The Long Way Round - not the original

[philelmer]

Hello.

I was thinking, last time I rode my bike home from my sister's (she lives in cornwall and i live in lancashire) what a bl**dy long way it is to ride home from a weekend on the beer, and so i came up with the following plan:

Ride the longest way possible to her house, hence making the journey back (a mere 400 mile 8 hour ride) seem like a shortcut.

In the case of plan A its from my house, near preston, to cape wrath (the most northwesterly point of the mainland) to John O'groats, the most norteasterly, to dover (most southeasterly) to lands end (most southwesterly) to st austell, which is where she lives.

Then, when i'm riding home (usual route is north coast road of cornwall and then up through wales(ish) on the A49) it will actually be the shortest, most direct route home and won't feel so far.

Cracking plan, huh? Obviously I shall take a video camera and make a nick sanders style video of the trip.

The AA routefinder seems to think it's 1700 odd miles, but after i've modified it a bit to remove some less interesting stretches of dual carriageway etc (no motorways, BTW) I reckon on it being around the 2000 mile mark, which I plan to scoop up in 5 days.

So.... what I was wondering is if anyone else has done this, and if there's any particularly spectacular bits of road that I should make an effort to take in?

Phil

[donteatpeople]

A57 Glossop to Sheffield. I was introduced to this stretch of road a while back and it is a lot of fun.

I would like to do a tour of England, I was riding pillion down to the BMF show from Huddersfield recently. I was taking in all the sights and remembered what a beautiful country this is. Why go abroad for a holiday when there is so much of England left to see?

[rsvmilly]

donteatpeople said:

A57 Glossop to Sheffield. I was introduced to this stretch of road a while back and it is a lot of fun.

Snakes Pass.

donteatpeople said:

I would like to do a tour of England, I was riding pillion down to the BMF show from Huddersfield recently. I was taking in all the sights and remembered what a beautiful country this is.

I remember hammering along French A roads and suddenly was hit by the realisation about how beautiful the countryside was, and I was just rushing through it. So I eased off and took in the views - for about 5 minutes until I got bored lol!

[philelmer]

I used to drive to university over snake pass, really is a great road! It always makes me wonder when i'm going down to cornwall, why it is that we tend to go over the same roads again and again, when there's so many other ones to explore.

Done a bit of route-planning so that i can visit as many people as i can along the way too (free accomodation) and one of my days goes essentially from edinburgh to london. So I might add cardiff into the plan somewhere too, then i'll do all 4 corners AND all 3 capital cities.

S'getting better.