UK (all)

This is my first bike journey. I visited many places, and saw many things. I hope it inspires you to get on two wheels, instead of doing the usual airline-backpacker thing.

Welcome to the Wish Tour!

Below you will find the photos and journal from a two-year, 20,000-mile bicycle journey around the world.

Starting in July 2005, this journal will take readers across the United States, Europe, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Borneo, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

The journey began more than 20 years ago, as the seeds of a dream to circumnavigate the globe were cultivated from a deeply personal and painful experience.

[Absolutely stunning pictures.]

In June 2007 I have joined a few members (20) of my worldcyclist-club to cycle a week in Great Brittain (De Wereldfietser). On my webspace you'll find information of the route and pictures to tell the story.

Mal & Lee on a world recumbent cycle tour of the world.

Just completed a cross continent tour of Australia and circumnavigation of Tasmania.... Off to the UK now :-)

A short tour of some of Europe's flat bits...
1,029 km (639 miles) over 9 days from April 6, 2007 to April 14, 2007.

During the summer of 2006, I traveled with only a bicycle from Lviv, Ukraine down to Napoli, Italy, then north to Calais, France. From Calais I ferried to Dover, then rode to London to complete the voyage. I visited eleven countries and saw a variety of landscapes and weather. I had encounters with many people and most of these were positive. I also used this experience to draw attention to a little orphanage in eastern Ukraine, the Makiivka HIV / AIDS orphanage.

We're Andrew & Friedel Grant - two Canadians who, after living in the UK for 6 years, have set off to travel the world by bicycle. We had no previous bike touring experience when we began, having really only gotten into cycling at the start of 2006, and when we say we ``got into cycling'' that means short commutes to work along flat cycle paths and the odd day trip, that usually ended up at the pub. We're still not quite certain how that translated into the situation where Friedel said ``hey, let's bike around the world'' and Andrew said ``sure, why not''. The first leg of our tour was in Canada, then through Europe to Morocco. We will keep cycling around the world; hopefully next towards eastern Europe and the Middle East.

A travelogue from an 8 month, 16,000km bike tour from London to Beijing via the ancient silk roads.

Descriptions of our one to four week tandem tours at a leisurely pace following river valleys where possible and always via the most minor roads.

In France: Provence and the Luberon; Dieppe, Normandy coast and Rouen; Saintes to Perpignan; Saintes to Strasbourg; St. Malo to Montpellier; The Loire Valley and Suisse Normande

In Ireland: Cork to Galway via the West Coast

In Scotland: August 2005: Lairg to Cape Wrath via Polbain and Altnaharra; Glasgow to John O' Groats and the Orkneys

In England: Newcastle to Berwick-upon-Tweed

Verslag van mijn fietstocht in 2005 van de Lon Las Cymry in Wales en in 2006 mijn tocht door de Epirus en Corfu in Griekenland.

Some road rides in the English Lake District (will be added to). Includes the (in)famous Fred Whitton Challenge route. A demanding ride which takes you through some of the most stunning scenery the Lake District has to offer and includes the major passes of Kirkstone, Honister, Newlands, Whinlatter, Hardknott and Wrynose. If your touring the Lake District try to fit this ride in - it can easily be split into 2 days.

We have cycled many kilometres trough Europe. On our first trip we cycled from Holland to Sweden. After Sweden we cycled trouhg Great Britain. And we cycled further trough Holland, Belgium, France, Spain and ended our tour 6000 km later in Faro (Portugal).

On our next trip we are going to cycle from Heraklion, Crete to Holland. This trip starts 14 April 2006. More info on our site. In the future we will expend our tours outside Europe.

This website accompanies the book ``Why Don't You Fly?'' (ISBN 1-905203-25-X published by Pen Press).

How does it feel to trade comfort and security for life as a nomad and to pare one's life down to the bare necessities? What is it like to push at the frontiers of one's physical and mental endurance?

