BIKEPACKING THE A1 – BRITAINS LONGEST ROAD

The A1 is Britain’s longest road at just over 400 miles combining the capital of England, London and the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. As we have bikepacked the busiest road, the m25 and the longest motorway, I thought it was time to tackle the longest road, the A1. Bikepacking my way from London to Edinburgh self supported with wild camping along the way, let’s see how this goes ….

The Ride – https://www.strava.com/activities/10934966951

The Route – https://www.keepsmilingadventures.com/challenging-routes/the-a1-britains-longest-road
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The gear I am currently using

Frame bag – https://youtu.be/6LM3UJKDOEk
Seat post bag – https://youtu.be/W1E_iWY6Ajo
Jones Handlebars – https://youtu.be/dhPBSdRros8
Gravel bike – https://youtu.be/Gnd_4LgTyrg
plus bike MTB – https://youtu.be/COTUOzLPbGk
GPS device – https://youtu.be/BWeMmx62A9M
MTB shoes – https://youtu.be/OYVEnfXwT0k
All the gear from GNT – https://youtu.be/e5oKSoPoMk0
Vest bag – https://youtu.be/01nzgd-t550
Ortleib bar roll https://youtu.be/Uk9fLgS1ioo
Dynamo setup – https://youtu.be/SL7MhjB6Lp0
Questions answered – https://youtu.be/u1q9AEs9flE
Gb divide bike/gear- https://youtu.be/epcZ81wqFCo
Sonder looped bar – https://youtu.be/BqWGTxd2VaQ
Tarpstar tent – https://youtu.be/RcQoBdZSAb8

The A1 Britain’s longest road connecting London the capital of England to Scotland’s capital city edenburgh at just over 400 miles passing through 17 counties this road was the first numbered road and is also known as the Great Northern Road we have by packed the M25 Britain’s busiest Road and we

Have backpacked Britain’s longest Motorway so now it’s time to take on Britain’s longest road the A1 starting my journey in the capital of England I’ll be heading north snaking my way around the A1 trying to find what is left of the trails that follow Britain’s

Longest road at the start of the A1 St Paul’s Cathedral where my adventure will begin a sunny Sunday morning my first point of call to get out of London Let’s follow this road right beside me all the way to Edinburgh this Britain’s longest Road getting to the outskirts of London and finding the first off-road trails the very wet and muddy Trails would begin although wet and muddy it was so nice to be heading out towards the countryside leaving them City noises Behind I’m mostly out of London now at least the uh the center right on the outskirts now so uh we’re going to start heading into the countryside a little bit but uh for the next I don’t know a good 40 50 miles we’re still kind of following the A1

Which you know follows a lot of built up places so uh hopefully we can find some nice little off-road trails around that area but um you know it’s one of them Road rides loud rides lots of car noise and that means camping is often not the nicest but uh it’s

Currently about 300 p.m. I’ve done about 25 miles going to try and do another 20 miles if I can good news is all this section of the country flat so happy about that um just currently coming down the cycle route into Hatfield and uh I’m going to try and get

Somewhere towards Peter today but it has been raining a lot so the trails are very Muddy Just come in uh past stevenage I’ve done about 40 miles so making good progress has mostly been paved cycle path so pretty easy going but but I have just found my very own little bike mascot look at him I think he’s meant to be a lion so

Uh comment his name down below and we’ll see how long he lasts on my Adventures uh I have to find a proper place for him as well right it’s uh going to the sun’s going to set kind of soon probably in a uh maybe 2 hours I’m in the built up areas

Again so uh let’s go find some other Camp hopefully won’t have to do too many more miles to find that spot let’s go with my new friend in tow after a little bit of shadow racing the sun getting lower in the sky it was time to try and find somewhere along this busy

Road to sleep for the Night well I have just managed to set up camp for the night I am literally like just on the outskirts of a place called bigles Wade uh just like a few miles away uh managed to find a little wood a little wooded area on the corner of a field which uh

Should be good for the night because tonight tonight the weather isn’t going to rain it’s very still there’s no wind the stars are up in the sky and uh that means it’s going to be quite a cold one it’s currently 3 or 4° and it’s meant to

Get down to about zero possibly minus one um so might wake up with a nice Frozen tent in the morning but hopefully because I’m in a little wooded area it should be a little bit warmer and uh and also a little drier but I managed to do

Um a good 50 just over 50 mil for the first little half day didn’t start till about half1 12 1 so pretty happy with that it’s currently half seven and uh we’ve got lion hanging out out there he’s going to protect me tonight and as always I’ll see you bright and early in

