A George Orwell bike ride

A ride from London to Jura, the Scottish island where Orwell wrote 1984, via Liverpool and an overnight ferry to Belfast, then Ballycastle and Islay. An Airbnb in Ballycastle but otherwise self-sufficient with sleeping bag, inflatable mattress and micro-stove for cooking. I was trying to minimise the weight of my bag and will likely do another video soon about packing for this trip.

[Music] hello thanks for coming back to London centuries at halfast 7 by Big Ben it was 75 years ago that George Orwell published his great dystopian novel 1984 with a hellish vision of London in a nightmare future so I thought I’d do an allwell ride now there’s all sorts of good places that you can ride to for a a George orway themed bike ride because this down and out in Paris and London Paris will be a nice one the road to wig and Pier be interesting let’s not forget Catalonia Homage to Catalonia cuz uh Orwell was Manning the barricades in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War I’m not going to go quite that far but I am going to go quite a long way but I thought I’d make this one specific to 1984 Orwell had 1984 in his head for a long time took him a while to write had quite long gestation but he did the bulk of the writing and he finished it off on a remote Scottish island called Jura so what I’m going to try and do is ride to Jura and find the house that he was staying in at the time that he was working on the BS and I’m going to take what I hope is going to be quite an interesting route to Jura the standard way of getting there would be by going up the West Coast towards Glasgow but when I say that jur is remote I mean it Orwell himself called it an extremely ungettable to place what I’m going to do is uh ride up to Liverpool catch a ferry from Liverpool to Belfast in Northern Ireland right up the ANM coast of Northern Ireland and then get a little passenger boat from from the top of Northern isand to the neighboring island of Isa from where I can get a little little tiny ferry to jur at least that’s the plan so it sort of breaks down into three chunks and they get shorter and easier as they go on but chunk number one is ride from London to Liverpool and that’s what I’m setting off to do right now it’s going to be an overnighter as you can see it’s just beginning to to get dark here I don’t know if you can tell or Not So the plan is out of London Milton ke centry Stoke on Trent up to Mercy side that way it’s kind of drizzling a little bit as it gets dark it’s pretty yucky actually well London disappeared behind me and so did uh Watford and haml hempston Lon buzzard and and then Milton ke rain didn’t stop now I’m looking out for a bus stop or somewhere I can stop and have a bite to eat oh this going to do that looks pull in here a sec dear half past midnight rain hasn’t been heavy it’s just uh it’s just steady drizzle it’s got that feel that it’s kind of set in for the night you know well it’s dark and there’s nothing to see maybe I’ll put a map on the screen and do a thingy about the route so this is London to Liverpool okay then ferry from Liverpool actually it’s birken head chunk number two Belfast to B Castle little place chunk number three in the islands that’ll be easy so just leaving centry now which is roughly speaking the halfway mark I still have such a long way to go the rain came back basically the night was really long really cold totally wet and the next major way Mark is uh Stoke on Trent but that’s still a little way off ches here it’s been in cheser forever just goes on and on and on and it’s raining again this ride’s been or this chunk of the ride really unforgiving hello oh thank heavens it’s got to be the bridge over the Mery so excuse me getting out of cheshier at L this is Penny Lane must be getting towards Liverpool we’re here downtown Liverpool it’s the cavern making the most of it [Music] here they are I know about buus I’m going to have to cut him out aren’t I next morning now just got just got off the ferry from Belfast I’m trying to find my my way into town see if I can get myself some breakfast well quick recap it’s not a Bary spring day here in Northern Ireland so thought I’d get out of town not waste any time so setting off on what is it chunk two the second leg of this George Orwell ride yeah better get back to George oil felt as though I was getting a bit distracted with the Fab Four yesterday the county ANM Coast Road cantre is hilly the weather’s not perfect but it’s pretty nice recycling roads aren’t bad pretty good actually for the most part fairly quiet well surfaced it’s classic Coastal stuff up down up down up down so this is valy Castle Northern Ireland so I had a quick night stop in Bal castle and we’re about to get the passenger ferry over to the island of Isa up in Scot and hello to Port Ellen so I’m just riding across the island from Port Ellen where the little boat got in from baly Castle to another place called Port as and from Port as it’s a very very short crossing over to the island of Jura which is where the action all happen where all I came up here and was beaver ing away on his book in 1948 all here we go just coming into Porter gate so that’s my first sight of jur if you can make it out through the Mist across the water well made it on to Jura but uh I just got some really bad news oh was the ferry terminal from the the little tiny crossing over from from Isa hang on look so that iser behind me that you can see over there uh and while I was waiting for the the ferry over to jur here I went into the ticket office just to check uh from my onward Ferry uh to oburn further up the coast which I was supposed to take on Wednesday only goes every 3 days and the woman in the ticket office says oh no it’s