Bikepacking London to the Peak District 🚵‍♂️

Join me on a three day cycling trip from north west London to Sheffield via the beautiful Peak District national park.
Some big miles and some nice and not so nice wild camping spots were had! Check the links below for the full route on Komoot if you are interested in doing this route.
Route : https://www.komoot.com/tour/1333564399
More epic rides : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjD0h3fD59w&list=PLYkMarnIxnDqtbfxyP0l6Xt1kZOhJDpiT&pp=gAQB

[Music] [Music] ash bridge house this is coming like north out of watford been cycling for an hour and a half i think yeah a lot of this road is going to be new to me i’ve done london to birmingham uh that’s the northernmost i’ve been actually so this will be a new uh a new record for getting well into the midlands if i make it yeah that’s pretty cool doing some work on it i can’t actually remember where the route takes me today there’s a bit of canal there’s a bit of everything really look at that i don’t know if you can see on the gopro there’s a big horse on that hill or a lion it might be a lion it’s probably a lion wow i’ve never seen that before [Music] oh wow the views are coming [Applause] [Music] wow wow look at that [Music] first of many canal runs this might be the grand union i’ll have to look and check i know we’re on the grand union a few times maybe some others i was fairly conservative when planning this route i honestly haven’t put as much time into this as i normally do for long range trips so we’ll just have to see how it is it’s been a massive road slog up to this point definitely getting some deja vu from my london to birmingham bike packing trip so i followed the grand union a long way on that one and i swear i came down this track the grand union’s right there i just remember these lines of trees just come through milton kes now we’re going through the ooze valley park which which i’ve never been through before i think we’re if the ooze has a canal we might be on that for a bit but i don’t remember [Music] we are at the river nin navigation channel i think in a minute we’re going to go down there and onto the river and follow it for a bit by look at things yeah about 80k done i’m going to try for 140 today just to get ahead of the miles a bit but we’ll see pretty cool northampton never been here before look at this the sun is out it’s about 2 hours overdue but it is warming up nicely just passed through northampton and we’re finally on some gravel after 95 kilometers of i would say 95% road so far so yeah day one not the best route i wish i’d spent more time on it but here we are we’ve almost done our mileage for the day and it’s only 2:00 2:30 something like that so i think we’re going to dig into tomorrow’s miles put a decent dent in it the main question on my mind now is where am i camping tonight i want to wild camp and i want to find somewhere nice i’m still very much an amateur of bike packing so camp spot hunting is definitely something i’m not good at but we’ll see what we can find [Music] heat heat heat heat [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh wow huh on another rail trail this one as soon as i got on to it my gin said there are no more route directions for 16 km so this is going to put me well over my daily mileage which is great and i’m hoping that at the other end of this there is a pub cuz i want to stop have a drink something to eat and then plan where i’m going to stay tonight because i can basically stop at any time now but extra mileage today there’s miles i don’t need to do tomorrow so we’ll see i want to find a nice camp spot so i need to stop and have a look at the map and see what i can [Applause] see tunnel let’s have a look i can see the end well night isn’t has not kicked in yet another one yeah i think i need to stop and plan because the next big town or city is leicester and it’s not that far and i’m worried that if i get too close to leicester there’s going to be no camping spots and then i’m going to have to go all the way through leicester and out the other side in order to find somewhere and that could add some serious mileage so i need to find a pub first i’m still on that but we’ve just come through great ben and the scenery is pretty incredible so yeah bit of a conundrum depends when i see the next pub i guess so i can stop and plan might have to give up on that if there isn’t a pub soon but it’s only half 54 6 so i still got loads of daylight to play with if i want to so yeah we’ll see unless an angry farmer turns up in the next hour i think this is going to be my camp spot for the night it is at the crest of a hill unfortunately i had to sacrifice the view my my tent will probably be pointed that way somewhere however in the morning the sunset will be here and i will have an incredible view of this i just need to get out of my tent to see it all right so it was 133 kilometers for the day which means if i can do another 133 tomorrow that’ll probably get me into the peak district and i could potentially sleep on a hill somewhere in the peak district tomorrow which would be incredible not exactly the morning i was hoping for it’s uh extremely overcast it’s quite cold as well actually so i’m going to get on the bike and start riding before i freeze to death um night was pleasant enough really quiet