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LOST LANES

Glorious Bike Rides

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Reviews

“Lost Lanes West is a joy” – road.ccc

“Beautifully produced… lovingly researched” – Podium Cafe

“The most beautiful guide to cycling in South East England” – London Cyclist

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It's always a pleasure to work with a creative per

It's always a pleasure to work with a creative person at the top of their game, and I recently spent a brilliant day and a half with filmmaker @benwaltonfilms. We were in the beautiful @wyevalleyaonb and our mission was to capture the pleasure of exploring this remarkable landscape by bike. Ben worked amazingly hard and creatively with video camera and drone, including some daredevil techniques with a camper van that are best not shared as they are are definitely 'don't try this at home, kids'. Ben is part of a new breed of multitalented filmmakers who, thanks to the latest lightweight kit and their own imagination, ingenuity and inventiveness are producing work that would once have required large crews or been plain impossible. Here is Ben communing with some long horn cattle as my lovely #madeinwales bicycle by @richardshallett glows in the morning sun.

I've seen a first edit of the short film and I guarantee it will make you want to get on your bike and ride. It won't be long before the film is released as well as some new routes that I've designed, very much in the #LostLanes tradition. Watch this space and give @wyevalleyaonb a follow.

#wyevalley #film #filmmaker #landscape #cycling #cowsofinstagram #cycling

When I'm out riding, researching and photographing

When I'm out riding, researching and photographing the routes for my Lost Lanes books I don't have the luxury of waiting around for 'the best light' for a landscape shot. I've got too many miles to cover each day and so I am just snapping on the hoof (or do I mean on the wheel?). If you compare my work to the work of real landscape photographers, the difference is clear. My photography is much more about snapshots that capture something of the character and a spirit of a ride, rather than the amazing and technically perfect images that grace the pages of the National Geographic.

Anyway, the other evening in Rutland was a bit different. I'd more or less finished for the day but I had a sense that things were about to get a bit special. There were huge thunderclouds around, I'd just ridden through a hailstorm and the sun was already quite low in the sky. I wasn't far from the Harringworth Viaduct (also known as the Welland Viaduct, it's the longest masonry viaduct in Britain). As I'd ridden all I needed to ride I looked at my map to see if the setting sun emerged from beneath the clouds before dipping over the horizon it might illuminate the west-facing side of the viaduct. Did the viaduct even have a west facing side? And if it does, would there be a decent vantage point? It turns out it does, and there's a lane with the perfect view. I rode up the hill, lay my bike down in a bank of rain-drenched cow parsley and squeezed through a gap in the hedge into a field of wheat. And waited. After half an hour in the early evening gloom the sun did come out and I was rewarded with this stunning sight.

#lostlanes #cycletouring #clouds #rutland #viaduct #welland #harringworthviaduct #wellandviaduct

Spring in the lanes

Spring in the lanes

Am working on the next Lost Lanes book. It's going

Am working on the next Lost Lanes book. It's going to cover Central England - all the way from Lincolnshire to the Welsh Border. And for anyone who thinks this is flyover country, or lacks spectacular landscapes and brilliant places places to ride a bike, then maybe this photo from the top of the Wrekin looking south towards the Shropshire Hills may persuade you to reconsider. This was last week and about half an hour later I was on my way down to Ironbridge and being pummelled by hailstones.

#lostlanes #shropshire #thewrekin #clouds #cycling #roughstuff

With a bit of help from Google Maps satellite view

With a bit of help from Google Maps satellite view and @wahoofitnessofficial I found the Chartist Cave on Mynydd Llangynidr. In a snowstorm.

Here in 1839 was where the Tredegar Chartists made and stashed the pikes and other weapons before they marched to Newport and caused almighty havoc for a few days, in the cause of democracy. They wanted to give working men a say in lawmaking: they would be able to vote, their vote would be protected by a secret ballot, and they would be able to stand for election to the House of Commons. Naturally the authorities came down like a ton of bricks, around twenty protestors were killed in the streets and the leaders tried for treason and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered (though this heinous punishment was never carried out and they were transported to Australia for life instead).

The track from the Trefil quarry road is a bit over a mile and rough and steep in places. More walking than riding. But worth it to get there, my first time.

#roughstuff #cave #chartism #cycling #wales #history

There have been a few false starts to spring this

There have been a few false starts to spring this year but I'm hoping the conjunction of the Vernal Equinox and the first outing of my golden wonder (built here in Wales by @richardshallett) means this one will stick.

