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As my cycle journey around the coast of Britain over the Summer has progressed, there is a question that a few people have asked ‘what’s the best place that you have visited?’

I would say that our coastline is beautiful and amazing and its hard to pick a single place, what is easy for me though is a favourite time of day. There is an hour or so in the evening that is magical. The time before sunset, when things calm down and the wind drops. The skies are amazing and often the low sun will pick out and light a single building on the horizon or throw huge shadows across the fields.

It’s a great time to ride: on Anglesey you are alone on the ancient hills, in Cumbria the hedgerows come alive with birds, the west coast of Scotland has vast dramatic sunsets, and in Norfolk and Suffolk the huge skies light the rich farmlands.

Now the days are shorter and darkness arrives a bit sooner, so there is more of an urgency to find a place to camp or a bed for the night. But if things work out I can drift into a coastal campsite with supper in a pannier with just enough light to grab a quick shower and cook a bit of food. That’s a perfect evening.

Yesterday just north of Newburgh, near Aberdeen I got to 2500 miles into my journey around Britain on a bicycle. Quite a nice feeling and on day 50 of my ride too. So I thought I would start with a quote from a book called Hovel in the Hills by Elizabeth West, about moving to a small hill farm in Wales. And then offer some random thoughts (you have a lot of these when you are peddling for 6-7 hours).

‘When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man’s convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man’s brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.”
Elizabeth West, ‘Hovel in the Hills’

On doing 2500 miles on day 50
When I started out I had a kind of plan to do 50 miles a day, this would get me home in time for our annual cycling holiday in Cornwall in October (!). Also I liked the roundness of the figures 100 days, 50 miles a day. But as it happens it’s a good kind of target. It gets me up early, its achievable, and even if I set out late (the latest I set off was 5pm from Tenby and I got to St Davids as the sun set around 10pm).

Tea shops and hills
Why is it that cyclist seek out tea shops and hills? The hills are a bit druglike, you kind of fear them a bit, but when it all goes a bit flat, you kind of miss them. Cake shops though, well you seek them out. When you see them, you suss them out, trying to work out how fresh that carrot cake is. My favourite so far; in Stromness I snapped up a bit of Toblarone cheesecake. Another thing about buying cakes for the road (or to go into an already full pannier) is that you have to choose carefully. Cakes are delicate things and don’t take to getting shoved in with spare inner tubes, sleeping bags and the like.

I had this idea for an i-phone app, where anyone could upload pictures of cakes in cake shops onto a map (like a Google map) this would be available to all. After about two hours the image would go. So the cakes would always be fresh and available. Wherever you were headed you could seek out the cakes in the town and arrow towards the cafe or shop.

Tablets: take one a day
A tablet in Scotland means fudge to us southerners, very nice too.

Stuff you wouldn’t do in real life
I was on the ferry to Orkney, sitting next to a family who ordered their meal, you could tell the kids just wanted to run about and get out on deck. So when the meals arrived, one kid didn’t touch his mini pizza and just ate a few chips. So when eventually they got up and left for the deck. I shuftied over and ate that little pizza, very nice it was too. Just couldn’t see it go to waste.

Here is a little selection of images from around Scotland. And in case you were wondering why I’ve put an image of an Italian Chapel in. Well, it’s oddly it is called ‘The Italian Chapel’ and it was built around a nissan hut on Orkney by Italian prisoners-of-war in the 1940s, it is a pretend chapel and is an amazing piece of work. The Italians were building bridges to stop U Boats getting into the Scapa Flow.

I’ve now made 30 little soundslide films of artisans I have met on my journey if you would like to see them they are on the journey website at www.slowcoast.co.uk under the soundslide section.

On my bike ride around the coast of Britain, I am working my way up the west coast of Scotland which is probably about a 1000 miles or so. It’s amazingly tricky to navigate because of all the islands and lochs.

I’ve decided to do a few islands and have been around Arran and Bute so far, both beautiful. I’m also seeking out artisans to make the little soundslide films that I’ve been compiling. This takes me a little off route now and then.

My luck has run out a bit on weather over the last few days of riding, culminating in a four hour downpour on a mountain pass today.  I  took a sneaky luxury break in Glasgow over the weekend, so feel like the downpour might be some kind of punishment.

Yesterday was 30 days into my ride, and also 1500 miles into the journey. As a bit of a saddo graphic designer, I thought I would share with you some of the nice little bits of typography I’ve seen along the way so far.

A couple of days ago on my cycle ride around Britain I passed the 1000 mile mark (I also got to
Scotland) and thought I would do a list of 10 things I’ve learnt from the journey so far.

1  Cycling on your own is great, but being with your mates is better.

2  Where you get one hill, you get lots.

3  You can get a good cake anywhere in Britain.

4  You see some funny stuff.

5  Don’t spit into the wind.

6  You eat a lot when you are on a bike all day.

7  Going slow is better than going fast.

8  There are golf courses everywhere, why?

9  Our country is beautiful.

10  Camping is better than B&B’s (unless you need to charge batteries).

Today I cycle out of Wales and up through to Liverpool and aiming towards the lakes.

I’ve been thinking a lot about journeys. I think they are all about discovery, finding out about ourselves mostly, but also learning new stuff everywhere you look. There is no doubt that you miss so much flying along roads in a car. On a bike you can stop pretty much anywhere, you drift though landscapes and miss very little (ok the hills are a bit tricky).

Some people are travelers and I suppose do this kind of thing all the time. But, as Andrea from Brooks saddles says, I’m your average bloke on the street, and I reckon we get the chance to do a big journey once or twice in a lifetime. So I’m still pretty much at the beginning of my trip around the coast of Britain, but I can see it’s a special thing to do, and I would say that anyone who sees an opportunity to take on a journey should grab it. You don’t know if it might come around again.

These baby swallows were in the shed where I kept my bike when I stayed with David and Clare in Cardigan a few days ago. My journey seems like a big deal, but they will travel back and forward to Africa several times in their lifetime and think nothing of it.

I took a wrong turn on yesterday’s ride on the Gower peninsula (in South Wales) that took me ten miles off route, ended up on a beautiful hill top with views of coast on the north and south, skylarks were soaring. If I had gone on the right route would have missed it all. Just shows a wrong turn can sometimes work out ok.

So today I head off on my little adventure cycling around the coast of Britain.

I haven’t been this excited (or nervous) about a journey since I used to go to Butlins every year as a kid and ate egg sandwiches in the back of the car under a blanket at 5am.

Journeys are important, because they take us somewhere new, and it’s how we learn new stuff.

I’m aiming to make a bunch of soundslide films (a bit like the crafty series ones). As I’m going clockwise from Bristol I should be over in Cardigan sometime Wednesday if all goes well. But judging by my fully loaded test this morning, I sure as heck am not going to break any records.

Back to packing (or more accurately unpacking stuff I don’t really need).