not going to be running until May the7th so in other words my way off the island uh doesn’t exist so I’ve got to do some Hasty replanning for now we’re still on the trail of George Orwell going to try and press ahead with this bit I’m all full of practicalities Cu as you can see it’s very Misty I want to make sure I’ve got somewhere dry to sleep tonight so my priorities now are one find a shop two find somewhere to sleep uh worry about all well tomorrow [Music] this is the one road of the island of dura only has one road the goal at the moment is to find a bothy that’s quite a long way off the road like 10K 12K to spend the night there hey well we’re off road now aren’t we I’m making my way extremely gingerly down this track through some fairly nasty forestry land interested to see that there are no mountain bike tracks in the mud turns out it wasn’t 10K it’s a lot less Garmin says about 6.9 but after that track through the forestry was a maybe a kilometer or something like that so after that was about maybe 5K left that 5K it’s taking me 2 hours so far just arriving at the bofy oh my God am I glad to see this place it’s basically a SE kayak’s Place uh do not attempt it on a bike it’s Absol bloody stupid idea coming here on a road bike was a ridiculous idea uh you got a forward across several streams climb uh two deer fences oh it’s basically hike a bike with a bike on your back through a featureless bog and that tusy grass well you’re up to your knees in it well it’s simple but it’s hung for a night a little bit of time’s gone by uh most importantly I’ve got some hot food inside I’ve got my tiny little micro stove with me so managed to get something hot um I think I was so tired and so exhausted when when I got here I didn’t appreciate just what an absolutely epic location this is how extraordinary it is here hang I’ll show you the view it’s just completely silent it’s me and the deer Tide’s going out for some reason I’ve been finding the path much much easier to follow in this direction than yesterday yesterday there was no path say path I mean it’s right for COD bikes or something like that I think this is the Wild Island of Jura see over there see over [Applause] there completely silent here well back on the road again and uh heading Norah fura back on the trail of George Orwell this is it now this is my chance to find the house that he was in when he wrote 1984 the Wild Island of Jura the road just keeps getting smaller and rougher it’s going to go out entirely in couple of miles I think I’ll probably just walk from there I’ve actually been able to ride much further than I thought I would be able to I thought I’d be down to walking by this point oh my God oh my God oh my God that’s it I didn’t realize that I was that it was going to come into view this is it I’ve made it whoa hang on hang on hang on don’t crash don’t crash don’t crash oh this is crazy right it’s going to come into view so I go around this corner to the left yeah there it is see the White House hang on I’m going to stop if I can this is it barn hill this is the house that George Orwell wrote 1984 in off the Beaten Track you might say well I must admit that felt like a bit of an odyssey from from London glad I came though barn hill he must have got so bored it’s nothing to do but work a George Orwell ride from London to Barn Hill at the North End of Jura Scotland I got to get home now I wasn’t sure whether to uh read a bit of 1984 or not but um yeah maybe I’ll give it one of the bits I like um God it’s BL you’ve either read the book or you haven’t right it’s it’s so Bleak if you haven’t read it it’s the story of Winston Smith sort of every man bloke who lives in this nightmare world in the future um where totalitarianism is um in complete control orell himself was a socialist but uh widely taken to be a comment on um stalinism and uh what was going on in the Soviet to diary doing it he’ll be he’ll be hanged he writes in his diary he went back to the table dipped his pen and wrote To The Future or to the past to a time when thought is free when men are different from one another and do not live alone to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone from the age of uniformity from the age of solitude from the age of big brother from the age of double think greeting he was already dead he reflected so I’m heading back to uh Craig house now the the main village here on the island and I’m going to have to plot my journey home cuz it’s going to be a bit different from what I’d planned I had planned on taking a boat from Port as to Oben on the mainland and that’s not going to be running for a good few weeks yet so I need to look at a map and come up with an alternative I have a train ticket from Fort William It’s a Long Way north of here Jura that’s the famous paps of Jura behind me looking absolutely magnificent today couldn’t see them yesterday cuz of all the low Cloud I’m scoping out to possible places to spend the night here on Jura and uh this is a nice spot this has a standing stone and a herd of deer and a lake with ducks which you can probably hear doesn’t have any shelter how lucky am I going to get with the weather tonight I’ve got a sleeping bag another view of the PS the deer outnumber the People by some enormous number here I’m off to find somewh for breakfast quite fancy a beach this morning see what I can find this is where I’m sleeping tonight what an evening sea is completely flat and calm Sun’s about to go down behind the mountains um I’ve got the sleeping bag on the ground do some stargazing tonight I think no midges yet too cold for the [ __ ] it’s good absolutely none at all the next morning I’m at the harbor now got here early and I’m waiting for the little boat to take me away