The story so far...

Last year, after one job too many finished too many months too soon, I decided that it would be a sensible career choice to become a science teacher. Having realised the folly of this, I emerged blinking into the sunlight at the end of June with a PGCE but no job and no intention of ever entering a classroom as a teacher again. Live and learn - and I certainly learnt a lot last year, particularly that teenagers are human too and if I can't stand being shut up in a room all day with no windows, why should I expect them to? Common sense reminds me that I may change my mind, especially as financial need bites... and I was reckoned to be pretty OK at the job… but I am putting it off as long as possible. I value my sanity.

Anyway, as my final post on Covblog describes, I rushed off to Derbyshire to do lots of walking, and then off to Lincolnshire for a bit of cycling. And I'd promised myself, all that long long spring and early summer, that I'd go for a really long cycle tour. When would I get the chance again? But in August the campsites are full of families, and anyway, I got busy reintroducing myself to all the people I knew when I was last in Nottingham. Five years ago - and it was as if I had never left! Suddenly I was really busy helping the Wildlife Trust and the City Farm, getting involved with the Nottingham Organic Gardening Group allotment and Transition Sherwood. I spent a week in Yorkshire finding out what hard work it is running an organic veg box scheme, and spent a fair few days exploring the Nottinghamshire countryside.

September was pencilled in for the tour, but where? I'd hankered after a tour in France - the canal towpaths of Brittany, the banks of the Loire... but conscience dictated that I stayed in England in case any job opportunities came up. I actually planned two tours – one in the North of England and one down the East coast. As August progressed, it was the weather that was going to be the final arbiter. However, the idea for the East coast trip originated some years ago, when I came across the North Sea Cycle Route. This is the worlds longest continuous cycle route, taking in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Shetland Islands and Scotland. Some people do it in one hit, others take several years. Apart from wanting to return to countries I visited on my European trip in 2002, my interest in the North Sea coast is to do with climate change: many of these coastal areas are at Europe’s climate change front line. It’s even a case of ‘last chance to see’ for some places.

So, as the long-term forecast ‘gave out’ wet weather in the North, and slightly less wet weather in the East, I decided that no time was better than now to start a series of bike tours which could potentially occupy my holidays for the next several years – if I wanted. I planned routes, I tracked down the small, cheap campsites, I plotted the locations of wildlife reserves and old churches. My plan was 'Filey to Felixtowe', my version of 'Hull to Harwich', i.e., the Sustrans Route 1. I intended to stick closer to the East Coast than Route 1, and to visit lots of the excellent wildlife sites along the coast. I invested in my first bright yellow cycle jacket to make me feel like a real cyclist, and a cheapo green cag to make me feel like a proper birdwatcher. (Actually I thought the yellow one would scare the birds away!)

I’ll return to this trip over the next few posts, with more photos and less writing. It didn’t work out as planned – but was possibly more interesting for that!