please empty your brain below

I like to think I pay attention to this sort of thing, and yet I didn't realise until your post that NCN1 goes right past my work. I feel like that this sort of thing really needs more active promotion and development than Sustrans are able to give it.

(Also, I've been to the northernmost point of the route. Feels like an odd place to end it - it's in a little hamlet just beyond the most northerly shop/tearoom, but not quite as far north as you can get on Unst - seems a bit anticlimactic)
(actually ignore that, I misread the OS map - it goes all the way to Skaw, which is the most northerly house in the UK)
(I too have been to Skaw).
Cycling under a 1.5m bridge is something I can't imagine ever being capable of since I took to a two-wheeler aged about 5.
Thanks DG, enjoyable & educational.

Almost all the cyclists I’ve met carefully check routes before rides, & ask other cyclists along the way too. This of course is a biased view as I met them at cycling jobs or on the road.

It’s also nice to know that people are usually quick to offer help to other cyclists. I was helped before I learned bike maintenance; now that i can’t cycle anymore I still carry a multitool & used it yesterday to fix a stranger’s brakes.

And yes, some cyclists can be plonkers:)
next time I'm having a coffee at the Riverside Cafe at Stonebridge Lock I will wonder which of the many cyclists zooming past are heading for Shetland
I've noticed those markers on my rather infrequent visits to the area. Next time I'll actually know what they are now!
Great post thanks. I thought you might extend your 'lockdown travel zone' a bit to the north, but see you stopped in the same place as before. If you do decide to venture further afield the walks into Walthamstow Wetlands (not NCN1!) are very pleasant.

dg writes: Walthamstow Wetlands were locked, it being before 10.30am.
And regarding "any cyclist not on this parallel path very much risks not noticing the moment NCN1 veers off into the woods to cross the top of Hackney Marshes." This is very true, but just in case anyone reading this is planning a cycle ride... it is possible to stay on the Lea, switch to Quietway 2 and cycle up to Springfield Park to rejoin NCN1 - avoiding all the awkward infrastructure DG mentioned and still avoiding any roads.
I live 250 miles north from you, and NCN1 goes past me, as an old railway!
Coppermill Bridge is just embarrassing.
Quietway 2 was meant to have been diverted away from Coppermill Bridge via Lea Bridge Road and via some newly filtered Waltham Forest back streets. Not sure if that's happened yet.
I went to the NCN link and realised that the route is quite meandering. Given the alternatives from Kent include using the M25 Free Cycle Link over the Dartford Crossing or taking the ferry over to Grays Mon-Sat and cutting out all the bit in London.










TridentScan | Privacy Policy