Suggest a Coast to Coast ( not too far from London ),

[fred2605]

Hi all,

Can anybody recommend a good coast to coast cycling route, somewhere not too far from London? I was looking at Portishead to Isle of Grain as ideally i'd like to complete it in 3 days or so.

Thanks,
Fred

[mjr]

Canvey looks slightly nearer than Grain but I guess it depends where in London you're starting from. And I think you should head for Clevedon or even Weston-super-Mare to claim it's a sea coast, as Portishead is a bit high up the river IMO although probably still technically marine.

The next easy one north of that is probably Lincolnshire Freiston Shore to Crosby on Merseyside which is mostly NCN 1-647-6-627-62-6-60-A580-82-810.

[Jdsk]

Dorset to Norfolk on "the Greater Ridgeway":
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/aug/24/great-ridgeway-cycle-path-dorset-to-norfolk-by-bike-ancient-walking-trails

Jonathan

[mjr]

Dorset to Norfolk on "the Greater Ridgeway":
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/aug/24/great-ridgeway-cycle-path-dorset-to-norfolk-by-bike-ancient-walking-trails

There's a few interesting things in there:
1. even on a specific bikepacking trip, they felt they needed to abandon the unpaved roads to make progress;
2. they switched from Icknield Way (which passes through Flitcham and hits the coast at Heacham) to Peddars Way for reasons I don't understand;
3. there's a comment about reaching "the pan-flat fens" but I'm 90% sure (I don't know the bit by Red Lodge well) that their stated route shouldn't have taken them within sight of the fens except on the train home, much less riding across them;
4. the picture of Holme-next-the-Sea is a trail where cycling is banned, quite irrationally as you can see as there's usually plenty of room and it's in a much better than most of Peddar's Way which is cut up by 4x4s and farm traffic.

[ossie]

A route on ancient walking trails across England makes for a challenging but magical ‘bikepack’ tour
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/aug/24/great-ridgeway-cycle-path-dorset-to-norfolk-by-bike-ancient-walking-trails

It looks like he changed his route quite considerably. 90 miles a day is a long haul on roads without hoping to stick to 'ancient walking trails'.
Bless him but it hardly feels particularly well thought out.