The morning well good morning it is lovely and fresh out here the sky is bright blue you’ve got the sun just Rising there the only downside is you can hear the A1 but my God what a beautiful beautiful morning it looks like it’s going to be we’re heading down

There and uh oh it looks like it could be a really nice day today it did say it was going to be cloudy today but as of now there’s not one cloud in the sky so you’re going to get the tent packed up me and my buddy are getting back on

The trails and uh let’s um let’s get a little bit closer to Edinburgh today let’s see what progress we can make but it is quite cold so uh I want to get on the bike and get pedling let’s go Waking up this morning and getting on the trails with not a cloud in the sky the sunshine beaming as bright as can be a perfect way to start my Monday morning whilst most people would be jumping in their cars and heading along Britain’s longest road I would be soaking up the

Winter morning sunshine pedling through the grassy Trails the perfect way to start any Morning Right time for some breakfast I’ve done about 20 mil it’s currently about uh 10:00 a.m. I’m sat on this foot path I’m actually on this cycle path right along the A1 so it’s a a nice loud breakfast we’ve got uh some of these Apple things and considering today the sun is shining

The weather is perfect I thought uh we’d have a peanut colada non-alcoholic of course um but yeah Sun’s shining it’s good now the only thing is the A1 is 400 mil my route according to cimu is about 475 mil my garment is currently telling me I’ve got 280 mil or so to

Go my Mass is pretty rubbish but the mass isn’t adding up so I think uh either Garmin or cimu is wrong and uh I have no idea actually how far until the Finish I don’t really believe the Gin I believe it’s closer to the Kimo distance 475 Mi so still a

Good I no 400 miles to go possibly right breakfast time and then along the busy roaring a A1 Road with pina colada but no pouring rain the start of this adventure would be a great one even though the longest road was right over my shoulder I was in my own little World This is how wide every shared youth path cycle walking path should be if it’s shared use it shouldn’t be any smaller than this if it’s too it’s smaller than this it’s just a foot path lovely who’ have thought you’d find an actual usable good cycle path along the

A1 and it’s a beautiful day as well take me to Scotland La well I’ve done about just under 50 mil about 46 47 miles and uh it’s just uh super easy really because everywhere is flat on this side of the country a little bit wet but uh flat and everything is starting to dry out a bit now clouds are

Starting to roll in so hopefully they’re not rain clouds and they’re just nice fluffy clouds just coming around the side of uh Peter BR and so I’m just making great progress I’m feeling really good in the bike as well legs are feeling good that pina colada is uh kept me going strong today

Because my legs are feeling really good today who knows I might see if we can knock out a imperial Century a nice little 100 miles I’m still curious to think I’m still curious to see um when my gin realizes actually has an extra 100 miles to go so it’ll be like oh

Sorry about that an extra 100 for you to go apparrently it’s saying currently it’s saying I got 240 M to go I don’t really believe that I think it’s closer to uh 340 probably maybe a bit more than that so uh we’ll see but um let’s see if we can possibly knock

Out 100 miles today I’m uh feeling good with the legs the mind and the body feeling great today I was hopeful that I would be able to achieve my goal of that 100 miles I would pedal and pedal all day to try and reach this goal however

Sometimes it’s not the body that says no it’s not the mind it’s the trails today’s Trails would be slow and muddy sometimes you just need that little bit of luck and today I would not get any such luck Sh as the sun was setting the darkness incoming I would find myself sitting at the side of the road fixing the first flat of this adventure good morning good morning this is day three I’m probably around 15 to 20 miles away from a place called newon Trent last night oh

Yesterday my uh my goal of getting that 100 miles was shortlived because the trails said no that was a a fair amount of hiker bike through lights at lots of Muddy fields and stuff um it was generally quite fast going still and then I had a little route uh era where I

Was following like a restricted byway thinking oh yeah I can be able to go through and turned into a foot path so I ended up just walking along the foot path which then basically took you along the A1 but in the wrong direction and while I was walking along there I got a

Puncture wasn’t even riding when I got this puncture and it turns out somebody whoever that was forgot to uh top up my sealant on my front tire cuz it was it was basically empty um so now I’m having to ride rest of this journey on a tube which never fills me with

Confidence um but it is what it is we got to keep moving forward I’m going to try and get to nework cont Trent pretty quick it’s I got a little bit of a climb I say climb there like there’s no climbs around here a little bit of an uphill

And then it’s pretty much downhill all the way to nework on Trent and that is where we’ll get some breakfast I found a nicer Camp spot in a nice wooded area again it did rain a bit last night um it wasn’t too heavy it was just like a

