Good work. Really enjoyed that. This one is on my list.

Thanks for sharing! Really enjoyed reading that throughout the day. Sounds like you had a great time and earned those beers!!

I’m not sure we earned all of them, but I definitely enjoyed drinking them. It’s 29 degrees in Rhayader today. That’d be almost as hard work as the rain on the last day!

Thanks for the write up.

I’ve got time off in September, doing the LLC is one of my options. Looks like a winner.

Very inspiring read.
Looks like a good adventure.
lejog next time?

Have you considered heading to the continent and trying out some of the longer touring trails there? Some of the pilgrim trails look very nice, or you could do a Norway/Sweden coast to coast.

Awesome write up by the way and really well done to both of you.

Brilliant write up Alex, thoroughly enjoyed that and given food for thought…now where’s my map

/bookmarked

good work #thumbsup

@doom_mountain – I don’t have anything to compare it to, but if you get a decent week of weather, it’s definitely something I’d recommend.

@senor J – I was looking at the ‘off-road’ LEJOG last night but I think it’s too much of a mission. Wouldn’t mind doing bits of it in a week. Scotland outside of midge season or Bristol to Penzance on NCN3

@willard – not really considered anything abroad yet other than a vague plan to see the normandy beaches. So many choices, hard to know where to start looking really…

Really enjoyed that, thank you. Think it’s beyond me though. Chapeau!

Dave Barter did a LEJOG using minor roads that might be suitable – https://phased.co.uk/the-greatest-lejog-route-ever/ He also did a cyclocross version but I’ve not seen links to the GPX files for that, I’ll edit this post if I find them.

I know Dave well. He’s a proper nutter. I looked at that route to see if he had in any way de-nuttered in the last few years, but not he’s still as mad as a brush. It was Dave who put me onto the route we just did.

He couldn’t come as he was training for the Trans-divide. I’m far to soft for that route! I did ping him last night about the off road LEJOG and he said he was thinking about it. If he’s only thinking about it, probably not for me!

Loved this write up, thanks Alex

Nicely done, well-written and photographed travelogue Alex – thanks for sharing.

I did it north to south as part of a trip from the Isle of Anglesey to the Isle of Wight a few years back on a one-panniered Cotic Roadrat with 23c tyres on it. There were a few bits that jangled my fillings as a result. Inappropriate gearing saw me pushing the bike up a couple of hills, especially on the section north of Barmouth. Same stretch also featured some grim weather that had me questioning my sanity about doing it at all.

Highlights included meeting a guy who worked for the council in Carnaerfon who ran off and got me a guidebook for the whole route from his office simply because he “liked Scottish people”. ‘Mon the Celts! Llanidloes was a nice stop which for some reason was jumping with stag and hen parties on the Saturday night I stopped there.

The best bit of the route I did, which went via Chepstow rather than Cardiff, was the climb out of Hay on Wye and the descent into Abergavenny through the Black Mountains(?)

Further down and across the Bristol Channel the section between Bath and Devizes along the Kennet and Avon canal was really nice too.

I agree about this kind of touring being a different buzz to mountain biking; also to supported point to point road touring, which I’ve also done a bit of. Nice to be able to step up the pace or take it easy depending on how you feel on the day. Definitely going to look into the frame bags thing as opposed to having a pannier for the next one. Hoping it makes the bike handling more fun.

Next similar trip I have my eye on will be the “Voie Vert” from Caen to La Rochelle down through Normandy and the French Atlantic coast.

That’s quite a trip! The hills are definitely harder in the N-S direction. The argument is you get more of the climbing over. My counter-argument was I don’t want to climb that hill out of Mach and Porthmadog. Both times we saw fully-packed riders grinding up there, they didn’t look like they were having a good time!

Llanidloes was dead when we went. No one serving food at all apart from the Curry place. And I wasn’t going to risk that! Ended up with some very average fish and chips.

That’s the Gospel pass between Aber and Hay. I’ve ridden it in that direction and it’s a really nice climb and amazing views in the right weather. We enjoyed the ride out of Cardiff tho as it’s such a picturesque route on the Taff trail. No cars either.

