Roscoff (France) to Lydford (UK): Cycling the Land of Ships and Sheep
14-16 April 2019
Roscoff, France to Plymouth, UK (14 April 2019, 2.3 km by bike, 200 km by ferry)
As predicted, rain began to fall during the night. The ferry to England wouldn’t be leaving Roscoff until 4:30 in the afternoon, so we had plenty of time to sleep in and take it easy in the morning. With the ugly weather, we weren’t tempted to go outside. Instead, after checking out of our room we lingered in the hotel lobby. The waiting area was a pleasant (if cool) glassed-in sunroom .
PedalinGuy staying warm and dry while waiting for a break in the rain, before biking to the ferry for Plymouth, England. Hotel Bellevue, Roscoff, France. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Today we realized that we had pedaled past the 3,000 km mark yesterday, without taking a moment to celebrate. We had known we would cross that milestone between Carhaix-Plouguer and Morlaix. But in the moment, enjoying the ride, we forgot about it. So, somewhere along the trail shortly after passing the town of Poullaouen we had covered 3,000 km.
By early afternoon the rain slackened to an intermittent drizzle, providing a few windows of time when we could hustle over to the ferry and stay reasonably dry. Around 2pm, we packed up our bikes and headed to the ferry terminal. The initial check-in was relatively painless because we had prepaid for a reservation online.
Next we waited in an outdoor line for the immigration checkpoints to open. While there, we chatted with a man and his young daughter behind us. They had stayed in the same hotel as us, visiting France for the weekend. They had hoped to spend a couple of days riding their motorcycle around northern France. But they told us that their ride on Friday had been so cold that they ended up changing plans. On Saturday they ferried out to the Île-de-Batz, and went cycling for a day. Now they’re headed back home after their father-daughter weekend.
Then we waited some more. The immigration checkpoints didn’t open until 3pm. And even after that, a number of other groups were allowed to pass through before us - a tour bus, several semi-trucks, and a couple of rows of cars. The trucks and tour busses took a bunch of time, because the border agents had to check the passports of every tourist on the full bus, and the trucks needed to have their paperwork reviewed. We began to worry because another rainstorm was moving in, and it started to drizzle again.
We hoped the ferry staff would take pity on us and let us be one of the first groups to go through customs so we could get out of the rain. After a couple of commercial trucks, tour busses, and a few cars, we finally got our turn. Roscoff, France. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Our ferry, so close and yet so far. We were itching to get into our warm and dry cabin. Roscoff, France. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
But before we got too wet, we were ushered onboard. One of the crew members lashed our unloaded bikes to a bar along the ferry wall, designated for bicycles. Then we hauled our luggage up to the 9th deck. We had pre-booked a cabin so that we’d have somewhere convenient to store all our gear. Our room was designed for disabled access, so both beds were on the ground - no bunks. It was spacious and comfortable.
Safe and sound in our cabin, out of the nasty weather. It was totally worth the extra expense to have a secure space to store all of our gear. Roscoff, France. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
After taking a few minutes to relax in the cabin we went to look around the boat. It’s a pretty big vessel, with nine floors (including the car parking levels). There are multiple restaurants, a bar, an onboard cinema, gaming rooms and an outdoor pool (not much of an attraction in this weather). We went to the outside deck, and got some photos of the ferry pulling away from the Port of Roscoff.
Au revoir, France! Our ferry to England just pulled away from the pier in Roscoff. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Conditions weren’t ideal for hanging out on the deck, but we stayed out long enough to snap some photos of France receding towards the horizon. English Channel. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
We had a hearty dinner of duck stew at one of the onboard restaurants. But because of the very high winds, the seas were pretty rough and the big boat was swaying back and forth on the waves. We quickly realized why most people had dinner as soon as they got on board. A big meal and a rocking boat don’t make a good combination. PedalingGuy started feeling queasy. So we headed back to the cabin where he could rest. He was out like a light for the rest of the voyage.
Disembarking from the ferry was a bit stressful. The ferry is supposed to play ambient music in the cabins about an hour before reaching the port so that you can have time to get your things ready to go. We were sleeping in our cabin, but the ferry didn’t play the ambient wake-up music.