Gentle shower but uh yeah let’s uh let’s go to New York on Trent still don’t know how many miles we got until um Ed brother let’s go it’s not quite sunshine and panina coladas this morning we’re back to the very old gray and miserable looking Day come on son where are you

This morning the sun was no longer with me and the trail surrounded in thick fog it was a calm morning as I pedal along the muddy Trails though them Trails still waiting for that sun to shine just long enough to finally dry them out the mud on these Trails this morning

Clinging to the bike clogging it up making it impossible to ride and just as hard to push armed with a mud stick hiking through the narrow overgrown byways just hoping that I wouldn’t puncture that inner Tube wow that morning was a bit of a KU fuffle and a very muddy one wow this whole Trip’s been a very muddy one but uh very muddy having to keep uh unclogging the bike but uh i’ still not got a puncher so we’re all good going to have some breakfast just

Arrived at Newark um I’ve got some strawberries I’ve got some uh Quant and a couple of nanas um from here I’m heading didn’t up to Doncaster donc that’s about 50 more miles though so I’m not sure I’m going to make it all the way there today I kind of don’t really want to

Make it all the way there today because I don’t want to be trying to find somewhere to Camp around there because it’ just be too busy and then for the next 30 40 miles through all that area is quite built up so I’m probably going to try and find somewhere just before

That but that gives us about 50 Mi to do today which will make us about around 60 or 70 done today in total I’ve done about 20 now today is very gray it’s colder when you’re riding than when you stop apart from that it’s all good hopefully the trails won’t be too muddy

Path I just came through was ridiculous Thorns mud a lot right breakfast and uh on we Pop The further north I got the muddier the trails seemed to get the flat landscape of this part of the country me all the rain just sat there flooded boggy Fields slowing my progress down but still making friends along the way just as I was getting tired of the gray skies and

The foggy Trails out of nowhere there would be a break in the clouds the sky turning blue an afternoon of color is just what I needed I’ve done about 55 56 miles so far and it’s about half three I’m probably about 30 mil away from Don Casta I don’t want to get to

Don Casto today um and it looks like from the map there is a bunch of uh tree sections coming up and there’s one in about 10 miles so I might try hopefully see if I can camp there it is still a bit early it’s only half three

But it’ll be about half 4 or so by the time I get there and uh another 65 or so Miles ticked off on our way along the longest road to Edinburgh and can you believe it the Sun the sun is shining so Nice Good morning good morning today I’m about 15 miles away from Doncaster and uh I’ve woken up and it’s all Misty and spooky but last night was like really really peaceful I’m just far enough away from the road where I can’t really hear it especially where I was like deep down

Into the woods so couldn’t really hear it apart from the odd Lorry that went past but generally it was just really nice today I have a goal and today’s goal is get to the halfway point of this route I think that’s in about 70 miles while between

Uh like the Yorkshire DS on my left the Moors on my right so we should be somewhere around there by the end of the day if everything goes to plan and uh the trails are nice to me today I’m starting off in this beautiful woods but

Not for very long cuz I can already see the road and we’re going to head into Doncaster grab some breakfast Ready I love sleeping in the woods and I love to start my Mornings in the woods pedling through yet another foggy morning it wouldn’t be long before I was crossing their muddy Fields once again though heading into South Yorkshire I would find myself on the old Roman Ridge part of the ancient Roman Road iring Street a major Roman Road that ran from London to Lincoln and York so after a bit of Chariot racing along this ancient Road I would be heading back into the muddy Fields once more With all the fields water logged finding somewhere to pitch my tent was becoming increasingly harder day by day and tonight I would end up pedling off my planned route with the hope of camping in a Woodlands I could see in the Distance W good morning good morning I’m so tired today yesterday was a big slog big long road slog but I did end up doing about 85 miles but then the the problem was just trying to find somewhere to camp around this area as you can see it’s

Just it’s all very muddy wet fields and uh not a lot of Woodlands this is the woodlands I slept in last night as you can see it’s right next to the road it’s not very big Woodlands either and it’s on a bit of a slant so it was very

Awkward sleeping although I did uh oversleep and it’s currently like half eight so um I’m uh setting off a bit late today but I did get to where I S of wanted to get to sort of between like the MOs and the the Dales sort of around

That part in Yorkshire so from where I am I’m going to be going up through Darlington Durham and then Newcastle but newcastle’s a good like 100 miles away so I’m probably I don’t want to be getting to there when it’s time to camp and I also don’t want to

Get between Durham and Newcastle because there’s just definitely nowhere so I was looking at the map yesterday and it looks like there’s a place maybe like 15 20 miles away from Durham but it’s like one Woodlands and it’s like one shot that’s like looks like there’s all