not sure how many hours sleep i got i do struggle to sleep in tents all right the bike is loaded everything is packed up the only trace i’ve left is a slightly a slight patch of uh flat grass there so not too bad all right let’s head out we are rolling just gone through a tiny little village called gluon with two o’s next big stop is leicester then derby and then into the peaks and i have been considering if i would just want to have an epic one today and do 170 km and get one of the last trains back to london at the end of the day or if i just have a chill one and spend the night in the peaks which does sound nice as well but i haven’t decided yet and that’s a decision that can wait for a few hours as well so yeah it’s going to be overcast until about midday again so going to be gray for a while but it’s still absolutely incredible here all right let’s see what we can find today there is a huge church every 10 minutes of here [Music] lester i [Music] think [Music] heat heat [Music] heat heat entering south darisher oh we got to go this way we almost entered it but no oh what a cruel what a cruel fate no it counts it counts my wheel went over the line i don’t know how long this greenway lasts but i’m hoping it’s a long time cuz it’s basically been a road slog for 95% of today once again the lack of route planning is starting to uh yeah put a down on things but the scenery is still beautiful i i just wish i was in it a bit more anyway we’re going to get to derby get some food and then see see what the situation is for later on if i do want to power through and do the whole thing in one day or not not sure if the legs have the quite the energy to do a century plus 10 km today but we’ll see [Music] [Music] heat heat [Music] [Music] heat heat heat heat [Music] come through derby now it’s funny after 20 years some of the things look exactly the same yeah i mean old block of flats are still there still looks exactly the same park farm little uh shopping center right next to it mark eaten lane going towards work yeah very nostalgic going to find somewhere to stop and eat in a minute then i’m going to see how close to the peaks i can get today before uh setting up camp another tunnel i’m on the tissingon trail which means i’m officially in the peak district national park hooray i am absolutely knackered though my legs are jelly going up any hill and there’s still about 100k left of the route to do if i want to finish today so yeah that’s not happening we’ll see what we can see today i’ve done 110k for the day so everything else from here on out is a [Music] bonus heat heat [Music] [Music] heat heat [Music] [Music] heat heat [Music] [Music] wow i wish the sun was out but this is still incredible heat [Music] [Music] heat [Music] heat heat [Music] [Music] that’s a good way to start the day technical downhill so it’ll be an awful chance of punching now oh man i’m going up there huh [Applause] [Music] well that was an interesting night so i didn’t make it to sheffield i’m about 45 km away ended up pitching my tent next to the entrance to a a field right on the edge of a trail which was not great but i got away with it but i did get up at 5:30 just to make sure i got away with it so yeah it’s about 6:30 now today we’re going through the peaks going to see ladybar dam uh hit a couple trails nothing too crazy i am fully laden so as much as i’d love to go and shred yeah i think i’d break my bike at this point so we’re just going to enjoy the sights and sounds and uh get into sheffle for a train where i will probably sleep the whole journey home because i haven’t slept very well on this trip at all but for now look at this absolutely beautiful i wish i could stay longer but i do have to be at work tomorrow i’m going to be very sleepd deprived and no use to anyone probably but it was worth it [Music] [Music] wow [Music] heat heat woohoo okay slow down a little bit [Music] now on thornhill trail which should lead us directly to ladybar dam which i’m quite looking forward to seeing yeah i’m definitely coming back here i think it’s rapidly rising to one of my favorite places in the uk incredible [Music] well i came here to see the the whirlpool coming down but it’s not full enough oh well yeah very cool all right i’m going to grab some food the last of my food actually i’ve managed to uh pace myself very well on this trip and then we’re going to head to sheffield to get a train part of that means going down some really cool trails on the way to sheffield so looking forward to that [Music] heat heat [Music] heat heat heat heat [Music] going up again this is a place called dennis null you climb up here go around the edge and it kind of brings you back into sheffield through another reservoir i think from looking at the map but yeah right now it’s just steep and very hard to do one-handed so i’m going to put you down [Music] [Music] i don’t know if you can see it on the gopro but reservoirs right there and then sheffield in the background so nearly there maybe another 20 km guess i’m really not sure but i can see it and i’m looking forward for that sleep on the train heat heat yeah day three is going to be a really interesting one to edit because it’s be a montage of darren stairs at hill made it the end i’m going to go and have a sleep i don’t think it’s i knew i knew it was late i think it’s