What to do after that?
I've wanted to venture abroad: Spain and France are reachable by ferry so no flying needed. Northern France will use over a day in each direction, which is okay. Any further will shorten ride time and require train travel. Adding my bike onto a booking in this country will potentially be troublesome enough without a language barrier. Spain is further; using four days.
How can I make it interesting and limit travel?
I could do mainland coast to coast rides; across each of the countries in the UK.
Most C2C's take the shortest distances, England is normally across the northern counties. I'll go from most easterly to westerly. To save you googling; it's Lowestoft Ness to Lands End. Around 430 miles over six or seven days should be okay.
Scotland is Peterhead to Ardnamurchan lighthouse; much shorter at 240 miles, it will take longer to get there and back though.
Wales is a little different, my route will be north to south and won't start at the most northerly point. It's too far away from a rail line to make practical sense. The route will be from Llandudno to Rhoose. Only 175 miles.
Then the hardest travel destination: Northern Ireland. The most direct way to get to Belfast by train and ferry is via Dublin. It doesn't have a western coast line, the border with Eire comes first. So I have a rough idea to travel until I reach the edge and then turn right and ride around the outer extremities back to Belfast. Should be about 277 miles, depending on the final route.
In fact travel to the start and finish of each ride could be tricky. The cycling will definately be the easy bit.
I'll see a lot of the country, which I think we should all do. As long as it causes as little environmental impact as possible.