from Jura I’ll be rather sad to leave rather like Jura so that was the little passenger ferry from Jura to Tav Valic heading north towards Oben that’s Tav alic Harbor absolutely beautiful little place this road from Tav Val is absolutely magnificent and blue bells and green water just through the trees it’s just beautiful lock M Fort so making my way up the mainland now I’ve been on the mainland since T Tav valy heading north on my way to Fort William I’ve gone through oburn stopped there and got a little bit of food and now riding up the side of what I think it’s Lo or ETI and um there’s a quite a good gravel track going out the side like I was saying that track was very easy and uh all of a sudden I Came Upon the bothy really easy to find easy access everything great and just leaving there the next morning now in a bit low cloud and drizzle beautiful bothy a lovely fast flowing stream good for washing and getting some cooking water and had a dip in a lock as well so I’m now on the final leg of my ride last day today got a train ticket from Fort William tonight so I’ve just got to get over these Hills and find myself a train station got today left to enjoy the landscape and being here many rivers to cross here aha clearly I’ve reached the point where the good gravel track stops being a good gravel track oh dear yeah this might be slow going well this foot path section uh is clearly going to go on for a little way yet I would have thought on just got to get the bike on my shoulder uh I would have thought about 10 kilom of this for anyone who’s thinking about taking this route up like a t one thing in its favor that I can’t capture for YouTube is the smell of the air it’s absolutely wonderful they just feel so clean and lovely here the views of a lot of magnificent it will be quite nice on the back on the road again I knew there would be a substantial off-road section today but I did plan this as a cycling trip and uh at the moment it’s the it’s the kind of cycling where you put your bike on your shoulder Wade I’m just looking for the path I have no idea here I think maybe it’s this stream here no hang on it’s the other side of that I just got to get over it haven’t I oh my word here we go yes the water’s cold right up we go these aren’t the exceptions they this is the rule it’s just endless it’s just one after another that’s the lock e TI v e there’s barely any point in putting put it the there’s barely any point in putting the bike down because I just had to pick it up again blue bells many rivers to cross Well turns out it was Happy Days on that path because the path disappeared as you can see and it’s it’s just straight up now there’s a stream on my right I got to keep that on my right that last section that was almost as hard as getting to the bothy andura yeah I’m on top of a deer fence at the moment suppose the next section goes up I imagine the way I’m looking at it now this whole trip was a trip to Jura to see the place where good old George Orwell right 1984 and for me to taste a bit of Freedom like poor old Winston Smith wanted those of you who read the book will know that it led him or his attempts to do so led him to Room 101 this is better than this is hard Jesus Christ this is hard but it’s better than Room 101 Room 101 is the place that holds your deepest fears the worst thing you can possibly imagine then poor old Winston comes face to face with his oh my gosh I’m back on a real Road I cannot tell you how happy I am about this I really want to get moving now Fort William here I come that uh hard off-road section oh my word what a killer it wasn’t much more than km maybe 13 you know the foot path bit or the the lack of foot path bit it was really really energy sapping so this is the Little Road up the top end of the Glenn leading roughly North I think in roughly the direction of Glen Co looks like Scotland doesn’t it Scottish scenery Scottish weather are we coming back here I tell you another road another lock the one over there I’m getting there I’m nearly at my Journey’s End now getting really close to Fort William took the Corin Ferry this is a sea loock deep in land but that’s the sea it’s weird cuz there’ been an absolutely horrible section of Road through Glen Co was Dreadful has absolutely nothing to recommend it whatsoever windy Baron loads of traffic angry motorists all all the usual kind of stuff so I thought I’d get off the big road and take this smaller one all the way up the west side of the sea lock make the most of my last few miles and then there’ll be one more ferry to go on this bicycle ride of many fairies little thing to take me over over across the lock into Fort William and that over there the other side of the water ladies and gentlemen is Fort William Journey’s End for this bicycle ride from London to Jura well that’s a sudden change isn’t it across the water train station was right there jumped on the train next morning hit here I am in Houston it’s leaving the station but I got one more thing to do before I can wrap up this George Orwell ride and that’s something that I had intended to do when I left town one week ago but in all my excitement I forgot and that is to come and find George Orwell statue round things off a bit which is outside the BBC because he used to work for them so here we go see if we can find him aha here we go George orell sculptur by Martin Jennings although it doesn’t seem to have his name actually on the piece itself cigarette in his hand leaning forward that posture looks a bit like Lenin doesn’t it I’m not sure he would have approved of that and the inscription on the wall behind reads if Liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear yeah well thanks for watching Everybody George allwell ride to Jura