Cycling Kirkstone pass

During one of our days camping on the shores of Lake Windermere we decided to leave our stuff and cycle up Kirkstone pass…..I had last cycled this as a teenager way back in the late 1970’s with my two teenage friends…….It was great to do this again…this time with my son.

….On the way up…..

…..Kirkstone pass Inn….

On the way back to camp flying down Kirstone pass was such fun…….I am always in the habit of checking my bike after ride….not every single time but mostly and shortly after getting back to camp I noticed this…..

I have no idea when this happened….I assume that it must have happened close to camp…..the tire ws still inflated……… lucky escape. It is the front tire and the thought of this going pop coming down Kirkstone pass still gives me the willies………

Lake Windermere Wild camp

This was our wild camp on the shores of Lake Windermere…..We camped here for 4 nights and as always left no trace that we were ever there…….

Over the next 4 nights we built smll fire to cook our mels which consisted of baked pottoes and baked beans…..Gret stuff…..

Our cooker…..

…..The sunsets were stunning…..

We had much fun swimming in the lake and playing with fire……and during the day we explored with our bikes……

…..a very nice family came to visit us each morning……

Leaving Lancaster and heading to the lakes

From Lancaster we continued along the canal only leaving it to head North to Silverdale. We found a great campsite…. very quiet and decided to stay here for a few nights……My two Brothers were living in the area and other family too that I had not seen in years……..so I was hoping to meet up with Bernard in Lancaster and Mike just up the road Bernard’s children now very grown also lived close by and I was hoping to meet up with them too….and maybe indulge in some more family history research….

Cycling long the coast, and on our way to Lake Windermere…….

Lancaster Preston canal but from Preston to Lancaster

This was a great ride and we took our time doing this over two days….off road all the way and loads of wild life…….

….and more or less at the half way point we found a tidy little wood perfect for a wild camp…..

……Time for evening meal….

….and today more swans…

……and unfortunately the saddest campsite I have ever stayed at…..though it was interesting….. row after row of decaying caravans, motor homes and the occasional boat…..

….I can’t help wondering about the lost history of things like this….that some few built these caravans……someone, some family would have saved and saved and saved to buy this, and gone home proud and looking foward to many holidays……you can almost imagine those holidays….but t the sme time I like them as they are…decrepit memorials to life lived……I hope they had fun…..

Heading North

…….finding out some family history at Ruthin was a real boost, Aaron was over the Moon to have discovered some ancestors…… so it is still difficult cycling away from Wales, we had such a brilliant time, Llyn Fynnon will remain a highlight for the entire tour I think, but also the thought of what else we might discover kept us going, though we were feeling a little in the doldrums as we cycled further and further away from the Ogwen valley and the majestic atmosphere of the Welsh mountains…..

We will return…..

So for now we continue heading North stopping just outside Chester this time in a proper campsite to have few days to give the bikes some TLC…..wash our clothes. It was strange to be back in a city it really did feel odd….seeing all the shops and having absolutely no interest in any of it except the Roman ruins….. Both of us feel so out of place in this mad environment, and we were ready to push on and get up to North Cumbria for some more walks in the mountains and I knew a secluded campsite off the main tourist haunts that would be just about perfect……

….Well we were heading to Cumbria and growing more excited for that with each passing mile…..though cycling cross the Wirral was……..and I have to add that we were still full of the wonder of the Welsh mountains…..So the Wirral was just a place to cycle through….the cycling, the rhythm of cycling was uppermost in my mind, So we just let the miles roll beneath our wheels talking as we cycled about our favorite sci – fi shows, cosmology and philosophy.

When it came to cross the Mersey though we had a double surprise….firstly and with utter awe…. visiting the wreck of the recovered U-Boat 534 located in several separate sections by the ferry terminal….utterly unexpected and fascinating, sadly I have no images to share of this. But for anyone interested it is a fascinating place so I have added this link to the official website……hope they don’t mind…..

