Can you live in a remote cottage with just a bicycle?

In 2022, we moved to a remote cottage in the Lake District National Park, UK.

Miles from the nearest town, 7 miles from the nearest train station. Just surrounded by rolling hills, sheep and farms. Oh, and there’s no public transport.

Locals said we couldn’t live here without a car. So did the estate agents. But, we live here on our bikes.

And, we’ve made it over a year!

But, it has been one wild journey and I don’t think either of us realised how much it could change our lives.

We thought we’d share the story because people still don’t seem to believe we’ve made it this long.

Thanks for watching folks,
Josh & Sarah

Come Find Us On FB & Insta @joshandsarahride ✌📷🎥

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Intro
02:45 – The bikes
04:18 – Daily life on the bikes
06:50 – The difficulties
09:00 – The lessons
12:00 – The beauty
16:24 – Life is like a ride

#cycling #remotelife #lakedistrict

[Applause] at the end of 2022 we moved to a remote Cottage in the Lake District National Park in the north of England it’s miles from the nearest Village surrounded by Peaks and farmland there’s no public transport and the closest train station is 7 m away people just don’t live here without a

Car locals said it wouldn’t be possible and so did the estate agents but we live here on our Bikes Ready and as a little spoiler we have made it over year but I don’t think either of us realize quite how much it would change our lifestyle in some quite obvious ways but also in other ways that we just couldn’t have expected or how

Hard it would get at points so this is a video about the good the bad the changes and the life lessons from Life on our bike and remote Cottage we grew up riding bikes cycling to school to friends or to the pub we got older met each other and dreamed of traveling the

World by bike getting to work in Hanoi on our bikes getting to work in Switzerland on our bikes life has always just been on two wheels so when this crazy cot had popped up in a part of the world we’d always dreamed of living even though we’d never lived anywhere remote

Before we were determined to give it a shot uh this is probably a good point to say that although we do really love to cycle we’re definitely not hardcore cyclists no far from it we don’t use straa we rarely know how fast or how far we go we just really love cycling

Actually we increasingly cycle very slowly and spend more time getting distracted than actually riding and so we wanted to share our story of life on a bike from somewhere we were told just wouldn’t be Possible first off our bikes make our life here possible and so we’re very reliant on them we have two Sly trolls called Trevor and Trudy they are pretty battered but they’re sturdy and reliable they’re like extensions of us really if the bikes need fixing or aren’t running smoothly life gets put on

Hold so when Trevor and Trudy are happy we’re happy too So it does mean I spend a lot of time outside fixing the bikes getting greasy fingers which is a process I do actually really love particular on days like today but when it’s not so nice it means either getting the front rim really lucky and busy or just putting up with

Fixing the bikes out in the rain which is not so enjoyable we spend a lot of mornings waking up early to do practical bike runs before starting work it’s a hilly 5m ride to the Village which has a doctor’s post office Village Store and Pub the nearest

Bigger Town we’d ride to is 15 Mi off and it’s also 15 Mi to our regular train station which we’re pretty reliant on without a car the train station is a very hilly hour and a half ride to if the weather is bad so everything takes considerably

Longer there is a private high mini buus we’ve used for things like hospital visits but for virtually everything out of the house it’s our first experience where bikes are the only practical option to the post office or dentist to pick up some bread for any socializing it’s all a very hid

Rideway we’ve grown very accustomed to starting the day with a little Pedal sometimes you are in a bit of a rush and you get back hot and sweaty but it can really become this uplifted journey that just gives so much color to the mundane commute become this natural experience riding through ecosystems surrounded by Hills and the sounds of Nature you feel the elements on your skin and get your blood flowing tiring yes but the constant nature fixes fly with this special kind of energy and that adds so much color to our life you get back in feeling motivated mindset lifted ideas bubbling it’s become really important

For our creative projects yeah and in terms of like postsurgery stuff okay have chronic but I thought it’d be more interesting if we gave a really honest Insight rather than just the highlights because there are some parts we have found pretty tough are there any aspects of living here

Without a car that you don’t like I guess everything takes a lot longer is a lot harder and you therefore get a lot sweatier in comparison and you’re always very hungry I would say yes the Lake District has some of the highest rainfall in the UK there are

Patches when the roads ice over it’s hilly there are no cycle lanes and it’s all on quiet rural roads so when they ice over they ice over for quite some time days like today when he got to get to the post office before starting work in the morning the road’s still really

Icy my fingers are numb it makes the sailing seem quite a lot harder I can barely feel my Nose in general I’d say maintaining a normal lifestyle has required a lot more commitment equipment and maintenance too I think 5 miles to the pub is nice on a good day but it can feel like a lot further in the middle of winter when it’s icy roads and bad weather and

Particularly working from home yeah there are points where I’d say we feel pretty isolated we don’t really through witer there’s points where we don’t see anyone for quite a long time yeah you’re stuck with me a lot of the time and particularly cuz we use the bikes for

Everything yeah if there’s an issue with the bikes or we’re waiting for parts to arrive we really do feel a little bit Stuck so we’ve had to adapt to all of these trickier parts of life but it has taught us some very important lessons yeah with a lot of good things which I think have come out of them we’ve realized there’s normally a beautiful side to the harder