``Why Don't You Fly?'' is the account of an epic adventure in search of an elusive sense of identity in which triumph, disappointment, discomfort, exhaustion and exhilaration all trade positions against a backdrop of prodigious physical endeavour. During a gruelling 16,500-mile examination of physical and mental stamina the author ate and drank in roadside cafés in the company of inquisitive lorry drivers and shared dormitories in remote Chinese villages with fascinated farm hands and gleeful mosquitoes. Sceptical western existentialism met religious fatalism in the restaurants and teahouses of the Middle East and India in the course of a physical and spiritual journey that constantly raised questions about the attitudes and values that prevail in the West.

The Website includes a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of the book, a sample chapter and 93 photographs.

This webpage is intended to provide information for cycle tourists who may be considering tours in the countries I've visited. For more information, journals and pictures leave a message in my guestbook or send me an email.

`` Yes, it's hot. But we've seen worse haven't we my friend. There was that day east of Warnambol when the chip seal melted and the chips stuck to the tires. A few revolutions later we had flats front and rear. So we pushed for a mile seeking shade to repair the punctures. And the flies Ah! And there was that time in Zamorah. Ah! But not now.''

Pictorial personal diary, equipment list, and route guide for a 4.5 month cycle trip, Boston, England to Gibraltar.

We are 2 18 year old students. We made a tour across Europe from Holland to Sweden and Great Britain. After this we took the boat to Holland and set off to the south of Portugal.

In the spring (2006) we are going to make a trip from Anataly Turkey to Holland.

It's 2004, and my dream came true: to go on an extended cycling trip of Europe, taking in Portugal, Spain, France and the UK. I left Brisbane on January 22 for a Tasmanian ``warm-up'' trip before my BIG trip, which started on 27 February. Here are my favourite photos and some thoughts I had along the way. I hope you enjoy them...

I just completed a bike trip through the heart of England, starting in London and following the Thames to Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon using the National Cycle Paths. From there I curled down through the Cotswolds.

It's probably a general rule of life that things are never quite what you expect. My expectations about cycling are based on my experiences in the United States, and I discovered in two cycling trips in England that things there were often different and surprising. After my recent trip cycling mostly on the National Cycle Paths in England I made my own list of the points that I would make to someone planning a cycling trip there. This advice is intended for people outside the UK, as I'm sure that UK citizens would know much more about cycling in their country than I would. However, they wouldn't see the cycling through the eyes of a foreigner to their country. So as a foreigner to England, here's my own list of advice and surprises. It will rain, so be prepared...

Radtour Kristiansand - Stord - Bergen - Shetlands - Schottland - England.

Die Nordsee-Radroute macht süchtig! Mir geht es jedenfalls so, nachdem man im letzten Jahr gerade da aufgehört hatte, wo es immer schöner wird. Das war in Kristiansand, etwa an der Südspitze Norwegens. Wie kommt man da am besten wieder hin und von dort aus weiter? Das weiß am besten unser Freund Terje Melheim, der auf der Insel Stord südlich von Bergen gleichsam Schildwache an der Nordseeroute hält, die genau über diese Insel führt. (Mit Turid und Terje stehen wir seit vielen Jahren in E-Mail-Kontakt, außerdem haben wir uns weiland an der Neisse einmal spontan radelnderweise persönlich kennen gelernt). Unvergessen ist auch die Eröffnungstour der Nordseeroute 2001, die im Internet eindrucksvoll dokumentiert ist und mit etlichen Feierlichkeiten (auch auf den Inseln Bømlo und Stord) begangen wurde. Wer hätte gedacht, dass man einmal in diese nördlichen - und wie wir glauben finsteren - Gegenden verschlagen würde, und das auch noch mit einem Besuch bei Turid und Terje verbinden könnte?

My wife and I recently returned from our cycling trip through the UK, France, a bit of Germany, Switzerland and Italy, roughly 4,500kms. It would be of special interest to any Jewish readers, as we observed all the Kosher and Sabbath ``constraints'' while cycling.

