
Holiday 2000 - Lincolnshire
For a part of the holiday in 2000 we decided to leave the
children with their grandparents near Lincoln for a few days and got
for a cycle camping tour of Lincolnshire. The route is found on
Landranger maps 122 and 113 and I think it should be easy to follow the
route if you have those maps.
Judy rode her Flevobike Oke-Ja recumbent with equipment in a
pannier
and on the rack, and I rode a Pashley PDQ recumbent with BOB Yak
trailer
containing the rest of our gear. Recumbent bicycles in general make
excellent
touring machines, being very comfortable and giving a great view
forwards. I find the PDQ in particular to be an especially good machine
for touring as it has the most comfortable seat of any
recumbent I
have ridden.
First
Day
On the first day we started in Mareham-le-Fen where Judy's
parents live and set off south as far as Tumby Woodside before turning
east towards Skegness. We passed through Stickney and got very close to
Friskney before turning back north through Wainfleet Bank to
our campsite at Thorpe St. Peter.
Lincolnshire offers some good places for cycling. There are
many roads which have hardly any traffic on them at all. The land in
the South is very flat - which of course means considerable
headwinds can be a problem, but hills are non-existent.
The first day passed without any bad weather at all, and we
found the campsite near a pub to be very agreeable until after dark
when the nearby cows kept us awake with braying through the
night. It also turned out to be much colder than expected and
by the morning we felt somewhat like ice-cubes.
Second
Day
The second day started with us promising to buy ourselves some
better sleeping bags before the next night.
We rode East through Havenhouse Station and through Wainfleet
Clough. Meeting the cost road at Bramble Hills we first turned south to
visit the nature reserve and visitors centre before heading back north
to Skegness.
An Army and Navy store at Skegness turned out to have good
quality sleeping bags for a decent price, so these were bungied on top
of the BOB trailer before a quick ride on a roller coaster and
continuing on our way.
The coast road wasn't exactly traffic free, but it was quite
scenic. We picked up a lunch of nice healthy chips in Ingoldmells and
continued through Chapel St. Leonards, Anderby Creek, Sutton on Sea and
Trustthorpe before turning inland and getting to our next campsite at
Trusthorpe Hall in Thorpe fairly early. From here I rode back into
Sutton on Sea for a takeaway and a bottle of wine which we polished off
in the tent.
We slept much better tonight with our better insulation !
Third Day
This morning we woke up much warmer and in far better spirits.
Setting off South-West, we headed through Saleby, South
Thoresby and Muckton. It was notable that the land was a bit less flat
than it had been and we had the odd small hill to climb.
From Little Cawthorpe we went through Louth and out on another
minor road directly north past Brackinborough Hall and Little Grimsby
before heading west towards North Elkington. 124 metres here. Quite an
altitude...
Somewhere around here we stopped for lunch and a woman told us
that she used to ride, but that it's too dangerous now,
"especially at my age".
From there we headed for Memi and Binbrook. Just on the crest
of the hill at Memi, the heavens opened and we got drenched.
This was the sort of weather than no waterproofs can keep out.
An excellent example of the British Summer at its best !
We stopped under a large tree for a while, and discovered
another couple, ramblers, also sheltering the other side.
Then the thunder and lightning started and being behind a tree
seemed like a bad idea. We were also starting to get soaked under the
waterproofs so set off again in search of the nearest pub.
On entering Binbrook we found a pub which welcomed us despite
our desperately wet clothes. We downed a couple of beers while
the weather continued its worst outside.
When the weather cleared up we set off again in the direction
of Stainton le Vale and Walesby. The steep downhills before Stainton
were a challenge on a bike with a somewhat overloaded BOB trailer
attached and I had to shop some caution with speed. Getting back up the
hill at the other side was a different kind of challenge.
At Walesby we found our campsite, in a farm field with the
lack of hot water made up for somewhat by very friendly people. Luckily
the weather had completely dried up by now, and we managed quite well
overnight.
Fourth Day
Waking on the fourth day we realised how beautiful the
surroundings were - except, that is, for our untidy looking camp
including yesterdays wet clothes trying to dry out on our bikes.
We were in the middle of a huge field and a very long way from
anything but the farm house.
We had a leisurely breakfast on the conveniently supplied
picnic table and set off.
We headed South through Tealby Thorpe, where a rather full
ford threatened the contents of our panniers and trailer, North
Willingham, Sixhills, Hainton, Benniworth, Sotby, Great Sturton,
Minting and Horsington before finally arriving in Woodhall Spa where we
spent our last night under canvas.
Woodhall Spa had a variety of campsites, none of which seemed
to suit us for one reason or another. The first site we came to was
full, then the Caravan site wouldn't take us without caravans, but the
third site we asked was happy to let us stay.
Fifth Day
The fifth day was our last, and a very short cycle at that. It
is only a small distance from Woodhall Spa back to Mareham-le-Fen, and
we took the route through Haltham and Wood Enderby.
Back to find out what adventures the children had got up to
with Judy's
parents.
Lincolnshire was enjoyable to cycle around. The contrast
between the flat south and the hilly north provides some variation in
scenery, and most of the roads were not too busy to be pleasant to
cycle on.
However, Cycling is sadly somewhat a minority sport in the UK these
days, and the lack of action by local councils does little to counter
this. There are plenty of words, but they mean nothing unless followed
by action and money. While Lincolnshire ought to be a very good cycling
area, you don't see a lot of other cyclists and no-where do cycling
levels approach those of most Northern European countries these days.
Very little decent cycling infrastructure exists, meaning that where
traffic levels are higher you have to ride with a considerable number of
motor vehicles. Speed limits are high in the UK and drivers are not always
careful around cyclists. We returned to Lincoln in 2001 on holiday and
while the Youth Hostel was excellent, we found the city incredibly
inhospitable to cyclists. I wouldn't recommend it with children on
their own bikes. However, a good time can still be had if you're
careful
about planning a quiet route.
If you enjoyed this webpage, we have a few others which may
also be of interest:
A cycling holiday in the Netherlands
with our children when they were a few years older.
When David competed in the 2001 HPV
world championships in Brighton.
Riding from Cambridge to Lelystad to take part in the
Cyclevision recumbent racing
event in the Netherlands.
When David eventually got around to riding from Land's
End to John o'Groats - on the same Pashley PDQ in 2006. A review of the Pashley PDQ. For more ride stories, bike reviews etc. see the bicycles index.

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