We awoke to the announcement that the boat was docking, and we needed to vacate our cabin immediately. Yikes! We needed to change back into biking clothes and pack up our things as fast as we could. Luckily, we’ve had a lot of practice on this trip, so our pack up process is pretty streamlined. Still, it was nerve wracking to have a steward come by and knock on our door, telling us it was time to go.
Even after we’re packed up, we can’t carry all of our stuff in one go. We finally managed to get all our stuff on an elevator and down to the vehicle deck. By the time we got our panniers loaded on the bikes, we were the last of the pedestrian/bikers to leave. But they were still unloading cars - so we weren’t the very last ones off the boat.
By that time it was past 10pm, dark, and drizzling rain. Our only means of navigating from the ferry to the hotel, PedalingGuy’s iPhone, was useless because each raindrop activated a random series of responses as it hit the phone, then rolled down the screen. And, given that this is England, we had to quickly rewire our brains to remember to ride on the left side of the road (not so easy, if you’ve never tried it). PedalingGuy is a hero for getting us to the hotel without any serious mishaps. It was a big relief to finally tumble into bed.
Rest Day in Plymouth (15 April 2019)
We didn’t get to bed last night until well after midnight, but we didn’t want to miss breakfast. The Jewell Hotel includes a full, English breakfast with the cost of the room. We sat by a window and savored our delicious, made-to-order eggs, sausage, beans, tomato, mushrooms and toast. Our day was off to a very good start.
The forecast was for rain showers, and winds up to 40 mph. Not the kind of weather that encourages one to go out on a bicycle. So we stayed in Plymouth and took care of some errands. First, we exchanged our euros for British pounds. We also picked up some small camping and biking supplies (e.g., new rain covers for my biking shoes - I’ve already almost worn out a pair!).
We were able to complete our errands pretty efficiently. It helps immensely that our vocabulary has expanded significantly, now that we were in an English speaking country. In addition, British stores are open longer hours than those in France and Spain, where you spend a lot of time staring at signs scratching your head, wondering why a particular store is closed, and when it will open. We had gotten so used to spending a bunch of time trying to find an open store that sold what we wanted, that it was actually somewhat of a surprise to us how easy it was to buy supplies here in Plymouth. With the extra time, PedalingGuy even decided to celebrate with a haircut. When the barber asked if he wanted a 1, 2, or 3 cut he decided to avoid this mysterious question and just said: “not too short.” It was a good thing, too, since he ended up with one of his shortest haircuts ever.
We then had plenty of time to walk around the waterfront area. It was very windy, but that didn’t stop us from checking out the sights. We strolled through Hoe Park, the Riverwalk, and the Barbican neighborhood (old town). Plymouth has a very picturesque waterfront, and the town was bustling with people. It was great to be able to spend an afternoon getting to know the city better.
Smeaton’s Tower (the lighthouse) is one of Plymouth’s iconic sights. In front is the belvedere, a set of columned terraces where visitors can enjoy a view of Plymouth Sound. Locals call it the “wedding cake,” because it’s said to resemble Queen Victoria’s tiered, white, decorated cake. Plymouth, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
If you’ve paid any attention to pop culture lately, you have some idea that the Vikings attacked and sacked England a lot in the past. People don’t forget those things. This “Viking Stone” was presented to Plymouth by the five Scandinavian countries in 1997 to commemorate 1,000 years since the last Viking raid of the city, and to honor their current friendship. Plymouth, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
A local resident in Hoe Park. Common Magpie. Plymouth,England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The rugged waterfront, seen from the top of the limestone cliffs in Hoe Park. Amazingly, we saw a man with a young boy (father and son?) practicing swimming in the very cold, rough seas just off of the pier. Brrrr. Plymouth, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
That’s the ferry we took from Roscoff to Plymouth yesterday. It looks enormous compared to that military ship. Plymouth Sound, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Guess what we found? Another branch of the Camino de Santiago. It makes sense that Plymouth would have been a good place to catch a ferry or ship to the continent, to continue the pilgrimage. This symbol appears on a waterfront wall in the old city, and the plaque talks about the Camino. Plymouth, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
One of the sights of particular interest to us, as Americans, was the Mayflower Steps. They are said to be the steps that the pilgrims to Massachusetts took when boarding the Mayflower, one of the first cruise ships to set sail to the New World. We tried to get a peek, but there is a barricade around them for restoration and repair, apparently in preparation for the 400th anniversary of the pilgrim’s voyage in 2020. Nothing to see today, except the UK and US flags that fly together over the steps.
