Where I've been
'Ello, I'm Ben. I've been bike touring since 2014, mostly limited to 1 or 2 trips per year cycling in countries that I can access by ferry from the UK - Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium, Netherlands.
I'd love to be able to recount tales of all the best, worst, funniest and embarrassing moments from my times on the bike but between my naff memory and smashing or losing every phone i've owned (losing photos in the process), my ability to remember them all isn't perfect. I'm left with a handful of cherished memories that I still replay.
2014 - Jurassic coast
A few months out from finishing school on a family holiday, I tumbled down a new Youtube rabbit hole of videos from Darren Alff at Bicycle touring pro. I'd always been into my cycling, but never considered the idea that you could attach a tent and bags filled with enough clobber to cross a country by bike and be completely self-sufficient. How hard could it be?
I had a real habit of jumping straight into things without even a smidge of preparation back then. By the end of that holiday I'd convinced my parents to let me hitch a ride on their upcoming drive to the south coast in just a week's time, drop me in Exeter for me to cycle to Bournemouth over 4 days and catch the train home to Milton Keynes.
The only photo I have was actually taken by my mum minutes before they left me at the coast. Note the jean shorts. Everything in the photo aside from the bike was purchased in the few days leading up to this. It was my first time riding a loaded touring bike, first time setting up the tent, first time using the stove. I hadn't even changed a flat tyre before. When I say preparation wasn't part of my process I really mean it. Over the next 4 days I covered around 130 miles of hilly coastline, fell off a few times, lost half a day to a flat tyre, asked for help from strangers and eventually made it to Bournemouth beach. I was hooked.
2017 - Normandy
By this point I had a bit of a rhythm. Each summer i'd convince my brother Josh or friends to join me on an adventure, confidently asserting that I knew what I was doing (bike maintenance skills now including changing a flat and exactly nothing else). Most trips would consist of ferries between UK and the French ports of St Malo, Cherbourg or Le Havre and a winding route through the hills looking for cider.
With Josh getting married later that year and asking me to be his best man, 2017 was different. I didn't have to convince anyone to join this adventure, good luck getting out of a stag do suckers.
Over a week we rode through small towns and countryside, sharing a 4 man tent between 5 of us. Anyone who's been camping will know the golden rule of tents actually sleeping one less than the advertised capacity, it was cosy. Half of the group had never ridden a loaded bike on a tour before. It's always fun getting to relive the novelty of it all with others for the first time.
Riding a particularly steep descent from camp to the local town to buy supplies for dinner, we'd decided that was the perfect time to all switch bikes to get a feel for each other's set up and put to bed any complaining of unfair weight differences. Blasting down the hill at close to 30 mph, riding at the back of the peloton I was sucked into the inevitable gravity of the only crack in the road wide enough to fit a 30mm bike wheel. Flipping over the handlebars and slightly buckling John's wheel. I somehow stood up and walked away chuckling, not daring to think of how bad things could have been.
After a week's riding we made it to our final campsite a bit battered and bruised with bellies sore from laughing. I've always found that after a few days on the bike everything gets funnier. You find silly ways to pass the time at camp, even the unsolvable problems become a reason to crack up.
2021 - Scotland
8 years in. After countless variations of bikes and bags as well as lapping up every GCN tech and Parktools video covering bike maintenance I could find, I was looking for bigger challenges than the now familiar backyard of the Normandy coast and it's short but sharp hills.
Jonny and I hopped on the Caledonia sleeper train with 8 beers to take us from London Euston to Inverness ready to take on the North Coast 500 route. 500 miles of nonstop hills through the Scottish highlands was set to be the hardest route I'd taken on, it was also Jonny's first trip.
Day 1 was 70 fast miles of non stop heavy rain, still feeling a little dusty from the train beers. We binned off the planned campsite in lieu of a hotel, morale was low and Jonny's knee had gotten progressively more painful throughout the day. The next morning we set off with renewed spirits but after an hour of riding his knee was in agony, this had been lingering for some months at this point and we both agreed it wasn't worth doing irreversible damage. We made the tough decision to say goodbye, Jonny rode back to town and I continued on alone.
Side note: I later met another cycle tourist on the road who happened to pass Jonny after we'd split. She passed at the exact moment a bungee chord pinged off his handlebar bag, into the spokes of his wheel, nearly flipping him off the bike as a van passed him. She was understandably confused why i was laughing at her serious retelling. Fair to say Jonny shares my naturally haphazard style of touring.
Riding on solo, it was sinking in over the course of the next day how tough this would be. The Highlands are often brutal and my chosen route deliberately wandered from the classic NC500 route at times in search of more isolated roads. By late morning I reached the foot of the Bealach na BÃ , the highest road climb in the UK. Swearing at myself, my bike and other road users most of the way up I was second guessing if i wanted to push on alone for 8 days of this.
I can still confidently say that was the hardest thing i've done on a bike even with me having to walk sections. From the top i looked back in disbelief that it was done; although I was only halfway through day 2, it felt like a real turning point.
For 8 days I battled long days and back pain through the stunning remote hills. By the end of it I really felt like i'd found a rhythm of waking up before 7am, packing up camp quick to get on the road and start chipping away at the 70+ mile days back to back. One of the hardest parts was getting comfortable in my own company, I'd done longer solo trips in the past but nothing quite as intense as this.
Right on time, 8 days after leaving Inverness i returned to the castle to finish the route before scrambling to catch my train home. Absolutely broken but never more proud of myself. Jonny and I have since gotten redemption, finishing 2 trips along the Tarka trail and in Normandy with more planned in the future.
Where I'm heading
I've set up Roamingonwheels to help me better log my trips moving forward. I don't plan on stopping travelling by bike and want to be able to better relive these trips as I move through life and pass them on to friends and family.
Starting with a bang, today is day 2 of my 5 month sabbatical from work, June - November '23. For the past few years I've been saving money working extra jobs and planning my longest trip yet. Jonny and I will be setting off from Harwich to Hook of Holland at the start of July, together we'll cycle to Munich where Jonny will fly home and I'll be cycling east for 100 days. See a crude route plan below.
The plan will be to update once every week (ish), If you want to keep closer tabs then find me on Strava.