circumnavigation
Rob doesn’t like doing things for the sake of it; he likes a purpose.
Of course we already have a purpose for our Great Britain leg of the trip, but as I have contemplated cycle touring, I have come across some of the 4,000+ people who cycle from Land’s End in the far south of England to John o’ Groats near the northernmost tip of Scotland each year. Looks like a challenging, but doable ride (not challenging as in Tour de France challenging, but challenging as in some of us are only five years old and some haven’t been on a bike in over a decade kind of challenging). But people in their sixties do it. Young strong guys do it in two weeks. A couple towing a trailer with toddlers did it in six. So, if we took our time, I’m sure we could too.
Only problem is, we had planned to head out to Holyhead in Wales, and the LEJoG route doesn’t take in Wales. So that got me thinking….how about a circumnavigation of Great Britain? Why ever not?
At this stage plans are to arrive at Harwich from Esbjerg, so it would seem prudent to start the tour there! We may well zip into London before embarking on the bike tour (heehee – she writes as if we were really doing it – actually, this info is merely being preserved here Just In Case we decide to….nothing definite yet), in which case we may not set out from Harwich, but the purposes of this exercise, we will (besides it’s a good place to finish coz you can hop on a ferry and head to Holland for some easy cycling afterwards).
Harwich to Chelmsford 37 miles
Chelmsford to Maidstone 35 miles
Maidstone to Canterbury 21 miles
Canterbury to Dover 14 miles (or ride on a bit further this day)
Dover to Hastings 38 miles
Hastings to Eastbourne 13 miles
Eastbourne to Brighton 18 miles
Brighton to Portsmouth 40 miles
Portsmouth to Southampton 16 miles
Southampton to Salisbury 23 miles (OK, not circumnavigating here, but sidetripping inland…gotta see Stonehenge, y’know)
Salisbury to Bournemouth 25 miles
Bournemouth to Weymouth 25 miles
Weymouth to Exeter 47 miles (eek – I’m bargaining on no more than 35 miles a day – so we might have to stop somewhere in between, but there was nowhere on the distance calculator!)
Exeter to Torquay 18 miles
Torquay to Plymouth 27 miles
Plymouth to Truro 34 miles
Truro to Penzance 34 miles
Penzance to Newquay 28 miles
Newquay to Bude 37 miles
Bude to Bideford 14 miles
Bideford to Minehead 40 miles
Minehead to Weston-Super-Mare 24 miles
WSM to Bath 25 miles
Bath to Bristol 11 miles
Bristol to Cardiff 24 miles
THEN 10 days zipping around Wales (it was off the map I was using so details will need to come later)
Somewhere to Chester
Chester to Liverpool 10 miles
Liverpool to Preston 18 miles
Preston to Lancaster 26 miles
Lancaster to Ambleside 29 miles (take a few hikes)
Ambleside to Workington 23 miles
Workington to Carlisle 29 miles
Carlisle to Glasgow 79 miles (obviously won’t be done in one stint – but again, I was out of map and working from my remembered proposed itinerary….however, I’m told you can wild camp all over Scotland, so we could stop wherever we are on any given day)
Glasgow to Oban 65 miles (side trip off to Coll to find my ancestors)
Oban to north for how long? Who knows? Depends how annoying the weather and midges are! Let’s say two weeks.
North to Edinburgh
Edinburgh to Berwick 44 miles (back on the map now)
Berwick to Alnwick 26 miles
Alnwick to Sunderland 36 miles
Sunderland to Middlesbrough 25 miles
Middlesbrough to Scarborough 38 miles
Scarborough to Hull 37 miles
Hull to Leeds 51 miles (either we’ll be able to do this 81 km in one stretch by then, or we could stop at Goole or Selby along the way)
Leeds to Harrogate 9 miles (gotta go there coz Grandpa lived there – we’ll head out to the coast again yet)
Harrogate to York 18 miles
York to Scunthorpe 32 miles
Scunthorpe to Grimsby 20 miles
Grimsby to Boston 42 miles
Boston to Kings Lynn 26 miles
Kings Lynn to Norwich 26 miles
Norwich to Ipswich 39 miles
Ipswich to Harwich 10 miles
According to my guesstimations, that should take about 80 days.
Add on a few extras for sidetrips and rest days and we could easily fill up three months, don’t you think?
Tags: itinerary, preparation, transport
rayres
You guys are really awesome! Been following the preps for your big odyssey! Impressed at your cycling plan, and look forward to seeing it realised! 🙂
Awesome!I think it sounds do-able. In fact reading your blog gives me hope that we’re not the only crazy people around. It’s so good having you guys off doing your adventure while we’re planning ours. Whenever I think we’re being a bit ambitious, I think, if the A’s can do it with 8 children, we can do it with 4!In saying that, Tim isn’t so convinced on the cycling thing though. Nothing wrong with dreaming, though!!
The A’s and the W’s are all MAD!! However we will be engrossed with both of your blogs next year….from the comfort of our comfy beds and electric blankets!!