Cycling towards the home of the pork pie

Well, what other motivation could a girl need?

We headed into Grantham and parked in the station car park, once the bikes were offloaded and set up and MOH had almost recovered from the cost of four days parking (£44 if you're interested) we were ready for the off. 

25 MILES FROM GRANTHAM TO MELTON MOWBRAY

Our route today used the National Cycle Routes 15 and 64 and it was nice to cycle alongside the busy road as we left Grantham and headed towards the towpath. 

We hadn't been on the towpath for long before we spotted these swans building a nest, they were quite mesmerising to watch as they intently pulled the reeds as they wanted them.

Although the towpath was quite bumpy to cycle along in places it was easy to see it's beauty even on the overcast day.  Where had the sun that was beating down on our backs in the car park gone?  

I'd spotted these markers soon after we joined the towpath but it took me a few to read them fully as we cycled past. Then once I had, and with the backdrop of the pretty hedgerow I knew that it was time for a photo stop. We were heading towards the Trent, but not today, first we were taking a trip to Melton Mowbray and the home of the pork pie.

We knew that at some point we'd need to cross the canal and head left towards our destination, and we knew we weren't far off that. But first there was time to stop and admire the lock. MOH said he'd not seen a lock working before, which I was shocked by - not that I've massive waterways experience but I do remember going on a boat trip on the Thames with my nan many years ago and marvelling as we went through the lock at Teddington. 

But anyway, this one at Woolsthorpe was quite photogenic.

As we crossed and headed away from the canal we got our first glimpse of Belvoir Castle, high above the Vale of Belvoir. 

Beautiful isn't it?

You know what a vale means don't you? Yes, hills. Because what goes down, must also go up... or something like that anyway!

This section of our route was through rolling hills and on more than one occasion I wondered why I'd chosen this route, and then I remembered the pies so carried on.  Hills still aren't my favourite and I managed most of them - albeit slowly - unless I mucked up my gear change and changed up instead of down, not a smart move.

At the top of one hill I looked right and spotted a pub. Result, especially as it was lunchtime. We were in Branston and it didn't take much to convince MOH that we should stop for lunch and a pint. So we did.

While he was inside ordering food and buying some local beer, I had a wander around with the camera. It really was a pretty spot and I was quite taken with the brick outbuilding as you'll see from my photos.  

The food here was good - we shared a hot pork and apple sandwich and chips. I'd say forget the chips and have a sandwich each, it was stunning, oh and the crackling, so so tasty.  And then on a second wander I spotted these barrels and along with the tiled roof I thought they'd make a fab shot.

Back on the bikes we set off along quiet country lanes again, still going up and down hills with picturesque views. At one point our route took us around the edge of a field where the five sheep - two black, three white - ran towards us (do sheep run?) and then escorted us around the boundaries of their enclosure. They were probably after food, but it gave us plenty of giggles and later I wished I'd taken a picture.

It was all downhill into Melton Mowbray and that was welcome. Somehow I'd imagined a small-ish pretty village, so the bustling market town was quite a surprise. It wasn't long before we navigated our way through the daily market and found ourselves outside here, where I did the only thing I could think of and bought a pie for tomorrow's lunch.

Having had a quick look around the town we set off to find our hotel. We knew it was on the outskirts of town as the theme for the day had been up follows down neither of us were surprised to find ourselves cycling up towards Scalford and its Manor Hotel. It had one of those long sweeping gravel drives, which look and feel impressive by car. Let me tell you, it's less impressive on a bike they're hard work to cycle on!

With our bikes secured and our panniers unhooked it was time to relax and prepare for tomorrow's cycle which was set to be our longest cycle of this trip.  We'd had a good day though, we'd cycled twenty five miles through some scenic countryside, eaten a fantastic lunch and tasted some fine local ale, spotted Belvoir castle and bought a pie to eat the next day. 

Next time: Cycling on to Newark-on-Trent and finding our Farm Stay

To drive, or not to drive?

That is the question - or at least it's a paraphrased question I've been pondering about getting to France.  Let me start at the beginning or else you'll think I've gone completely mad. 