Frame bags are ace. I had panniers many years ago when there wasn’t much of an option. No way I’d go back. I’m going to check out your French route now as that sounds exactly the kind of thing to do next.

i want to do teh wainright soast to coast route. this writeup wants me to do it even more!

i want to do th wainwright coast to coast route. this writeup wants me to do it even more!

As a walk presumably? I did it in the super hot summer of 1976, thirteen days or so.

I’m going to check out your French route now as that sounds exactly the kind of thing to do next.

It’s called La Velo Francette –

https://cycling.lavelofrancette.com/

I think voie vert is just the generic name for Sustrans-type routes in France.

600km. I’ve done the first 60-odd miles of it in reverse, from Flers to Ouistreham ferry port. That was part of a three-day loop through Normandy from Cherbourg last summer. It’s a pan-flat, well tarmacked towpath along the river to begin with. Hills and scenery start ramping up about 40 miles in, in the “Suisse Normande” area.

Thanks @stefmcdef. I did some quick googling last night. Heard of ‘VTT’ of course riding in France but didn’t realise there was a road version. The Voie Vert(s) are pretty extensive. I do like the look of the route you posted.

More investigation required 🙂

Excellent! Loved that thankyou

We did a route around Brittany on Voies Vertes, generally tarmac or well packed gravel but just occasionally we’d come across a couple of hundred metres of railway track ballast. Not a problem for us as we were on MTBs but would be a bit of a problem on road bikes.

@van Halen there’s a bike version of the Wainwright (there’s a couple of variations) that we did last year. It had its ups and downs. Literally. I can post up a link if you’re interested?

We do a fair bit of touring on tandems with panniers. A loop aruond belgium was fab, then we did coast-to-coast-to coast – Workington to Tynemouth on the classic route then back on the Reivers Way. A tour of the hebrides followed, then last year was “around the irish sea” – involving ferry crossings from Holyhead to Dublin then from Wexford to Fishguard. 60 to 80 km per day is more than enough on a tandem with panniers though.

Lon Las Cymru looks interesting, and I do want to go to France at some point, and I want to to the Inner Hebrides, and do LEJOG, and Sweden and Norway, and….

Great trip and great write up, thanks for sharing!

I’ve a trip for 2020 in the planning at the moment, going to do ‘Chester to Chepstow’ around the coastline of Wales, so this is exactly the kind of inspirational thread I’ve been reading recently.

@nbt – that’s why I’ve been realising researching a trip for next year. There are so many choices.

@gary30 – I was looking at the ‘Wild Atlantic Way’ which is similar for Ireland. Not all of it obviously but riding by the coast is definitely appealing. I’d get a better waterproof next time tho!

For anyone interested in the route/slight updates/easier to find individual days, it’ll all up on my blog now.

Day 1: https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=4412
Day 2: https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=4418
Day 3: https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=4421
Day 4: https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=4423
Day 5: https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=4426
Final thoughts: https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=442

Alex – thank you so much for posting that. Well done – truly inspirational!

Nice write up, that looks like a great trip.

i want to do teh wainright soast to coast route

I did this recently (the Tim Woodcock route). It goes through some wonderful scenery, but I didn’t think the first part through the Lakes was very good, because there was so much hike-a-bike over the passes (we ran out of time on the first day and had to re-route on the road to get to our accommodation). Discussing it with someone who knows the area well, the conclusion was that there were probably better riding routes for the first section in the western Lakes. The later stuff through the Yorkshire moors was a lot better as an MTB ride.

Alex – I’ve finally had time to read through all that. Photos are superb.
It’s lovely because we’ve ridden a few of the bits of your route on various other jaunts, over the years.

Thanks, a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Thanks – I reckon it all be good fun on the Tandem. Apart from maybe getting it down the stairs into the cellar at the last B&B!

Accomodation planning is a key part of our trips for such reasons. Although it doesn’t always go to plan, like the time we arrived at a hotel in Dublin to find their “bike storage that will be fine for training three tandems” was a cupboard four feet deep: might have got a single solo bike in there, standing in it’s rear wheel. Luckily we were able to carry the tandems upstairs into the bedrooms (it was a travelodge and they are good like that)