Circumnavigation - an idea for next summer

[Mick F]

I've been musing about circumnavigating the Southwest Peninsular.

I played about with BikeHike.co.uk and divided the route into separate days - nine in all for the 650 mile ride. It's all in its infancy, but I think it has merit. For the most part, I won't be too far from home so I should be able to travel lightish - all the better for the coastal hills!

There's no specific plan of where to stay each night, just a basic idea of a route. I made it anti-clockwise, but it could just as easily be clockwise. I divided the days into 75 miles ish per day.

Waddya reckon?
Is it a good idea?


http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22850
http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22851
http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22852
http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22853
http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22855
http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22857
http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22858
http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22859
http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=22860

[mw3230]

Sounds a good idea - a possible holiday next year

What about if each of us created a route to cycle the borders of our home county or region and then they'd all be available for us to share. I just thougtht about doing Northumberland having seen your post. No idea of the mileage yet but if I progress it I'll report (of course someone may have already done the same thing ...)

Edit - I've had a quick look at plotting a route around the northern edge of Northumberland (also the border with Scotland) and for large parts of the area there are no appreciable roads, or in some instances only busy trunk roads. The task is easier said than done, unless someone knows different

[Mick F]

Thanks.

I remember Thirdcrank talking about cycling all round the Yorkshire border. I can't remember which thread it was in.

TC, where are you?

[frank9755]

Some counties work better than others. I did circuits of Devon and Kent this summer - both nice long weekend rides. I also partially did Essex, which is much pleasanter than people usually think, and I've penciled in Cornwall for my next one. There's a route for it on the CTC site.

I think counties with a long coast work best - Norfolk would be another good one. I originally come from Northumberland and it is a hard one - the area North of the Roman Wall is largely empty, hence the difficulty!

[fossil]

i went on memory map and provisionally went around the west sussex border , starting from Emsworth heading north east ending at a poinnt between Rye and Lydd
the border route being 117 miles ( ish ) then there is the route back

[cycle tramp]

Deleted

[megilleland]

Just done a Herefordshire boundary route as a paper exercise. I have kept to the roads closest to the boundary avoiding main roads where possible. The route I imagine would be quite a challenge as Herefordshire can be a bit of a roller coaster (click on the elevation profile). There are major towns close to or on the boundary ie clockwise Ludlow*, Tenbury Wells, Bromyard, Great Malvern*, Ledbury*, Newent, Ross-on-Wye, Hay on Wye, Kington, Presteigne, and back to Ludlow*. You can catch trains to those places marked with an asterisk*.



Would make a nice little tour - great countryside, beautiful villages, loads of history and plenty of cider! One question. Would it be proper to follow roads which cross the boundary in order to make a better route or not?

Anybody want to try it out?

[meic]

You could do it as a 300k Audax with 4&3/4 AA points.

Or in plain English, its a bit hilly.

Going a little off topic.

It is good to see people making use of bikehike and it is excellent that we can all share our routes like this. When i plan a route I can just post a link to friends for them to peruse.

However does anyone know how to delete routes that arent needed any more. I have saved quite a few that have mistakes on them or are prototypes for the final journey and they are messing the site up.

[Mick F]

Gawd knows! I've saved loads of routes and not even been logged on, so I have no way of retrieving them.

I've saved routes on the Ordnance Survey site and I can't even remember the website address or my username and password.

[megilleland]

However does anyone know how to delete routes that aren't needed any more. I have saved quite a few that have mistakes on them or are prototypes for the final journey and they are messing the site up.

The website states:
"I will, from time to time, delete all courses named "test route" or similar - or with a "please delete" description. So if you want to experiment, please feel free".

Just rename your old routes.

[fausto copy]

Megillelland, good route, which me and Mrs. Copy virtually completed a couple of weeks ago.
Stayed just west of Leominster and pootled round for 4 days, mostly taking in Cycle Quest clues.
Didn't get quite as far south as R-o-W but not far off.
Isn't it strange how people think of Herefordahire as flat though.
For anyone not visited there yet, a very strong recommendation.

[pq]

My experience of coastal riding is that it's usually although not always traffic and people infested and too urban for my liking.

Having said that I've done very little riding in the SW, so maybe it's different there, but with all the busy coastal resorts I doubt it.

To me this has the same issues as LEJOG. I'd sooner pick a route on the basis that I'll enjoy riding it, rather than a following a formula which may or may not produce a ride that suits me.

If I lived in the SW and had a few days spare for a tour I'd jump on a boat and go to France.

[Mick F]

Ah but, it's a long way to France from the SW.
Far easier if you live in the SE!

As another Circumnavigation Idea (seeing as we've mentioned France), how about:
LE to Dover, cross to Calais, then ride all the way to Santander, then catch the ferry over to Plymouth?

[MartinBrice]

might be more logical to come back from Roscoff to the south-west, rather than go all the way to Spain. thus the route is then a circumnavigation of the English Channel

[pq]

Well it isn't the way I'd do it. Dover isn't a great cycling destination and neither is Calais.

A few years back I rode to Portsmouth, caught the boat to Bilbao and rode home via Macon (a big detour) and it was a truly excellent ride. On the way home I used the Caen/Portsmouth crossing which I reckon gave the best riding straight off the boat. But making it a great ride involved a lot of route planning keeping entirely away from main roads - I did it by GPS so the planning was all up front - on the ride all I had to do was follow the route on my screen.

Finishing in Brittany would work, but whether you should go that way depends what sort of scenery you like. I find the flat area around Bordeaux rather tedious, and I've never liked Brittany much so it wouldn't suit me, but others have enjoyed it.

And don't you have night boats from Plymouth to Brittany? That makes for a very efficient start to a bike trip.