#cycling #spring #cymru #blackmountains #650b #madeinwales

For #ThrowbackThursday here's a picture of my fath

For #ThrowbackThursday here's a picture of my father David Thurston, in China in 1981 on a Bickerton. Nuns outfits were all sold out so he settled for this remarkable winter hat and a cosy down jacket, from Maontain Warehouse no doubt.

He was in the first intake of foreign students learning Mandarin at Beijing University. Just a few years since the horror and chaos of the Cultural Revolution, foreigners were exotic curiosities. But it was the folding bike that really blew people's minds.

There can't have been many aluminium folders in the land of the Flying Pigeon. This photo slipped out of a box file I was moving to Abergavenny, as he and my stepmum are moving to our town later this month. Look out!

#china #tt #cycling #foldingbike #history #bickerton

Fool on the hill. Snapped by @sarahpricelandscapes

Fool on the hill. Snapped by @sarahpricelandscapes as I sneaked 40 winks in the sunshine overlooking the Sugarloaf. I'm all action, me.
#snooze #asleep #getoutside #zzzz

Tyre tracks in the snow. Just a few cm here in the

Tyre tracks in the snow. Just a few cm here in the Black Mountains and melting fast. #uksnow

Brightened up.a grey January day clearing and mulc

Brightened up.a grey January day clearing and mulching

As a parent responsible for managing remote learni

As a parent responsible for managing remote learning in Covid times, I don't think twice about seizing days like this to head up into the hills. Here are few shots of a perfect winter walk from our front door last week. The kids seemed highly motivated to reach the frozen dew pond and enjoyed the mist, the frost and running along the bales of bracken. On days like this the phonics and times tables can wait.

#getoutside #winter #blackmountains

Unbelievably, asparagus berries. Shows how far beh

Unbelievably, asparagus berries. Shows how far behind I am in the veg patch this year. In a normal year I'd have cut these long before the berries appeared. With the blue sky it's time to catch up with the clearing, weeding & mulching.
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#asparagusfern #asparagus #vegpatch #growyourown

With Covid on an exponential upward path here in W

With Covid on an exponential upward path here in Wales, it seems inevitable we're headed for some kind of new midwinter lockdown, whether before Christmas or for January. So a #ThrowbackThursday #tbt to the sunny days of Lockdown 1, which saw much cycling on our local roads, lanes and tracks. Amid the horror of the first wave, the quietness of the roads was a silver lining - my children pictured here have never spent more time outdoors and on the bikes. My daughter learned to ride a pedal bike and soon progressed from her singlespeed pictured here to a 7 speed, invariably accessorised by a selection of tutus. ⠀
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I wish we could skip winter just this once and fast forward to spring 2021.
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#familycycling #lostlanes #kids #islabikes

Some freaky flare in this lens. #lensflare #mita

Some freaky flare in this lens.

#lensflare #mitakon17mm

Somewhat epic light on the school run this afterno

Somewhat epic light on the school run this afternoon. #schoolrun #betterbybike #lostlanes #familycycling #cycling #bikeisbest #getoutside

One thing this pandemic is doing is forcing me to

One thing this pandemic is doing is forcing me to get to know my remote shutter. It's a total hassle and very hit and miss but without friends to models for me there's not much else I can do. Quite happy with this one from a misty track in the @wyevalleyaonb last week. Woolly winter cap handmade by @thebonking aka @rsfarchive. For a bit of live video on this moment check out my recent post on IGTV.

It's getting cold. The days are short. Winter's co

It's getting cold. The days are short. Winter's coming. But I still love these autumn moments in the lanes.

#lostlanes #autumn #mist #mellow #cycling

Another misty moment. Looking back across the vall

Another misty moment. Looking back across the valley from an old tramway on the Blorenge mountain. One of the most dramatic bits of rough stuff in the area, including a short carry around the crumbling edge of a quarry. A shame the pub at the top - one of the highest in Wales - has closed down.

Had to go up to find the ⛅ today. View from the

Had to go up to find the ⛅ today. View from the top of the Sugarloaf.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a fl

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower", said Albert Camus. It's the last gasp now but so intense. The oaks are ablaze, a bit of beech & chestnut still left. A fortnight and it'll all be gone.
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#autumn #autumnvibes🍁 #lesfeuillesmortes

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