King John Way in 3 days - Day 1
RAs adventures
3,333 views
First: this is a video about MY trip on the KJW. It's not a definitive guide to the KJW - other people may have done that.
I only recently heard about the KJW from people I met on the Water Rail Way: I used to meet people riding route 1 and this year about half the people I met were doing KJW. I thought I'd better look it up. There's a website, and the route is downloadable from 'Ride With GPS'.
The challenge on the website of doing it in a day appealed to my liking for long rides - but it really is beyond me! I think I could still manage 160 miles in a long day, so 2 long days might be possible. That stayed as an idea on my list until one weekend on September I realised that Lincolnshire was the only place in Britain with a good weather forecast - that was the starting signal for my KJW ride, but September days aren't long so I decided to aim for 3 days.
That meant 2 overnights. When I camp it takes a couple of hours morning and evening to do all those campy things. This was ALL about riding, so I decided to use my bivvy, ride till after dark, fall straight asleep in my bag, wake early and set off promptly in the morning. What a feeling of freedom that gave me!
About 3/4 of the route is in familiar areas I can reach on day rides and still get home by nightfall. Some other parts are familiar because I've passed them on longer, one way rides to places like York or Worksop. Some parts, especially in the NW of the route between Brigg and Gainsborough were new routes for me.
A lot of the roads are ones I often use, but the routing has a greater willingness to use more highly trafficked roads than I normally do. That is why I've never cycled to Gainsborough before, and why I avoid some of the B roads such as the one through Hundleby and Spilsby. I stuck to the route I downloaded from 'Ride With GPS' (which I don't normally use for that very reason) but it only served to reinforce my preference for the tiny roads and tracks. But some places can't be reached without using the occasional B or even A road.
In Spilsby I really was frightened by a close pass - so close I don't know how we avoided contact. It was the car driver's fault (there was loads of room to pull out and if there wasn't then they should have waited), but I also was at fault for riding close to the kerb and not brazenly taking command of my lane which would have forced the driver to take notice of me.
I mostly followed the GPX route between Sutton on Sea and Mablethorpe - but why oh why doesn't the route stay on the promenade? You can ride the prom almost all the way from the car park at Huttoft Terrace (where the toilets (PC) are shown on the OS map - but that section sometimes gets buried in sand) up to the centre of Mablethorpe - you get the pleasure of the seaside and the only cost is that you have to show consideration to pedestrians!
I've included my off-route diversions at Bag Enderby (which is such a nice place) and Willoughby (where I really recommend going to the church even though I went there by mistake), and one or two viewpoints that it would be easy to ride past if you're just following the route. I have ridden some of those roads often but it was both interesting and confusing to put all those highlights together in one route that was so contorted that after 4 or 5 hours I was only about 25 miles from home despite my sore muscles and hungry stomach!
The boys I met at Cleethorpes politely asked why I had 3 water bottles - and were quite impressed with the answer! Getting into Cleethorpes was a nice route, but getting out again was not, though I guess it was relatively quiet, late on a Saturday evening.
I had roughly identified 2 places for overnights on this ride, based on area I knew. I really do aim to leave no trace and do no harm at my campsites and bivvies, but wild camping is still illegal in England so I would rather not be seen. Arriving late and leaving early helps with that. I was about an hour later than I intended, but the moon had risen so I was able to pitch without a torch. A quick wipe over with a flannel and straight to bed, with a silvery yellow full moon blazing down among the leaves. It was lovely, but I fell asleep VERY quickly!
I hope the next episode will come out fairly soon - but these videos take a long time to make and there are other things to do - such as more bike rides!
Music generated by SUNO.
6 Comments
Just to answer your question about the coast path. The simple answer is the King John Way was never meant to be a prescriptive route; but, more of a guide upon which people can build their own adventures. This is why the route on RWGPS includes lots of Points of Interest adjacent to the route (like the Hussey Tower) that people can use to plan their own diversions. As you did visiting some of the churches. Indeed, this is the case with that stretch of coastal path. Because, as you mention, it is regularly covered in sand the route is set to give people an alternative diversion which would generally be harder to navigate than following the coast path. We have been in contact with Sandilands NT (there new café is now shown on RWGPS) who are engaging with the local council to try to keep the coastal path clearer for longer.