Parts just so long as you aren’t in a rush and that really encourages you to slow Down you can’t physically fit as much into each day so life naturally becomes more minimal and you try to make the most of each task you also can’t physically fit everything on your bike so you learn to live with Less you become more self-sufficient and resourceful too if computers break clothing needs repairing house needs maintenance we fix things and try to make string up on wood and supplies because we often wouldn’t have time for the long cycle otherwise oh yes instead of cycling 15 miles to pick up a takeaway we embrace

Our own cookie our entertainment becomes the outdoors and our fun out becomes fun in a lot of the Time it’s me we’ve got very good at improvising which being a bit more open-minded yeah openminded in General my Halloween costume really Go Yes [Laughter] we the same of apples so if you got a bunch of apples and you want to have some fun try apple bobbing in a shallow bowl just you and your partner it’s also really changed our relationship with the seasons and weather because it can change in minutes

If you see a patch of good weather sometimes you know it’s just best to rearrange the day and pick up those supplies whilst the sun is shining but at the same time sometimes there’s just no avoiding it you quickly learn to invest in waterproofs and you keep a pair with you at all

Time it’s really raining I would be lying if I said it doesn’t rain a lot but those rainy days just make the sunshine seem so much brighter good so we’ve had to adapt with a lot of the harder things and it has brought us a lot of good things in the process yeah

But there’s also just been a lot of amazing things that the bikes have just immediately brought us which um has completely changed our time Mar we’ve been here bikes kind of force you to embrace a local landscape we feel so lucky to know the northern half of the Lake

District like the back of our hands now we know the Peaks know the streams know the little hidden tracks and off-road trails we’re surrounded by memories we’ve made on the bikes and it gives you a real sense of belonging in place we’ve ended up going for so many little

Adventures in and around work because it’s just so simple to jump on your bike for a few hours you quickly realize there’s Wild Beauty everywhere and sometimes the best experiences are found where you least expect where are they so what’s the book you got mushrooms all you need to know and

There’s a rope swing over there right we’re going to the rope swing oh my God good really really Good What would you say is one thing that you have really loved about not having a car whilst we’ve been living here um well I guess we’re able to sort of be in the landscape a lot more when you’re in a car you sort of zooming past and not

Really seeing things or taking things in whereas on a bike like you have the privilege of being able to stop whenever you want and go off and explore and I just think see a lot more than you would in the car and I also think that without

Having a car it’s really made us explore our local area more yeah woohoo woo which uh I know sometimes it’s nice to go further a field but it’s also really nice to give you that sense of like home and your your local surroundings to get to know that it’s

Not a famous woodland or area I don’t like I think there is a name to it but if we had a car we probably would have gone much further a field probably had a lot of people around definitely wouldn’t have found this rope swing the best rope swing blame me

Away so we’ve literally spent about an hour and a half here just done this rope swing and we didn’t get to where we intended to get to nope but I guess that’s how we found here the bikes have connected us to the local community too instead of driving off into cities for

Big events we’ll cycle to local folk nights and celebrations you learn to make the most of what some offer if there’s a celebration at the village hall or a potato day or a bonfire the whole village goes and so we pedal down too and each time we meet Fascinating People and learn new Perspectives can I get some Yeah we’ve lived in plenty of places just on our bikes but here with no public transport we just focus on the community around us having been on the move a lot in previous years this is the most settled and connected we’ve ever felt and it’s amazing to be gradually setting

Rooms and I do really think think the bikes have played a huge role in this very [Applause] Happy our time here has been a lot like a bike ride you head off into the unknown with a lot of preconceived ideas but still not completely sure what to expect it’s good to be ambitious and try something new but you’re also aware things might not turn out as planned all

The while knowing if you don’t put the work in you just won’t make the most of the experience and undoubtedly there are parts of the Journey with frustrations and difficulties some bits are so tough you’re cursing and questioning why you’re doing it but all of that just seems insignificant when you experience these

Moments of beauty surrounded by Rolling Hills inspiration and possibilities yes you’re tied but you feel so damn alive sure sometimes you need to be a bit open-minded to fully appreciate it all but you know the journey getting to this this point has made it completely Worthwhile so weather has know I got a St at yeah weather has turned um we’re in a cloud there’s little bits of snow falling we’re just hiding behind the uh hiding behind a trick point for warmth and shelter but we have been here now for over a year yeah and we still come

Up to these local Hills and we still um just marvel at them we still go on these little afterwork real local afterw work lot of cycle rides and it still just blows us away even when we go to places like the post office you know these little Five Mile rides we’re still

Finding little details and intricacies and it’s just all those things which mean we just forget about the harder Parts you know it just makes them seem quite insignificant yeah and it all sort of Fades away and I think the way you can really tell is we go away on trip

To some of the most beautiful parts of the UK when we’re cycling back from the train station sort of really tired and sweaty we come over this last Hill here which is just gone by you could see it a minute ago but now you can’t we start to

Pick this Valley where our little cottage is nestled and we think wow this is absolutely beautiful and we feel very very lucky to live here and I think the reason why we’ve felt so connected to these Hills and this landscape and the cottage is because we’ve experienced it

All my bike yeah and I think we both said the only reason we would move from here is because there’s just such a big wide world to explore on our on our bikes we get to do it on our bikes coming to you live from the top of

The most ferocious mountain in England it’s very very windy he knows we will make Back slowly we dropped down the weather cleared and we were treated to a beautiful Sunset Thanks for watching folks catch you next time