Without the cars and electric lights, you could almost imagine that you were back in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Barbican is Plymouth’s old neighborhood, with over 200 buildings dating from the 14th-17th centuries. Plymouth, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
When we reached Plymouth’s old town, the Barbican, it started raining again so we hustled back to the hotel for the rest of the afternoon. Finding a restaurant for dinner was almost too easy. We are back in the land where stores and restaurants are open for business whenever you need them. After a couple of months of having very limited dining options, we’re looking forward to having more choices.
Plymouth to Lydford (16 April 2019, 51 km, 31.7 mi)
On our way out of Plymouth, we ran into a problem. The route is supposed to cross a pedestrian bridge at the mouth of Sutton Harbor, towards the National Marine Aquarium. But the bridge is “closed until further notice.” We had to detour around the back side of the harbor, adding several kilometers, and nearly 45 minutes to our ride at the start of the day.
Fortunately, the detour around Sutton Harbor was scenic. Plymouth, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Soaking up the nautical vibe at the marina in Sutton Harbor, Plymouth, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
From Plymouth we headed up the Plym River, through a natural area called Plymbridge Woods. This section of the bike trail is called Drake’s Trail (after Sir Francis Drake), and it generally follows an old railroad grade - although there were definitely a few spots early in the ride where the trail pitched up some steep embankments, so it’s not all rail trail.
We looked for birds on the marshes of the Plym River, but our only new species was Canada Goose. Not too exotic for folks from North America. Plymouth, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
This beetle looks like he’s in racing form. Plymbridge Woods, Plymouth, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
An unexpected treat came when we reached a bridge that crosses high over the Plym River valley. Two volunteers were staked out on the bridge, monitoring an active Peregrine Falcon nest. They had spotting scopes focused on the female on the nest, and the male in a nearby tree, and they let us take a look through the scopes. Peregrines are awesome birds. But they also have special significance to us because PedalingGuy worked for the Peregrine Fund, in the early 1980s, and helped release young falcons in the Adirondacks to recover the U.S. population from near-extinction. And, peregrine means “pilgrim” in Spanish, so we spent some time as peregrines, ourselves, earlier this year on the Camino de Santiago. We had fun visiting with the Plym Peregrine volunteers, learning about their monitoring project, and sharing information about our cycling trip.
Checking out a Peregrine Falcon nest on a cliff overlooking the Plym River. England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
This kind of terrain is where you really appreciate the old railroad grades. We got to ride through some of the hills, instead of up and over them. The walls of these railroad cuts were covered with lush mosses and ferns. Bickleigh, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
After 17 kilometers, we rode into Dartmoor National Park, and we spent most of the rest of the day either cycling within the park or just outside of its western edge. The park is more than 50% privately owned (apparently most of it belongs to the Duke of Cornwall), and another 37% is common land, which is used by farmers for grazing sheep. So there’s relatively little natural vegetation, unlike in U.S. national parks. Instead, most of the lower elevations are planted in forage grasses for big herds of sheep, and the natural moorlands are found on the higher hills. The main benefit of the park is that public access is allowed on most of the lands within the park, even private property. So there are extensive networks of hiking, cycling and horseback riding trails.
We spent most of the day cycling in and out of the western edge of Dartmoor National Park, It’s not always easy to tell when you’re inside the park, because most of the land is used for sheep grazing, and there are even some towns within the park. But we did come across one sign for the park. Devon, England. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
It’s clear we’ve entered a landscape where people really know how to grow a hedge. The massive hedges that delineate the grazing fields are all thick, well-groomed, and look like they’ve been cultivated over hundreds of years. Dartmoor National Park, England. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
And then there are the sheep. Lots and lots of them. The blue paint isn’t a fashion statement, it’s there to help the farmers identify their sheep among the mixed flocks on the common lands. Dartmoor National Park, England. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
In addition to sheep, we saw a huge number of pheasants. They were everywhere. We’ve never seen so many pheasants in one place. From a vantage point on top of a bridge, we counted 42 pheasants that we could see (all males, except for one female). The males were displaying and calling, and really didn’t seem to be bothered by our presence. We weren’t sure if that was because of springtime hormone levels that had them very focused on looking regal and showing off their assets, or whether they had lost some fear of humans in this area.
