For me, every cycle tour begins the same way: with a fall.

You read a few posts ago that I don’t particularly balance well. So cycling at a fast pace, having to deal with clipping on and off, deal with obstructions like a loose running dog or even just trying to get around curving road blocks are challenges for me.

So, when I first mounted the tour bike on my cycle tour around the British Isles in June, I fell within the first five minutes.

Band aid on, attempt number two, and I was on the the road to discover the British Isles by bike with Wilderness Scotland.

Cycling hasn’t just been a sport I do. It has been a journey, one that began with complete shock that I was on a cycling tour in the first place (read about my first cycling tour in Yeat’s country) to joining leisure rides with Kingston Cycling Campaign, to meeting cyclists and buying my road bike, to joining the lycra club, to taking up challenges and even starting to write about cycling.

I have grown with this journey, learnt valuable lessons and most of all, cycling has become so much more than just a sport to keep me fit. It has given me time to think, time to be me, time to be free. (It has also given me scars, the bruises, the gravel rash and saddle sores… but hey, life of a cyclist!)

I had signed up for this tour having learned about it during the Ireland ride. I wasn’t much of a cyclist then, and also it was only a grade three tour, whereas this is a grade seven tour. It has been two years in the making for me to believe I could take it on.

We began at the car park of Black Sheep Brewery in Masham, Yorkshire. The tour will have us cycle through Yorkshire, take on some parts of the beginning stages of Tour de France in 2014, across to Wales, cross the waters into Ireland, up around Northern Ireland, cross the waters again to finish in Scotland.

England, Wales, R. of Ireland, N. Ireland, Scotland.

Five Countries. Ten days.

England: Yorkshire & Lancashire

Stage one of the 2014 Tour de France began in Yorkshire, and subsequently created the annual Tour de Yorkshire race.

How tough can cycling in Yorkshire be? It’s not like it’s the Alpe d’Huez or Passo dello Stelvio of the professional races.

Well, that might be so, but there is the Buttertub Pass. It isn’t the toughest there is to climb, but once upon a time, even the gentle Box Hill (5%, 2.5km) was tough for me so at 6.5% for 4.4Km, Buttertub was an obvious challenge.

But wait, there came more. Northern England is full of hills, some rating as much as 33% and through the entire stage of our Yorkshire days, it was up and down, up and down, and climbing up to a max of 25%.

Boy was I glad I was in Italy cycling with Alison of Lucca Cycling Club just a couple of weeks before this. It was a much needed training!

I have always wanted to see the Yorkshire countryside. Transport is limited and walking takes too long and never a long weekend option when I had a day job.

York is lovely, but I had wanted to experience the rise and drop of hills, the rivers that carve the valleys, the country inns and small remote corners away from modern life.

Since discovering the joy of cycling, it has occurred to me that this is possibly the best way to cover the distances needed at the same time, take in the scenery as if I am part of it.

From Malham, our end destination in Yorkshire to ride towards Forest of Bowland, thus crossing over to Lancashire.

The landscape is not very different, except with more trees perhaps. Just like it was in Yorkshire, we followed edges of farmland and stonewalls along narrow country roads, occasionally dodging sheep and tractors, smelling the fresh scent of moist grass (it had rained the night before) and manure.

Although it was a shorter ride the day after the epic long day (the itinerary is designed to interchange tough day and easier rest days), anything more than 0% was feeling like 25% from tired legs, although I felt I was getting stronger.

With every climb there is always a descend. When you start thinking that could be used for resting then you are wrong. In cycling, steep descents are just as terrifying, as I mentioned in my post when I cycled in Tuscany.

It is when you are likely to lose control, a slip of hand, the wrong foot placement could mean disaster.

But that’s what makes this fun, and I couldn’t be more surprised how much the northern English landscape provided such great cycling experience.

Unfortunately, it was also this night my body decided to give up. I came down with the flu and was shivering with an oncoming fever. I chose to skip dinner (shock horror!) and tried to sleep it off.

Wales: by-passing Snowdonia

Waking the next day, I wasn’t too much better, but I armed myself with drugs, on with the lycra and decided to soldier on. I knew we had a day in Dublin coming up soon and didn’t want to miss any cycling.

The day began with rain but the sun soon broke out in all its splendour, highlighting the surrounding farmlands. We crossed the border at Pen-y-bont Llanerch Emrys into Wales, and the effect of this change in country was almost immediate.

For those who still believe that the entirety of the British Isles is all the same, then perhaps you should join this tour to discover that there are distinct landscape, culture and languages all round.

Wales is green, but a different kind of green. Northern England had been a rolling subtle olive green, but the Welsh landscape presented a more dramatic moss green accompanied by the purple of fox gloves.

We traverse the beautiful Snowdonia National Park and skirt around Snowdon, embracing the sandstone hills that tested my legs again. We climbed and climbed, following the curve of the mountain towards the ‘end’.

“You’ll love what’s coming up Amy!” Shouted Ben, one of our guides on tour. “This is the best descend in Wales!”

Despite being scared of descends, it can be quite thrilling to get on one that just rolls, and he was right, the winding smooth road looking out into the end of the valley made it one of the most memorable descend on this trip.

A cancelled ferry and re-booking on an earlier ferry across St George’s Channel meant we had to cut our day short and drive to the ferry terminal. This short taste of Wales had been a great introduction to the great cycling there is in Wales and just as well I do have a Cicerone Guidebook to Cycling Lon Las Cymru which I am looking forward to trying out when I get a chance!

The ferry took us across the water into Ireland, where I spent one much needed rest day in Dublin before continuing with the rest of the tour. (Part 2 coming)