At the start of the year MOH and I agreed this summer we'd like to cycle along the Loire Valley. It sounds idyllic: sunny days, multiple chateaus, cycling that's not too challenging and of course French food and maybe the odd glass of red, or two. The area is well set up for hosting cyclists and we already have plenty of information on how we can book a route we can tailor to suit exactly what we want to do. 

That part seems easy enough. Sure it'll need some planning and thought, but like I said, easy enough once we start. 

The part that's giving me cause for more pondering is how we actually get ourselves - and our bikes - to France, as ideally with France being so close we'd like to cycle our own bikes. And rather than having our luggage transported by taxi, this year we plan to carry our luggage in the shiny, new panniers we bought in the January sales. That's likely, of course to bring a packing conundrum but that will be much nearer the date of our departure!

To get us to France there are basically a couple of options:

1. Strap the bikes to the back of the car and head over - or under - the Channel in the usual way.

2. Leave the car at home and travel with our bikes by train all the way to Tours or Angers (whichever we choose as our start point)

Each has benefits, and drawbacks though... 

By bike

Benefits

• We'll be taking our bikes on a train, which will be pretty exciting.

• By taking the train to Lille and changing there we should avoid the need to cycle across Paris to change trains...

• We can relax during the train journey, in a way I wouldn't be able to while driving.

• We can travel to Tours and back from Angers, or the other way round.

• It'll be quite an adventure, really!

Drawbacks

• Cycling across Paris between stations doesn't really appeal in much the same way as cycling across London wouldn't either.

• We will have to carry everything we need, and there will be less capacity to bring wine home with us.

• The journey time to reach Tours/Angers is likely to be lengthy.

• We will most likely need to book onto a specific train and stick with that booking, no getting on an earlier one because we've arrived at the terminal early.

By car

Benefits

• We're travelling by car!

• We'll have extra capacity for luggage, especially on the way back.

• I've driven in France before, so have all the necessities, such as spare bulbs, breathalysers, high-vis jacket and such like to stay legal.

• The total journey time will, I expect be less than by train, though I'm happy to be proven wrong on this.

• Did I mention we'll be travelling by car!

Drawbacks

• We'll have to plan a circular route to end up back where we've parked the car. 

• We'll need to find somewhere to park the car for the duration of our cycle tour.

• I'll have to drive the whole way to Tours/Angers, as MOH doesn't drive so will need to include some breaks into our schedule.

• We'll need to be au-fait with the French legislation about carrying the bikes on the back of the car, not a big one but better to be in the know.

So there's my conundrum.

The Accident Advice Helpline have put together this handy Travellers Guide to Driving Etiquette for Driving in France which I think I'll be consulting further, along with the advice for travelling with bikes by train before we make our final decision.  

But what would you do?  And is there anything you've thought of that I've missed, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

This is a collaborative post with Accident Advice Helpline but all words are my own.

Our Ride London

Our day started early with a 4.30am alarm but although neither of us had slept that well we were up and out of bed pretty sharpish. Our early start was different to those get-to-the-airport-to-catch-a-plane-at-silly-o'clock-mornings as this time there was breakfast that would fuel the ride and of course there weren't any suitcases. But there was a flight, of sorts.

By 5.30am we were pushing our bikes out of the house and heading to the cable car in Greenwich. And we weren't the only ones. As we reached the Royal Standard just around the corner we tagged onto a group of cyclists heading the same way. The roads were quiet and the only traffic was either buses or cars transporting bikes and their riders towards North Greenwich.

It was a beautiful morning and before MOH caught his flight on the cable car and cycled to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to prepare for the start I got him to pose for a photo, wished him well and reminded him to take some pictures along the way.

As I cycled back home from my earliest starting cycle ever (a record that's unlikely to be broken tbf) MOH was queuing to deposit his bag and then prepare for his 7.36am start time.  He even remembered to take some pictures!

THE GREEN START ZONE

Back home and recovering from the early start and the early cycle I suddenly realised I'd better get myself shifted if I was to get to The Strand on time to see MOH cycle past.

I made the 7.22am train from Blackheath with two minutes to spare and so arrived in Charing Cross with plenty of time to spare. The RideLondon app - aka the Husband Tracker - was up and working and showing MOH's progress along the route.

There were plenty of cyclists to cheer while I was waiting for him to arrive. Teams, individuals and a few in more unusual cycling outfits!

