The past 18 months were a mixture of utter traffic chaos, severe disruption and, seemingly at times, sheer madness.This was due to the East End Transport Scheme being built in Plymouth’s East End. Broadly speaking, the scheme would improve traffic flow (for motorised traffic, of course) throughout the area, and crucially prepare creaking transport links to ... Read more

I’ve posted several times before about NCN 27, which is also known as the Devon Coast to Coast route, and I have some detailed writings about parts of the route, specifically the Plym Valley Trail and Drake’s Trail. However, there is a second NCN route through Plymouth: NCN 2. Here’s what Sustrans has to say ... Read more

It takes a lot to run a city the size of Plymouth, and there is at any point in time huge scope for things to go wrong. Everything needs maintaining and demands on budgets are made all the time from all directions. In a commercial environment this would be hard enough, but throw elected officials ... Read more

Gem Bridge, I’m happy to say, is progressing brilliantly! I had the opportunity to visit the site, and take some photos. I wasn’t allowed right down into the valley at the time, as they were still securing a segment of the bridge that had been lifted in place just a while before I took the ... Read more

No, this isn’t going to be a long, detailed write-up telling you about every little pebble along the way, but rather on overview. As you may know, I cycled the Devon Coast 2 Coast route (NCN 27) from lfracombe to Plymouth, over two days, to fundraise for Myeloma UK. They’re a charity that focuses exclusively ... Read more

On Saturday I’m travelling up to Ilfracombe to start cycling the Devon Coast to Coast route (NCN 27). I’m doing this as a charity fundraiser for Myeloma UK – they provide finance for research, and support for people living with myeloma, and a whole lot more. Myeloma is quite a rare type of blood cancer, ... Read more

Just on the eastern edge of Plymouth is a gorgeous area known as Plymbridge. The name originated from the bridge over the river Plym, which for a very long time was the bridge nearest to the river’s mouth. For a while, the South Devon and Tavistock railway ran through the area, as it followed the ... Read more

You know the feeling: there you are, happily pedalling along when suddenly a vehicle passes so close it almost scrapes the paint of your bike. We’ve all had near-misses and we’ve all had our lives flash before our eyes, just because some driver cut you up, overtook with millimetres to spare or done something else that nearly ... Read more

Yesterday I cycled to West Hoe park with my youngest, who wanted to go on the tag-along, as there are uphills her little legs don’t like too much.When we eventually left the park, we decided to cycle up Hoe road, on Plymouth’s  foreshore. Hoe road is a one-way against us, but there is a contra-flow ... Read more

I e-mailed West Devon Borough Council, asking for an update on Gem bridge, as well as Grenofen Tunnel and Ashmill bridge, and this is what I got by way of reply:“Devon County Council’s aspiration is for the Grenofen Tunnel and Gem Bridge works to be completed, and the route open by late spring 2012. Given ... Read more

I’ve posted before about a particular problem  I have: my phone runs out of battery power after a few hours of GPS usage. Even when I don’t use GPS, I tend to take quite a few pictures when I’m out and about. There are well-known solutions to this problem. Simply by replacing the front wheel ... Read more

I’m going to steer clear of the moral arguments around the riots. As you will be well aware, by now every right-wing zealot has been calling for all sorts of draconian, stupid and impractical measures, while many have to their shame called for soldiers on the streets, as well as the use of rubber bullets. On ... Read more

I spent a couple of days in Warwick, and made good use of the time to cycle parts of the grand Union Canal, which links London and Birmingham. Living in Plymouth, I am not used to canals at all, and the fact that I was not cycling alongside a river was brought home to me when ... Read more

Last Saturday I drove up to Barnstaple, specifically to cycle NCN27 to Ilfracombe and back. I parked up very close to the station, and discovered to my horror that I forgot my cycling shoes! I have clipless pedals on my bike, and without my cycling shoes I cannot attach to the pedals. A quick trip ... Read more

On Saturday, I took some more photos I was given some photos, by a complete stranger that I will never recognise again. It was dark when the stranger gave me a micro-SD card containing the photos, and I’m sure he was wearing a wig, a false beard and sunglasses, so I cannot describe him at all.As I ... Read more