My wife and I recently returned from our cycling trip through the UK, France, a bit of Germany, Switzerland and Italy, roughly 4,500kms. It would be of special interest to any Jewish readers, as we observed all the Kosher and Sabbath ``constraints'' while cycling.

My wife and I recently returned from our cycling trip through the UK, France, a bit of Germany, Switzerland and Italy, roughly 4,500kms. It would be of special interest to any Jewish readers, as we observed all the Kosher and Sabbath ``constraints'' while cycling.

My wife and I recently returned from our cycling trip through the UK, France, a bit of Germany, Switzerland and Italy, roughly 4,500kms. It would be of special interest to any Jewish readers, as we observed all the Kosher and Sabbath ``constraints'' while cycling.

[Titus is the bike] - 12195 km in 8 months through France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Italy and Greece - includes travelogue and many fine pictures

I've travelled quite a bit through the years, hiking on foot, by car, bus, plane... But cycling is just the right speed. Fast enough to actually get someplace, yet slow enough to smell the flowers as you go... Plus, it's the only mode of transportation where the engine actually improves with usage... Anyways, a friend lent me this book about a couple who spent a couple of years cycling around the world and I thought to myself that I wanted to do that ! So, off I went ! Well, I didn't quite make it... After 8 months on the road, I came back... Mostly due to homesickness, but I should have expected that, particularly on a solo trip...

Mid-morning after leaving Santillana [in Northern Spain], I take a break after a long cycle uphill and watch the progress of this little fellow... That's exactly how I felt... slow... but steady!

Die Warnungen von Freunden und Bekannten bezüglich des dortigen schlechten Wetters erschreckten mich nicht.

Die Landschaft ist von Bergen, Seen und Hochmooren bestimmt und das bedeutet für den Radler: alles andere als flach. Kurze, kräftige Steigungen sind die Regel. Doch ich gewöhne mich schnell daran und die Ausblicke, die sich bei diesen Berg- und Talfahrten ergeben, sind vielfach faszinierend.

Ich mache zum ersten Mal Bekanntschaft mit den schottischen Mücken, midges genannt. Sie sind winzig klein und treten teilweise in Massen auf. Heute Abend hilft nur noch die Flucht ins Zelt.

Die Jugendherberge in der Armadale Bay liegt idyllisch in einer Bucht. Regen und Sturm am Abend rauben der Idylle jedoch ihren Mythos. Am nächsten Morgen regnet es immer noch, als ich mich in der Jugendherberge herumrücke und auf Wetterbesserung hoffe. Ein älterer englischer Radfahrer klärt mich bei seiner Abfahrt über die Wetterlage auf. The weather is better than it looks gibt er mir mit auf den Weg. Also - das Wetter ist besser als es aussieht.

We can't remember where the idea originated, but we'd been thinking about riding the length of the British mainland for some time. For one reason or another we had never actually got around to doing it until, towards the end of 1999, Linda said that ``if we don't do it this coming year, we probably never will''. So that's how it started!

In the following pages you will read of our epic journey. Looking back on it now it doesn't seem half as big an undertaking as it seemed at the start. When you are stood at Land's End looking at the road leading away to the north you wonder why on earth you are doing this. Are we really going to cycle all that way? Can we really do it? Will the bike be up to it? What if we have a breakdown? What if we get into trouble amongst the traffic?

We now know that it can be done. We know that, although the distance is great, it's not impossible. If each day is taken on its own it's not really such a big task. We aimed for around 60 miles per day, based on the fact that that's roughly what we are capable of doing as a day ride in the Peak District National Park which is situated almost at our doorstep. We figured that if we could do that in the hilly terrain of the Peak District, we could do at least that in the less hilly terrain we were likely to encounter much of the time on the End.

With very detailed route description, maps, and pictures.