There is on this whole section of the route where there’s like a nice Woodlands to Camp possibly so I’m placing all my bets on being able to stay there tonight that means I got to do about 50 55 miles so silver line is is generally it’s kind of a short day

But as you can see there’s absolutely no sun and we’ve got a very gray gloomy day ahead of us once more but let’s head on to uh day four I think it is with we are officially just past the halfway point now although my G thinks we’re finishing

About 80 Mi but we’ll see maybe we’re going to teleport when we get to uh 80 Mi right let’s keep going north Today has just been one road one road slog pretty much a tiny little bit of gravel all the off-road trails just going in the opposite directions they’re not going where I need them to so it feels so good to just be on to just be on a little bit of

Gravel even if it is right next to the mway I’m coming into Darlington pretty soon I think within the next 5 miles I reckon maybe not tomorrow but the day after tomorrow we might hit the Scottish border what a relief that will be in the tubes right now let’s go to Darlington

Bloody tubes that’s the problem with riding along these roads and these uh cycle paths along these roads they’re just full of crap that one was a for though not glass or anything crap like that go to Darlington just coming through Darlington and uh actually done about 36 miles and to the place where I’m thinking of camping that’s in about 20 mil so could be a very uh early finish today which is good just grab some food can’t remember can’t remember exactly what the

Place is called where I’m going to camp but it’s something bow something I put it on screen feeling tired feeling very sleepy my legs feel fine just my eyes want to sleep I don’t know why I thought I slept pretty good last Night so what I’m probably going to do is try and actually have an early night tonight and then tomorrow get up nice and early make sure I don’t over sleep this time and uh try and get around Newcastle tomorrow not really going directly through it but kind of around it but

It’s still going to be busy so but once we get past there should be a bit quieter a little bit hiler and just generally maybe a little bit nicer to cycle all right 21 miles to do today and uh so far this morning has been mostly Road slogs so hopefully we

Get a few little off-road trails now let’s Go leaving Darlington heading ever closer to the east coast the wind was now starting to pick up and that cold bitter Breeze would be on my face for the rest of the day the wind though was the least of my worries because I would be back to hiking through them wet muddy

Boggy Trails once again a lot of my day today would be a combination of stopping and starting just to unclog my bike Wow that was one hell of a slug of a day I’m glad I didn’t um have to do any more miles because then the last 20 were just muddy constantly having to stop to unclog the bike but I think my plan has worked I’m in the woods where I wanted to Camp

Obviously it’s not quiet you can still hear that Roar of that road now I’ve got to uh find a little spot to uh set up the tent I’m thinking here right behind me but the ground isn’t great and now I’m using the topster have to rely on

The uh on the pegs doing the the heavy lifting so I’m going to see if I can squeeze it into here maybe hopefully we’ll see but yeah what a day I did 60 mi in the end so pretty good going actually a little bit more than anticipated a few

Uh a few wrong turns or brightways that led to Nowhere suspiciously but tomorrow I am going to get past Durham and Newcastle so that’s good and then after that it should we should have uh left a lot more of the monotonous riding behind us most of it until

Edinburgh should be a bit quieter should be able to find some uh nicer off-road trails it’s going to start getting a bit hiler as we head into North umberland today right as always see bright and early in the morning a lovely lovely night time to go to Newcastle ah good morning good morning

I’m so sleepy again I slept so good why am I so tired my eyes feel all puffy oh this eye really hurts on my right hand side all right did today we are going to be making it to Newcastle I’m about I don’t know 5 miles away from durren or

So and then up towards Newcastle and around then on to what should be the more fun part My Gin currently showing the correct distance or roughly the correct distance I guess about 170 Mi until Edinburgh that’ll change back to about 30 or 40 in a minute I’m sure um

So yeah 170 Mi that means maybe two and a bit more days until we arrive in Edinburgh but we’ll see because them trails are being very muddy so that’s uh so the goal today is to just get past Newcastle really try and get another 60 mil out and hopefully not get too

Muddy let’s go or a another day on the wet Trails but every mile ticking down was getting me further along Britain’s longest road and just like the previous couple of days today would start out wet and gray making my way through the busy Durham and onwards towards Newcastle but not before being greeted

By what is believed to be the biggest sculpture of an angel in the world the Angel of the North Yeah oh so nice to uh get out the top end of Newcastle away from all the noise and traffic onto a nice cycle path by away we are now sort of heading right North again we we’re heading all the way around Newcastle now we’re heading north

