How I cycled coast to coast avoiding crossing any major UK river – day 5 – journey’s end

C2C: The Quiet Way — Wirral to Cleethorpes (Avoiding Major Rivers) – journey’s end with a cool finishing point.

Join me on a coast-to-coast cycling adventure across England — from the Irish Sea on the Wirral Peninsula to the North Sea at Cleethorpes.

This isn’t the classic C2C — it’s a custom route designed to avoid major river crossings and keep to quieter, more scenic roads. The journey crosses the country from west to east through the heart of England, following five relaxed but rewarding stages:

1️⃣ Wirral → Chester — rolling out along the Dee Estuary with views of North Wales before turning inland through peaceful lanes.
2️⃣ Chester → Telford — a mix of Cheshire countryside and Shropshire market towns, following quiet backroads and canal paths.
3️⃣ Telford → Coalville — crossing the edge of the Midlands via the Wolverhampton canal network and leafy lanes through rural Staffordshire.
4️⃣ Coalville → Newark — riding through Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, tracing gentle hills and historic villages with old railways and abandoned canals.
5️⃣ Newark → Cleethorpes — a final flat run across Lincolnshire farmland, finishing with sea air and fish & chips on Cleethorpes beach.

Expect footage from the saddle, and reflections from each day’s ride — perfect for anyone planning their own coast-to-coast or looking for a low-traffic, scenic alternative to the main C2C routes taking in canals and old railways.

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#c2c #coasttocoast #CyclingUK #Bikepacking #WirralToCleethorpes #CyclingAdventure #CycleTouring

full route:
https://www.komoot.com/collection/3934859/-c2c-no-major-rivers?ref=collection