There isn’t a King John Way Police checking gps tracks, so people can make the ride their own.
King John Way in 3 days - Day 1
RAs adventures
3,333 views
First: this is a video about MY trip on the KJW. It's not a definitive guide to the KJW - other people may have done that.
I only recently heard about the KJW from people I met on the Water Rail Way: I used to meet people riding route 1 and this year about half the people I met were doing KJW. I thought I'd better look it up. There's a website, and the route is downloadable from 'Ride With GPS'.
The challenge on the website of doing it in a day appealed to my liking for long rides - but it really is beyond me! I think I could still manage 160 miles in a long day, so 2 long days might be possible. That stayed as an idea on my list until one weekend on September I realised that Lincolnshire was the only place in Britain with a good weather forecast - that was the starting signal for my KJW ride, but September days aren't long so I decided to aim for 3 days.
That meant 2 overnights. When I camp it takes a couple of hours morning and evening to do all those campy things. This was ALL about riding, so I decided to use my bivvy, ride till after dark, fall straight asleep in my bag, wake early and set off promptly in the morning. What a feeling of freedom that gave me!
About 3/4 of the route is in familiar areas I can reach on day rides and still get home by nightfall. Some other parts are familiar because I've passed them on longer, one way rides to places like York or Worksop. Some parts, especially in the NW of the route between Brigg and Gainsborough were new routes for me.
A lot of the roads are ones I often use, but the routing has a greater willingness to use more highly trafficked roads than I normally do. That is why I've never cycled to Gainsborough before, and why I avoid some of the B roads such as the one through Hundleby and Spilsby. I stuck to the route I downloaded from 'Ride With GPS' (which I don't normally use for that very reason) but it only served to reinforce my preference for the tiny roads and tracks. But some places can't be reached without using the occasional B or even A road.
In Spilsby I really was frightened by a close pass - so close I don't know how we avoided contact. It was the car driver's fault (there was loads of room to pull out and if there wasn't then they should have waited), but I also was at fault for riding close to the kerb and not brazenly taking command of my lane which would have forced the driver to take notice of me.
I mostly followed the GPX route between Sutton on Sea and Mablethorpe - but why oh why doesn't the route stay on the promenade? You can ride the prom almost all the way from the car park at Huttoft Terrace (where the toilets (PC) are shown on the OS map - but that section sometimes gets buried in sand) up to the centre of Mablethorpe - you get the pleasure of the seaside and the only cost is that you have to show consideration to pedestrians!
I've included my off-route diversions at Bag Enderby (which is such a nice place) and Willoughby (where I really recommend going to the church even though I went there by mistake), and one or two viewpoints that it would be easy to ride past if you're just following the route. I have ridden some of those roads often but it was both interesting and confusing to put all those highlights together in one route that was so contorted that after 4 or 5 hours I was only about 25 miles from home despite my sore muscles and hungry stomach!
The boys I met at Cleethorpes politely asked why I had 3 water bottles - and were quite impressed with the answer! Getting into Cleethorpes was a nice route, but getting out again was not, though I guess it was relatively quiet, late on a Saturday evening.
I had roughly identified 2 places for overnights on this ride, based on area I knew. I really do aim to leave no trace and do no harm at my campsites and bivvies, but wild camping is still illegal in England so I would rather not be seen. Arriving late and leaving early helps with that. I was about an hour later than I intended, but the moon had risen so I was able to pitch without a torch. A quick wipe over with a flannel and straight to bed, with a silvery yellow full moon blazing down among the leaves. It was lovely, but I fell asleep VERY quickly!
I hope the next episode will come out fairly soon - but these videos take a long time to make and there are other things to do - such as more bike rides!
Music generated by SUNO.