And according to my gaming we’ve got a a mile to go who knew edenburgh was so close to Newcastle we’re going to find out what happens maybe we’re going to teleport oh beat me up Scotty in itth man please no more punches there is a bitterly cold wind coming

From over there which is where the sea is but it’s nice to be on some country roads I was really hoping I don’t get another flat I fix the other in the tube put a new one in and uh hopefully we’ll be good cold though it’s about

3:00 so we’re going to do a couple more hours hopefully find somewhere good to camp but Scotland we are coming for you that wind from the East getting colder and colder with each pedal getting me closer to that Coastline with the next few hours of riding starting to

Become more exposed and of course muddy as I made my way along the farm tracks I was on the lookout for somewhere to pitch the tent but just like the previous days finding somewhere dry and hidden away from the passing traffic was proving harder than I would have liked

So it would be another night pedaling into the sunset but not before stopping to take a look at the impressive anic Castle wow good morning guys good morning yesterday Stay Stay yesterday I made pretty good progress I did 75 miles in total yesterday which means which has left us with just 100 miles pretty much exactly to do until we get to Edinburgh which means today we get to Scotland in about

35ish miles I think is the Scottish border um about 30 mil is baric and then just a little bit after that is the uh Scottish border last night I had to ride into the evening a little bit into the darkness a little bit um to find somewhere to camp

The hardest thing about this ride is not the distance it’s not even the muddy Trails it’s not definitely not the hills because there’s just none it is just generally finding somewhere good to Camp because you just generally can’t find anywhere it’s uh it’s such a pain because there’s no Woodlands that are

Accessible um so the one I’m in right now I had to uh sneak hop a fence run across the field and get in um but it’s pretty good but the only downside to this Woods is the A1 is literally like across a little field that way the second worst thing about a

Trip like this it’s just a constant drone of noise although there wasn’t too much uh traffic for a few hours in the night so that was good but we got to sneak back across this field and uh onto Barrack we go and onto the Scottish border let’s get packed up it’s looking

Like it’s a windy day out there let’s do this let’s go to Scotland it’s all packed up and ready to go oh yeah I found next to my lion I found some of these uh Cherry things for the uh the car they still smell good as well

So you got another little decoration for the bike right let’s go for another day of of pedaling the A1 first of all Let’s uh sneak across this field Okie dokie let’s go to Scotland the day I had been most looking forward to on this adventure the day I would make it to the Scottish border all I had to do to get there was a small 35 miles and today the trails to my surprise were dry hard packed and rolling well from

The quiet gravel byways to rolling through the forest tracks and finally along the exposed Coastal paths with that bitterly cold wind still in my face getting ever closer to that border but I would arrive into baric with yet another puncture and the only Bike Shop had closed Down inner tubes oh what a nightmare today has been I’m currently just coming out of bar I’ve done about 35 mil today the one puncher I did get I fixed I patched it up got to BU it went down again so I’ve tried patching it again and it seems to be

Holding but but I’m out of glue now I’m out of inner tubes so so it might be a bit of a limp to the Finish Line I don’t know how far we got probably about 60 miles the next up is the uh is the Scottish border please make it Su Please finally making it to that border wasn’t as joyous as I had planned as I knew I had to keep moving forward with my front tire now losing pressure I wasn’t sure how long this patch would hold all I knew is it had only slowed this puncture

Down it’s very much right now pedal pedal pedal get as far as I can before the tight gets to that point where it’s uh just uncomfortable to ride pump it up a bit more and then uh carry on seems to be very slow though so I get a good maybe

30 minutes to an hour before it gets to the point where it’s uh a bit unridable but oh well we’re going to make it keep pedling and keep pumping this goes to show how flat this side of the country really is because you could say I’m

Going up the climb of the day or the climb of the ride because when I get to the top of this little climb it’s the highest point and it’s not even 1,000 ft it’s going to be like 750 maybe 800 it’s uh just goes to show really this side of the

Country flat flat as a pancake and uh it’s it’s very gray it’s very miserable there’s a few there’s a few specks of rain in the air I’m just hoping and get all the way to Edinburgh Without Rain imagine that 7 Days on the trail no rain not planning to get there today

Just planning to get as close as possible really to get there tomorrow nice and early let’s keep spinning up this draggy road sometimes you don’t know what you need to do but on this occasion it was simple I only had one choice with the tire slowly losing pressure and no way to fix

It I would pedal and I would pedal hard to get as close to edor as I possibly could tonight the finish of the longest road was in sight I would pedal into the dark to get just 8 m away from Scotland’s capital covering 95 miles that day finding a little to Woodlands

To pitch my tent for one last night before me and my bike would crawl to the end of Britain’s longest Road What