Shame about that down and back up section in the middle ... why can't these rivers behave themselves and go in straight lines? :wink: Agreed, that's the (soon to be notorious) Avon Loop. I think there's a genuine argument for saying that no bike ride in history was ever improved by going to Coventry.

Well, knowing ziltch about GIS instead I've taken a detailed topo, overlain the scottish watershed route (Cape Wrath Variant) and the UK river map, and roughly marked out the route of the Watershed. Then I tidied it up a bit. So, with the exception of the Scottish ending, this ought to be a half rea...

Bearbonesnorm wrote:Yes but that's a pretty dull route if ever there was one. I'm certainly not saying there aren't some nice bits but they're far outweighed by the not so nice ones.

I liked it.

its a real shame about Wales! I started mapping out the Welsh watershed a couple of years ago ... the amount of rivers makes things quite interesting, especially if you're trying to be as accurate / true as possible. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Wales.rivers.lakes.jpg That lo...

this version of the scottish WS finished at cape wrath... http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/hewwat/hewwat0003.htm And a test of your scottish river naming ability - http://lizardpoint.com/geography/scotland-rivers-quiz.php :grin: I saw this one and thought it looked like a good basis for the Scottish en...

This is quite useful.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... ngland.jpg

I can see the lid coming off a highly entertaining can of worms here! :-bd To tackle the q's in no particular order. In my view (and it's not an especially important view), the divide is between oceans/seas. As such the east/west North Sea/Atlantic takes precedence over the north/south English Chann...

Well, if no-one has actually come up with a route yet, then the combined experience of this forum ought to be just the place to do it! If we start with the list I gave (HT550, Pennine B/W, Cotswold Escarpment, South Downs Way) then it's a case of gluing them together with good locally known routes. ...

Yeah, I saw the books (I've not read them). Apparently only about 7 people are known to have walked the entirety of the Scottish Watershed, and it's probably damn near impossible with a bike (unless you're a certified masochist). But I'm willing to bet that with some flexibility in route selection (...

Hi, Probably like a lot of people here, I've been entertaining the idea of the doing the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (or even the Tour Divide) :grin: But in thinking about it (a lot) I wondered if someone has done the same thing in the UK? It appears from this map https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...

Great read. Is entry open to anyone? I reckon I used up all of my free passes going to Iceland for a fortnight, but a couple of days in Wales next year would be a of easier to swing!

Thanks everyone for your support. It's at 6pm tonight in Bristol if anyone is about and fancies a laugh (at my expense).

Cheers, Tom

Thanks, that's kind of you to say so. I'm currently trying to make sense of some 600 photos and working out if I have anything interesting to add to them. Having never done anything like this before, I'm suffering from a minor crisis about whether anyone will turn up, and if they do, can I keep them...

Recently a couple of us tried to ride North-south across the interior of Iceland. We were utterly unsuccessful, but we had a pretty good adventure in the process. We also made a decent chunk of cash for the MNDA (£2k and counting). After reading the account of our trip a local deli/cafe offered to h...

Here it is then. The full trip write-up.

I hope you enjoy it, but if you don't... tough.

http://icelandicfatfun.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... te-up.html

That's the guy I went with. No doubt he'll turn up here soon enough.

I look forward to your write up, a bottle of wine may be in order if it's as long as you say :wink: . And a Sigur Ros soundtrack. If it's long enough, we may manage the entire back catalogue, which would be a feat in it's self! I fear you may have exaggerated the extent of my report! I'd suggest th...

It was pretty epic (the ride and the place). We went from Reykjavik to Pingvellir, then just north of Gulfoss, then up the Kjolur, then back down it the next day due to horrific weather. After that was a fairly serious day in absolute solitude with the mother of all river crossings. Then Landmannalu...

Yep. Thanks for following. Though you'll note that we singularly failed to cross the country!

I'm working on a record of our recent trip to Iceland. But in the meantime, here are some pretty rubbish tips for anyone else planning on doing something similar.

http://icelandicfatfun.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... f-our.html

Just in case anyone makes it this far through the topic, I wrote a review of the Surly Pug Ops fatbike I got for the Iceland trip. It's frikkin' vaguely exciting. Sharks with lasers vaguely exciting.

http://icelandicfatfun.blogspot.com/201 ... eview.html

Also, for those with a lot of spare time and low expectations of quality, there's a new blog post:

http://icelandicfatfun.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... again.html

UPDATE: More good news! Holurhaun has stopped erupting. Unfortunately this wont stop gas emissions for a while, but it bodes well for a safer trip in July. http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/articles/…/2947 For those looking at flights; Sleazy Jet fly also from Bristol to Reykjavik. We're ...

jam bo wrote:

Catbaiter wrote:But who are you that know's so much about our plans?!

Im going with you...

Oh, right. Hi Jim.

This is nearly as weird as that time Bignose did karaoke in the Japanese restaurant in Chamonix.

Correct. After much deliberating, optioneering and general whataboutery; re-routing is the prefered option. But who are you that know's so much about our plans?! Simon, thanks so much for your comment, very useful indeed. On the blog I claimed that the f35 (Kjölur) route wasn't for us, but having sa...