From this bridge, we saw at least 42 pheasants down in the fields. The habitat here must be pheasant heaven. Dartmoor National Park, England. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The males were displaying, trying to catch the attention of one, lone female. Dartmoor National Park, England. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Dartmoor has the largest area of granite near the surface in Britain. Historically, granite quarrying was a major part of the economy on the moor. In fact, the railroad that formerly ran down to Plymouth (and created our excellent bike path) was built to carry granite down from the hills to the coast, and to bring supplies back to the mountain towns. Locally, almost everything is built from granite, including houses, farm buildings, bridges and water channels. But they didn’t build stone walls in the fields like so many other places we’ve traveled. They used hedges for that.
Locally abundant granite was used to build almost everything in Dartmoor National Park. Buckland Monachorum, England, UK, Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The park has a long history of human settlement, and is dotted with the remains of medieval farmhouses. This one’s now inhabited by a family of Jackdaws. Dartmoor National Park. Buckland Monachorum, England, UK, Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Up close, the hedges form a tall, impenetrable barrier. Their branches are so densely packed, you can’t see any light through them. It’s normal for the hedges to be placed right on the edge of the road, with no shoulder. That makes it hard for bikes to move over and let vehicles pass. Fortunately, these roads don’t get very much traffic. Brentor, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
From a distance, the hedges outline small, neatly cropped fields for the sheep. Dartmoor National Park, England. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The 13th century Church of St. Michael de Rupe is still used for services from Easter to September. It sits several hundred feet up on top of a Tor (a classic moorland hill topped with granite). The worshippers must be very dedicated to hike all the way up there to go to church. Brentor, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Just before arriving in Lydford, we passed over Lydford Gorge, the deepest ravine in southwestern England and an “area of outstanding natural beauty.” We didn’t have time to hike the trail down into the gorge, but later we walked back and admired it from the bridge.
Monument commemorating the site of a Saxon-Viking battle in 997. Dartmoor National Park, Lydford, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The weather forecast for the day had been for rain, but the afternoon turned out to be lovely - sunny and nearly 60 degrees. We decided to stay at a campground just outside of Lydford. We set up our tent on a wonderful, grassy hill with a panoramic view of the Dartmoor mountains to the east. Our campsite even had a picnic table, an amenity that is very rare in European campgrounds.
Camping on a grassy knoll. Dartmoor National Park, Lydford, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
You can’t beat that view. Looking eastward into Dartmoor National Park from our campsite near Lydford, England, UK. The lower elevations are planted in lush grasses for grazing sheep, while the higher elevations are covered with more natural vegetation. The ridges are dotted with granite outcrops. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The campground hosts were a very friendly, husband and wife team. They are long-time cyclists, although these days they ride electric bicycles. They told us they were planning a ride through the Loire Valley this spring, and they will be covering the same ground as we did from Roscoff to Carhaix-Plouguer on a ride in the fall. We shared information with them about how to download GPX files of routes from various websites. They gave us some ideas for alternative ferries we can take back to France after we’re done touring the UK and Ireland.
After dinner at our camp, we walked back into town and visited the ruins of Lydford Castle (really a 16th century courthouse and prison), and went back to view the Lydford Gorge from the bridge.
Beautiful detailing on a window in St. Petroc’s Church. Dartmoor National Park, Lydford, England, UK. The Norman-era church is adjacent to the ghostly shell of the old Lydford Castle. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Looking down into the famous Lydford Gorge. The trails into the ravine were closed by the time we arrived, so we viewed southwest England’s deepest gorge from a bridge. Dartmoor National Park, Lydford, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
A local sheep kept an eye on us as we wandered through town. Dartmoor National Park, Lydford, England, UK. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
All afternoon, St. Petroc’s Church pealed its bells every 15 minutes, probably in celebration of Holy Week. But once the sun set, the campground was very peaceful and quiet. We fell asleep to the murmurings of nearby herds of cattle and sheep.