U Boat 534

Our second surprise was meeting with fellow cyclist Paul who was interested in our bikes and so we got talking about the tour….where we had come from….where we where going. Well anyway Paul asked us where we were staying and we said that we planned to cycle a ways along the coast and eventually find a secluded wild camp for the night.

Paul would have non of it and invited us to cycle a ways further than we planned to his home in Formby to meet his family and stay with them for the night, so we set off along the industrial coast of Liverpool which eventually turned into a fab coastal cycle path.

Now Paul seemed quite keen to get home and we were already fairly worn out….with 15 miles to go and Paul setting quite a pace……fine if you have only yourself and the bike but we were both pushing 50 lbs plus of touring gear. though we somehow kept up…..Paul later realised, but it was ok, just an unexpected dash at the end of the day, and we later learned out that his job kept him from home for a month at a time…… he is a deep sea diver working in the North Sea, so it is totally understndable as he was on his way home for the first time in month.

Paul and his family were fantastic, and we all enjoyed swapping stories……They fed us much pizza and beer….so much pizza in fact they insisted we take the rest for lunch the next day.

Here we are getting ready to leave…..nearly start which was great we had some miles to put under our belts that today……But later on once I had found some frames……actually from the Range in Preston, I posted three framed drawings from the cycle tour as a thank you…….

Cycling North ….again first through coastal pine forest and then onto the proper sea front. The road was as flat as it could be but the wind was a fierce side wind and we found ourselves sand blasted as we hugged the coast heading for Preston…….This was the flattest bike ride I have ever done

Preston was much the same as the wirral….a place to cycle through and by the river we found a quiet little dell by the river to make our wild camp…only slightly disturbed by some jeers and protestations of…. ‘Hobo and why don’t you get yourself a home you hobo’s’……obviously missing the point and the rather expensive equipment we have with us….. and well ignorance is found everywhere…….

We decided to cycle the Lancaster Preston canal route. Leaving Preston with terraced houses backing onto the canal each with there own jetty and boat….This was fab. This part of Preston was terrific……

Ruthin, Marchweil and leaving Wales

Well….after spending a number of weeks in Wales we were finally on our way, with regret back to England. We had climbed all the Welsh 3000ft mountains, wild camped in remote valleys, met some wonderful people and cycled through some of the most sublime landscapes in the U.K.

Cycling out of Wales was tough……more than it should have been…..I guess we just did not want to leave. But we did have good reason too….I had been planning to do a spot of family history at the Ruthin center for family history research. It’s based in the old prison in Ruthin…….the cells are now research study rooms. We found a nice place to wild camp right by the river with very few people and the next day we headed to the family history center for a day of research. I got the bug for this from my father….I would always ask what he had turned up whenever visiting home, I wish now I had accompanied him on those research trips he and Mum did did…..and asked more questions….but there we are. Well anyway when Dad passed on I held onto his research notes and over the years continued to delve into the past.

The visit to Ruthin proved very useful and confirmed our Welsh ancestry and pushed the male line back to the early 1600’s…..Great stuff……

Oh and Aaron built a catamaran out of driftwood and took some images of the local wild life….. He was invaluable in the research center spotting several ancestors in the records

Our next wild camp was in a small wood in the village of Marchweil where some ancestors of mine lived in the 1600’s…..

This was not such a brill campsite…..some insects got to enjoy our blood here. So we packed up as quick as we could and headed for Malpas…… where our ancestors continued farming into the 1700’s.

In Malpas I wanted to have a look in the grave yard to see if I could find out where my ancestors where buried….unfortunately a lot of the grave stones have been removed and are now part of the cemetery boundary wall and much eroded….so they may be there but sadly now unreadable…..

Llyn Fynnon to Betws-y-coed

Waterfalls at Betsw-y-coed…..

Llyn Fynnon 7 nights wild camping

Llyn Fynnon was one of the top high lights for this tour…..We just did not want to leave despite the long steep climb to bring supplies. Being approx. 2.5 miles from the main road and set at the start of a climb to reach Carnedd Llewlyn……. it was a perfect place to explore and to finish climbing the Welsh 3000 ft mountains…..