Cycling coast to coast avoiding crossing any major UK river – Day 1

C2C: The Quiet Way — Wirral to Cleethorpes (Avoiding Major Rivers)

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.

👉 Subscribe for more UK cycling adventures, GPX routes, and bikepacking inspiration!

#C2C #CyclingUK #CoastToCoast

komoot: https://www.komoot.com/user/1681213145680
Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/1057497

https://www.instagram.com/bike_ventures_uk/

[Music] [Music] [Music] Hello. Welcome back to Bike Ventures. there. Well, I’m on the whirl. So, I’m doing today coast to coast to Cleops. From here, I’m in Leo on the Whirl. Coast to coast, avoiding crossing any major UK river. So, what would normally be about 150 170 mi route, today is going to be, it’s not today. This week is going to be 276 miles. So today we’re avoiding the Murzy and the River D heading down to Chester and then onto Telford and so on. So I’ll tell you about them as Easter. I’ll put a little info up on screen about the route and what I’m doing. But yeah, it’s lovely today. Supposed to be absolutely crap weather, peeing it down, windy, and it’s dead calm. The sun’s out. I’m overdressed and I’m roasting. So there you go. So yeah, we’re going to head down now. We’re on the Whirl Circular Trail. Also, we’ve got three old railways today. A bit of the Shropshire and Union Canal as well. So, yeah, let’s get going and we’ll get over to Chester. Look at that. What a cracking place to start, eh? I know it’s a wind farm, but always nice start on a nice day on the coast, isn’t it? So, yeah, only short one. It’s about 2:00 in the afternoon now. Got the train up today from Sheffield. So yeah, I’m only going to do about 35 miles today given the time of year. Didn’t fancy camping. It gets cold at night, don’t it? Um, but if I’d have headed past Chester today, I’ve been 90 miles to Telford, which I didn’t fancy, uh, there was nothing really in between in the little market town. So 35 it is. Chill out night at about six odd tomorrow. Yeah, cracking place to start. I’m looking forward to this. Hope you enjoy the journey. Oh, this is awesome. What a lovely way to start. I’ve never been on here. Weren’t really sure what to expect. It’s lovely. I mean, it helps. It’s a lovely day, doesn’t it? Sun’s out, nice and warm. Yeah, barely a whisper wind. And just straight ahead of me there is North Wales coastline. The hills. Oh, this is lovely. It’s like a little unspoiled part of the world. Look at that. It’s cool, isn’t it? So, yeah, we’re on the whirl way, which is an old railway line. Went on the south side of the whirl all the way down towards chest. So, we’re not going all This doesn’t go all the way to Chester, but um yeah. We’re good. So, let’s crack on. Oh, yeah. Straight away it feels like an old railway. Nice bit of gravel. Happy days. Oh, look at that big rat. He’s a beast. Yeah, we’re just going out of West Kirby. I realized I got the train and I got off of Lizo or Leisa. Not sure how you pronounce that. I could have got off at West Kirby, but you go off at West Kirby, you’re not on the the the sort of west side of the Waloya, you’re on the south. So, I wanted to do coast to coast. So, I dipped me to. Oh, yeah. This is nice. Anyone that has watched the channel before knows how much I like an old railway which is good. When I originally booked this, forecast was for high period uh high pressure dominating and obviously soon as you book stuff, the weather changes, which it did. But you know what? Skin’s waterproof, ain’t it? Look at that. Ain’t that lovely? North Wales over there. Look, just the other side of the water. Gorgeous. Right, let’s go. This is a lovely way to start. Views are lovely when you can see them over to North Wales. Yeah. Awesome. [Music] [Applause] [Music] He’s sniffing somewhere about there. No dog. [Applause] [Music] Look at this. They got the crossing gates. That is cool. and [Music] NCTN finger post sign. [Music] Come on. [Music] That is cool. When Western London Northwestern Railway, I knew this was an old railway line. I didn’t realize he had stuff like that. That’s cool. Love seeing stuff like that. Nicely preserved. Still utilized. It’s cool. Squirrel here. Look. Two squirrels. Wow. This railway line is epic. Feel like I’ve done more than 12 miles on it. 20 miles from the sea now. Some lovely little Cheshire lanes. So I came off that railway just so south of Elmere Port and I’m heading now towards Chester from these. Look at these. It’s