Then at 8.15am, this happened.

WAVING ON THE STRAND

With MOH spotted and looking comfortable (well as much as you can on a saddle) I set off for Kingston to see him around the 22 mile mark. I had twenty minutes to wait for the next Kingston train. Armed with a second breakfast - well it was 8.45am by now and I'd been up for ages - I got the train, ate breakfast and continued to track MOH.

Just as the train approached Wimbledon I saw that he'd already passed Kingston station, so there really was little point continuing. But that meant I was in Wimbledon much earlier than I'd planned and in fact I was there before the first cyclist too.  After a wander around, thinking about a third breakfast and thinking better of it, it was still only 9.18am.

The first cyclists arrived in Wimbledon just gone 10am and shortly afterwards I made myself comfy half-way up Wimbledon Hill on the right. If you know Wimbledon, you'll know there's some grass verges well I was there and let me tell you there's not much grass on them right now. I'd brought a sarong to sit on so I was feeling particularly smug and sat down to enjoy the event while MOH took a planned break at Pyrford, at just before 40 miles.

The Husband Tracker was working well and I could see that MOH had reached Newlands Corner, where he had another planned stop in 3 hours 16 minutes. His average speed had slowed to 21.8 kph from 26.5kph at the first timing point, but it was still good and fast enough to complete the course in the allocated time and avoiding the "Broom Van" which would sweep up people that hadn't reached parts of the route by the cut-off time.

The next time I looked he hadn't moved very far at all. And he didn't move very much for a while. Quite a while in fact. 

Then my phone rang and it was MOH to say there'd been a crash and everyone had stopped and was backed up. Sadly as we know now it wasn't caused by a crash but by a fatality, our thoughts are with this rider's family.

AT LEITH HILL

After an understandably lengthy stop, MOH was underway again. On Wimbledon Hill there wasn't a break in the riders passing by and we think that's because some of the later cyclists were diverted around this part of the course. 

My vantage point was around the 90 mile mark and half-way up the last hill the riders would encounter.  Some just breezed by, others put thier head down and pushed themselves to the top. Just up from me was one of the BHF cheering stations, and they really did work giving their riders a much needed lift, as you can see from the photo!

Some though needed a bit of a helping hand up the last hill, and this lady wasn't the only one. 

 I counted six tandems as I watched the race go by, but didn't manage to catch one on my camera at all!

At around 3.15pm MOH cycled past. With ten miles to go I knew he'd make it as he still looked relatively fresh and was going a good speed.  

ON WIMBLEDON HILL

Now to get to the finish and find him, but first an ice cream - it'd been pretty warm work supporting there for the past five hours or so!

Green Park was busy when I arrived around 4.30pm, with people everywhere. I was glad of the advice from the organisers to pre-arrange a meeting place and set out to find the tree labelled with an S. Around 5.30pm MOH wandered by, so it was some time for some post-event photos with his medal. And there was just enough battery life left in my phone to do a final post of Facebook. 

IN GREEN PARK AFTERWARDS

It was great to hear his views on the race and on the course sitting there in Green Park. High points were cycling on car-free roads although it was weird to cycle past work in Docklands so fast; the sun on Westminster Abbey making it look even more stunning as he left London; the view from the top of Box Hill and the pretty village of Abinger Hammer and raising £450 (so far) for Get Kids Going.  Lower points were the hold ups along the route which were frustrating, especially at Leith Hill where it took 9 minutes to walk 400 metres and impacted on his time, running out of phone battery after not turning off wifi (something I suffered from too!) and being fed up of bananas!

And the answer to that all important question - would he do it again, is yes because "it's not a difficult ride."  The ballot opens next Monday, just in time for the pain and soreness to be a rose-tinted memory!

After relaxing a little - using his fleece from earlier as a impromptu cushion to sit on - it wasn't long before we headed for Charing Cross and a train home to a more comfortable seat with plans for some pizza and perhaps a glass or two of red to toast a great day at Ride London.

Oh, and to watch the TV coverage. It seems though that everyone in Greenwich had the same idea to order pizza and ours didn't arrive until 10.20pm, by which time we were more than a little hungry and more than a couple of glasses had been consumed.

Here's to a successful ballot and to next year's event!