I continue eastward until I arrive at the coast near Whitby, home of Captain James Cook. South of Whitby on the coast lies Robin Hood’s Bay. This village was once a smuggler’s haven but its the village’s labrynth of tight, alleyways climbing the cliffside that make it really unique. To say it’s quaint would be an understatement. I rode through a squall for about 30 minutes before I found a pub in the village of Castleton that had rooms to let so I grabbed a room and dried off. A dinner of Yorkshire pudding stuffed with veggies and sausage along with a pint of local ale finished me off. ... read more

Continuing north, I left the Peak District and headed for the Yorkshire Dales. The southern Yorkshire Dales holds desolate yet beautiful wild heather moors. Again, the ever changing skies provide an almost surreal beauty to the landscape. Deeper into the dales, the terrain becomes lusher and greener. The omnipresent drystone walls, built by sheep farmers in days gone by, seem to blend into the natural beauty of the terrain. I stopped in Grassington for fuel. Unlike in the U.S. where gas stations seem to be on every corner, in the north of England you have to search them out. Most locals are amiable types who are more than happy to give directions to the “petrol” pump. The residents of the Yorkshire Dales are a hearty, hard-working lot as evidenced by all the stone walls. This area ... read more

My original plan was to try to make it to Ireland for a quickie tour. However, a poor weather forecast and the airline losing my luggage forced me to drop back and punt. Instead, I decided to focus on three National Parks in the north of England. The Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors National Parks. Starting out from Nottingham, I headed to Matlock Bath on the southern edge of the Peak District. Matlock Bath has been a tourist site since warm springs were discovered there. Nowadays, it’s a major Sunday biking destination seeing close to 1000 bikers on summer weekends. I secured a room at a bed & breakfast for the night. ... read more

View of the Nærøy Valley from the Stalheimskleiva Hotel. The road from Stalheimskleiva leading down to the valley below drops some 1,100 feet in 1 mile with an 18% grade.... read more

Yet another ferry! They didn’t seem to run regularly. If you didn’t arrive just at the right time, you might be sitting for up to an hour. Finally, after 4 days above the Arctic Circle, the sun began to fight its way through the clouds as we approached the fjordlands again. ... read more