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Right. [Music] Morning. Welcome to day five. There’s the River Trent. Look, I’m 10 m away from it. There’s a road bridge which I’m not going over. I’ve stayed this side of it. So, River Trent, 185 mi long. Starts in Shropshire, goes all the way up to hill. Hole, not hill goes uphill. Uh, so that’s what I’ve been avoiding for the majority of the route the last 3 days. So, we’re going that way today. I’m going to pick up that old railway line I came in on last night up into Lincoln missing the Wither and then one big hill uh to get over to Clethopes. So 60 mi again today. It’s cold. It’s about 5 or 6°. I’m just about to get mobbed by uh pigeons. So I best get out of the way. Right. I see you on the road. [Music] the Trent just there. See that banking? That’s the Trent the other side of it. So, 30 m on. It’s probably about as close as I could get to it cycling. So, the Trent now disappears around to the left there. and meanders up towards Hull and we’re going somewhere over that way to Lincoln. So that’s the Trent put to bed. Don’t have to worry about that one now. So that’s been 220 mi. I’ve had to stay south of the Trent. Keep it on me left. Now we got the rhythm with them Lincoln to avoid. And then we’ve got to run into Cleths over the Lincoln Shaw Wolves. One one big hill about 500 26 ft of elevation today. So that’s it at 1,400 ft of climbing which probably means it’s about 2,000. It’s never the same as what it is. Yeah. What a lovely morning. Yeah. Look at that. How beautiful. A much nicer start than yesterday. I’m sure you’ll agree. But yeah, it’s lovely, isn’t it? Just me and my shadow. Look cool. Yeah, it’s crisp. It is go morning, but it’s not raining, so I’ll take that. Yeah, just lovely. Gorgeous, quiet country lane. We’re heading up towards Collingham now. The A46 is somewhere over to our right, which is the main road from Newark to Lincoln. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Good. I never caught that. Mom come down here quite a lot. [Music] Right. So we’re about well that sign says 7 milesi to link. We’re not that’s at center. We’re not quite going to center because I don’t want to get too close to the width. We’re on the old uh Lan Darisher East Coast Railway which went from Chesterfield in that direction through to Lincoln. They never did the other two bits, the Lanasher and the East Coast bit. So yeah, we’ve got about I don’t know 4ish miles into Lincoln once we got past the former RAF Skellington site and we cross the road. We’re gonna go down the side of the Fosdike navigation towards Lincoln Center. And then we’re going to go up the hill and drop out of Lincoln and down onto the WS. I think it is over the over the WS and into Cleop. So, we’ve done about 16 miles at the minute, but I’m feeling all right. Legs are very heavy today, but not too bad on the bike. just I can feel them when I stand but sail. Anyway, let’s crack on and get done. So, this bit here is the site of the old uh former Har station building still there. It’s now a private residence. Yeah, it’s a lovely line. This I’ve done this one quite a few times. Um you watch my video I did on the Juker’s trail. This is part of it. And behind us going towards Chesterfield and crossing the river Trent is the stunning Fledra vioaduct. Not somewhere we want to be going today. So I think the Trent’s about 3 or four miles behind us at the moment. [Music] Oh, lovely and quiet on here today. Still not really warmed up, though. It’s 7° at the moment. It’s cool bench made out of old railway sleepers. Look used to be on this line. Cool. Is it? [Music] So just on the left here is the site of part of the former RAF Skelling Thorp. There’s a memorial just down to the left, back of this building. So, the railway station was here. Memorial’s just down to our left inside of that fence there. You know, I like to do Millennium Finger post. Three and a half to Lincoln. We’re not going all the way in. We are going to ride alongside the Fosbike Navigation model Lincoln Center. Yeah. Look at that. How pretty is that? Look. Lovely, isn’t it? Yeah. It’s a lovely lovely ride into Lincoln. This a lot of these boats today are permanently mowed. Seen better days. Okay. When boats just get left like that, right? I saw, but I’m guessing the cost to salvage them and get them out the river is phenomenal. All right, 28 done. Top side of Lincoln now. I’ve just gone through Nettleum where the police and fire headquarters are or the training headquarters or something like that. Yeah, I’m out to the flatter lands now. So, I’ve only got two climbs. I got the big one to get over the WS and then a little lump before I drop into Cleorox. Up it is. This is the kind of riding that just epitomizes touring for me. Peaceful, quiet, serene country lanes. Awesome. That one looking a bit sad for itself. He’s a lick of paint, don’t he? A little bit rusty. So, it’s 336 miles to Haritch if you want to go there. 