Why are we doing it? Hard to say really. There are many answers -
Because it's there,
To mark the Millennium,
To achieve an ambition,
To see if we can do it,
As an incentive to get fit,
To enjoy the scenery,
To get to know a bit more about our country,
To raise money for charity,
For the same reason as the other thousands of people who do it every year,
As a follow on to the C2C etc.

As it says on the CTC Web site. To cycle from the far South West to the far North East of mainland Britain is an ambition which many cyclists fulfil each year.

Includes maps, and plenty of pictures. One cannot make a 1000 mile bicycle trip such as this without a few amusing incidents. At Bettyhill on the final day we met a lady in a cafe where the following conversation took place Lady: ``So you are cycling. Have you come from far?'' Martin: ``No, not really. Only from Land's End''.

The 450 km London-Eindhoven tour will take place at June 24th of the year 2000 when we will start at 02.00 AM Greenwich Mean Time at the Piccadilly Circus. The London-Eindhoven tour is part of our project ``Europe is small'' because the center of major European cities are all within 24 hr cycling distance from Eindhoven. In 1997 we did start at the Arc de Triomphe for Paris-Eindhoven. This year we will do the London-Eindhoven tour and in 2002 Berlin-Eindhoven will be on the program.

Another report of a Coast to Coast ride. Very nicely laid out, and illustrated with black-and-white pics.

1014 miles in 16 days - a photographic diary.

Ever since I bought my first ``proper'' touring bicycle I'd liked the idea of touring the Outer Hebrides and Western Highlands of Scotland. I'd done a limited amount of walking in Scotland before and had spent a few days travelling around Skye by car but I wanted to see more and a cycle camping tour seemed the best way of doing it.

[In 2000] I booked three weeks off work and bought a rail ticket from Liverpool to Oban and a ferry ticket that would allow me to travel from Oban to the islands of Barra, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, Harris and Lewis and finally back to Ullapool on the mainland from where I planned to cycle to Cape Wrath, the most North Westerly point of the British Isles.

Travelling by bike in England, Wales, and Scotland. Another fine and very nicely illustrated report from the impressive collection of Martin Wittram.

An excellent report, with lots of practical information. Even if you don't know French, look at it for the beautiful pictures.

Taking three weeks off to tour England by tandem was the trip of a lifetime. Great riding, good weather, and lots of help from friends along the way made a truly memorable experience for us. We planned relatively short mileage days and allowed several days off the bike for some typical ``tourist'' days.

The riding in England was superb. The route we planned took us to some of the most scenic and pastoral settings imaginable. Except for London, riding in cities, towns, and villages posed no problems for a tandem. Using England's trains for covering long distances was relatively easy, but required some planning ahead to be sure space was available.

Total luggage weight was about 15 kilos, of course I had no sleeping or cooking gear. My beloved mount is an early 80' racing Vicini with Columbus SL steel frame and Dura Ace. Gearing is limited to 52/39 up front and a six speed rear cassette ranging from 13 to 23. Blindly overestimating my level of fitness I didn't even bother adding a 25 cog. At the time I thought that England was mostly flat...

The idea of cycling in Europe had hit me in England in June: I was cycling from my home in Oxford up to Yorkshire and persistently got lashed by wind and near freezing rain, a thought quickly formed in my mind: time to head south and do a proper cycle trip - to the sun.

From Santiago I headed west to Cabo Finisterre, and Galician equivalent of Englands Lands End, jutting out into the Atlantic, pointing to the American continent. One local I asked directions from said to me; 'Finisterre really is the end of the civilized world', and looked out west towards America. It was a longish days cycling, 140km, and into a head wind, but nice and warm, about 27 degrees.

Travel Notes:

• Thumbs up to: French friendliness, secondary road system, campsites, the bread, wine cheese, pate, supermarkets.
• Thumbs down to: the April weather, birds that chirp all night long.
• Most bizarre sight: we spotted 3 English train spotters on holiday watching the trains go by.
• The gift for the person who has everything: a waterproof baguette holder