkham has an amazing beach owned by the National trust, arriving early before the hoards of holidaymakers we spent some time getting lost in the surrounding pine forests before taking the main footpath down to the sand, sand as far as the eye could see. Flanked by sand dunes and trees with the North Sea in the distance we rode our bikes down towards the shore.
Further along the coast we passed villages and caravan parks, classic views of english seaside towns, beach huts, ice cream, fish and chips, shops selling tacky souvenirs, inflatables, buckets and spades, proper childhood nostalgia stuff. Coffee and a bacon sandwich in Hunstanton and we on rolled on along the coast.
After a disappointing lunch outside an H&M in Kings Lynn (which perfectly summed up Kings Lynn as a whole) the route took us Southwest past factories and power plants, through a weird teletubbie land before finally leaving the headwind behind.
We set off across the fens towards the second Cathedral of the trip in Ely. The Fens are coastal plains reclaimed centuries ago, flat, empty and with long straight roads that seem to go on forever, I tucked down into my bars once more as we journeyed on through the marshlands, small waterways and drainage ditches the only things breaking up the expanses of agricultural land.
Dinner at Ely was Pizza, I was starving by the time we arrived and felt wobbly as a stared blankly at the menu, baffled by too many options. Theres a weird food blindness when you get to this point, knowing you’re hungry but being too tired to make a decision, normally resulting in a randomly picked selection of snacks from a petrol station which any normal person would turn their nose up at, luckily you can’t go too far wrong with pizza and I managed to eat most of a 12” one to myself, with just a couple of slices packed away at the end for breakfast the following morning.
After two hard days on the bike we had hoped that the hotel at the nearby motorway service station may have had vacancies, a shower and a comfortable bed would have been nice but the whole place was closed. Instead a quick wash in the service station toilets, loaded up with more snacks, switched cables to our dynamo lights and set off into the dark to find a place to sleep. A church graveyard in a nearby village was our room for the night, lovely apart from the red ants nest I stood in while putting on my merino leggings and the loud pack of barking hounds sometime around 4am.
The Chilterns were the first hills we’ve seen in a while, a relief in a way but combined with the heat I had a mid morning slump (9.30, it had been another early start) after foolishly missing out on a chance of a coffee at the petrol station we had passed half an hour earlier.
Stopping for a 15 minute nap in the sun was just what I needed to carry on to a friends house where a shower and good selection of snacks waited. The hedge lined lanes twisted and weaved up and down hills, mostly sheltered from the sun but opening up to beautiful views of the landscape with Red Kites soaring above us.
There was also Luton airport, terrible road surfaces and a lot of rubbish and old sofas in lay-bys, but I try ill try to forget about those.
Reluctantly leaving the shaded cottage garden we travelled along some unavoidable hot and busy A-roads towards the North Wessex Downs. The first of 3 White horses that we saw was at Uffington, peanuts and drinks at the pub fuelled us for the next couple of climbs, finishing on a gravel track up to Barbury Castle where a sunset picnic provided by friends awaited us, isn’t the cycling community great.
Another graveyard campsite, this time without ant bites or hounds, I slept deeply. Early morning and it was already warm, we didn’t even bother with arm or leg warmers as we reloaded out bikes and wrestled them back over the gate, I’m sure there was an easier way out but it would have taken us past houses, wild camping means leave no trace and don’t get spotted by the locals.
The village of Avebury is just up the road, generally taking a back seat to Stonehenge this is actually europe’s largest stone circle, with the village built in the middle. Like at the beach previously we were early enough to avoid the tourists and stopped for a walk around the stones.
Pushing on across countryside the heat was building, another white horse on the hillside, obviously a popular pastime around these parts. At Devizes we took a canal path for a while in order to witness the engineering marvel that is the Caen Hill Locks, the longest continuous flight of locks in the country, 29 in all, taking the boats up 237 feet over 2 miles. I even got to help out with opening the lock after we stopped to chat to one boat owner.
Temperatures we now over 30 degrees and on the tarmac it was even hotter, there was no breeze to no real respite from the heat even when riding, it felt like slow progress as the heat was sapping my energy.
At Froome we stopped at the supermarket for refreshments, sat in my base layer against the wall I got a few funny looks from car drivers but got into a chat with another cyclist who had pulled up and keen to know what we were up to on the loaded bikes.
From here we rode through Longleat park, disappointingly few animals to be seen apart from sheep and a big stone lion by the house, I couldn’t even see the sea lions in the lake. Leaving the park took us up a a baking hot hill, perfectly positioned to have gathered all the mid afternoon heat for us. Another visit to a friend for lunch and rehydration left time for a brief rain shower to refresh the air outside before we continued along quiet lanes along the bottom of a ridge of hills.
We had decided to book a room for the night in Sailsbury for a shower, clothes washing and a good nights sleep, we succeeded with two of these. A broken nights sleep due to noise from the pub below left me wishing I was in another quiet graveyard for a large proportion of the night, although clean clothes in the morning and a full english breakfast may have gone some way to change my mind.
Final day, the home stretch, around 100 miles heading back into familiar territory. After Winchester it seems easy, Ive ridden the South Downs way a few times so taking a road route home from there on the north of the hills made the miles fly by. Familiar place names ticked off a mental list in my head, those rutted chalky climbs were just a faint line on the green hills to my right.
I had a funny feeling as I rode into Storrington, a local village if ridden through hundreds of times and traditional last snack stop before home on any day ride that passes through. Only this time I'd not started from home that morning, just a few days ago I was riding my bike along the coast of Norfolk, then all the way across to Wiltshire, that’s a strange feeling. Its a distance I'd be reluctant to drive in a car but I'd just covered on my bike, carrying all the kit I needed for that time, the equivalent distance to riding up to Scotland.
Back home, a celebratory pint in the sunshine before a takeway curry and falling asleep on the sofa. Happy days.
Komoot with a (perhaps slightly flawed) version of the route below...