lovely. Beautiful. And the house prices are high around here. Yeah, it’s lovely. Sun’s still out. It’s not too hot. It’s just nice. Yeah. Let’s crack on, eh? [Music] All right. So we’re still on the Chester cycle way on the Shropshire and Union Canal now. Beautiful that bridge. Love that, isn’t it? That’s closed going the other way. Luckily, this way is open into Chester. Yeah, let’s crack a look. Look at that. Let’s crack on then and see what what this brings. Don’t think I’m on here for a crazy amount of time. Jumping onto a a greenway into Chester. This lovely cracking toe path. Nice and wide. Nothing like the Chesterfield Canal after the works up, that’s for sure. And if you notice what I’m on about, if you watch my Chesterfield Canal full length video, you’ll see. Oh, that was an adventure. This is lovely. Beautiful. Autuminal colors, no wind, late afternoon sunshine cascading through the trees. Yeah, it’s lovely. No boats on it. I’m not sure why. I mean, footpath closed for a reason. If this is one of the canals that’s had a problem with water levels. Yeah, it’s beautiful. It’s me and me bike. So I dilig the sign back there said tells me a port if you keep going this way which obviously we’re not going there. So we must be turning off it coming south in a bit. Yeah. Lovely. In fact, I think I can see one of the top of the towers at Elsort. So, we will be picking this up at various points tomorrow. I know we’re definitely uh riding along it in the first couple of miles and we’ll be crossing it a few times tomorrow as well as we head down towards Telford. going to meet the kids, have a meal with them tomorrow night. And then day three, I’m going to head across through Lichfield and Chase Water to uh just north of Leicester, not far from Ashby de Laz. Uh day four into Newick and day five over to Glee. And I’m going to get trained back. Yeah, it’s going to be quite a nice little route. This fancied something a bit different. Having done way of the roses earlier this year, you know, I could have just said, well, I’ll just go from A to B. But then I thought, thank you very much. But then uh this image I’m going to put on screen now popped up on a I think it was a Reddit feed from an American asking about UK rivers and I just thought h I wonder how easy it would be to avoid crossing a major river coast to coast. And there was quite a few routes I could have done. I mean, some of them are 500 miles, but the one that kind of stands out is the one I’m doing. It just seemed a bit like there’s a natural corridor between the Murzy and the D south of the Trent and then squeeze up between the Trent and the River Wither at Newark where they’re half a mile apart. Just create a little corridor to squeeze up through and out onto the east coast. So, why not? The good thing about being forced in a certain direction with your route is you see places you’ve not been before. I mean, yes, there will be a few places I’ve ridden before. Not many. I think there’s a good 85 90% of new roads or new cycle route. So that’s good. It’s a shame Lee couldn’t join me, but she’s working this week and then half term week. Weather looks a bit grim and we’ve got plans. So this is it. I was just thinking I was going to get away without getting wet. I think I’ve ridden into it more than it’s come over me. Ah, never mind. It’s still fairly warm though, to be fair. In fact, I’ve had to zip me jacket up. Never mind. Not the end of the world. So, I’ve just come past Elmere Port. You can see that. Crossed over the M 56, just where the junction is, the M53 into Chester. So, I’m only about five or six miles, I think, from tonight’s Airbnb. It’s only 4:00, so I had fairly good time. Have a nice chill out evening. There’s a pizza place just up the road. Stock up with a few supplies for tomorrow, lunch, and just chill out generally, read a book. Yeah. I’ll come back to you. We should be going on a greenway soon into Chester. So, I’ll bring you back when we get there. [Music] So this is the Cheshire Millennium Greenway former railway line runs down into Gesta. Oh, this is a nice little greenway coming into Chester. The Chester Millennium Greenway. Still got a lot of ballast down. Actually, a couple of nice bridges. There’s another one just ahead here, but we are coming off. So, I don’t think uh I think we’re coming off just before it. Yeah, we are. Yeah, it’s cool. So, there’s that bridge. Look, [Music] we’re turning off here. Just say city center down there. Yes. Nice. [Music] [Applause] [Music]