17 to Lincoln, 58 miles to Hull, and a mile and a half to Market Raisin, which is where we’re going next. Yeah. 22 and a half miles to Cleorps. National Cycle Network number one. We’ve been following since Lincoln. It’s lovely, lovely, quiet bike roads. I know this road’s a little bit busier. I’ve been on some absolutely beautiful quiet little lanes through little villages. cuz I’ve hardly seen any traffic. Few cyclists have crossed the the train line about five times I think and only once got stuck at a gate. Yeah, it really has. Even getting through Lincoln was quite nice today on the for dyke and then up a hill and on some bike path. So that was quite good. And then straight out to Country Lanes, the the section from Newark to Lincoln again. Uh National Cycle Network 64 I think it was, wasn’t it? The one we were following yesterday. That was lovely as well. Hardly saw anyone. Saw a couple of runners. That was it. So yeah, it’s lovely. We’ve got a the biggest climb of the day coming up soon. Mile and a half climb. Not particularly steep. We got to get over the top of that mound that’s been looming on the horizon for a bit. I’m thinking if I maintain the progress, might see if I can jump on an earlier train. Definitely one hour, but maybe even two at this rate. That tailwind’s been pretty good. So, we’ll see. We’ll see. All right, we’re just approaching the mile and a half climb now. There’s an orange bit on my my route which normally indicates over uh 8 and a half% I think. So we shall see. Got this one to get over and then a a shorter one just after. And that’s it. We’ve got um 18 and 1 half miles to Cleorps. So, I just stopped at a little coffee van, picked up a brew in me flask, going to get up this hill, stop and have me lunch, and then smash the last 15 or 16 miles down into Clethorps where I’ve got a really cool little uh thing to show you at the finish. It might be anticlimactic. I might be building it up, but I’ve been looking forward to seeing it all week. So, let’s see. I think it’s pretty cool, right? Let’s slog on up this climb. I’m already climbing before it says I’m climbing. So, here we go. What we got? Mile and a half with a little orange bit in the middle. Always in the middle, isn’t it? Right. Let’s see. The good news is it has warmed up nice now, actually. Might uh take me snood off in a bit. It’s about 10°. That sun’s finally warmed up, so it’s nice. Might even got me spring gloves on when I stop for a bite to eat. As you can see from this sign, I’m just coming into Walesby. Still on NC number one. from Wales. But the name rings a bell. I feel like I’ve been here before, but I could be wrong. Oh, yeah. 12%. Beasty. 14% there and a yellow bed on the red. What are you doing to me? And then where it looks like the summit is just up here. Another half a mile. That was a tester there. Think that was the biggest climb of the whole ride. Suppose one benefit of doing this route through the Midlands is it’s fairly flat. I think it’ll be I don’t know 9 or 10,000 ft total. Probably 275 mile route. So, nothing crazy arduous. Just rolling, I think. Although, it looks like a good downhill now before climbing again. What we do? Yeah. A little drag up for a left turn left at the top and that just after that tractor. That looks as bad as last lot. Oh, I’m ready for me dinner though. I am ready. Don’t know if you can see, but right on that horizon there, you can see Lincoln Cathedral. So, that’s where we’ve come from earlier. We’ve got 17 miles left. As you can see, the clouds rolling in. Still some blue skies where we’re going, so hopefully we’ll be all right. Right, 17 to go. It’s half past 12. We’re flying today. So, uh, yeah, let’s crack on. One more climb to come. Only a mile long. There we go. Another nice one. That wind’s picked up. I was kind of down in a valley coming up that climb. As soon as I got on the top and the run down to the sea, it’s uh yeah, the wind’s really uh picked up here on the the highlands of Lincolnshire as it were. There’s another one. Ticking them off. 14 miles left. My bed here has just come down quite a nice hill at 30 odd mile an hour. So I made quite a bit of ground in a short period of time there. That was cool. All right, Route 110 now. [Music] 8 and 1/2 miles from Cleford. Yeah, just under 5 miles now. This cycle path’s great. Been on this for about 2 and 1/2 miles. Looks like it goes pretty much all the way into Cleop, which is good. So, I’m hoping he’s only just gone half one. I’m hoping I can have to change my ticket to get that half two train. Well, we’re at the sea, but the sea’s a mile out. I can’t even see the sea. That’s how far out it is. There we go. The coast cleops. Oh, I tell you what, my legs are in bits. But I quite enjoyed that today. 60 miles. It flew pretty quick, actually. It’s only just before two o’clock. So, I’ve wrapped that off pretty quick actually today. That tailwind really helped. And there were times we had to head west a little bit to avoid busy roads. But yeah, anyway, the cool thing I wanted to show you now I’ve done that little 275 mile trip is this line here is the east west meridian of the earth. So south that way. So here I’m stood on the west side and here I’m stood on the east side of the earth. How cool is that? So yeah, Cleorps is the uh east west divide of planet earth. Mad that. That was pretty cool, isn’t it? That was my little treat for you. Well, it’s a treat for me cuz I was looking forward to seeing that. Right, so I’m going to nip up to the train station now and see if I can uh change my ticket, but thanks for watching. I really enjoyed that. So I’m Rob. Uh channel’s Bike Ventures. Please do like. If you watch a video and you think it’s all right, please do like it. It means a lot to the algorithm. It means a lot to the channel. Um, but the more people like and subscribe and comment, the more we can keep doing. Quite enjoy the process. So, it’ be nice, you know, it’s nice when people share that with me and Lisa. So, yeah. Thank you very much and I’ll see you on the next one. Oh, [Music] hey. [Music]