London to Liverpool?

[garythespud]

Hello there,

I'm mooting a charity cycle ride from London to Liverpool in the summer (I belong to a Liverpool FC forum and hope to pull together a little team of us) to raise money for the Hillsborough Family Support Group and a children's charity in London. I'm thinking of aboout 50 miles a day over 4 days - anyone have any advice on which route to take? Is this in anyway feasible by joining up a few Sustrans cycle routes? One of the gang is based in Oxford and we were thinking of shooting up there and then straight up!

If anyone has any tips, I'd be most gratfeul. Cheers, in advance.

Gary

 

[Sam Howard]

Hi Gary

Various routes of the NCN (Sustrans National CYcle Network) could help with this route. Primarily NCN 5 from north of Birminham down to Oxford from where you can follow Thames Valley Cycle Way. Could also ride some of the apparently lovely Chesire cycleway south of the Wirral. Check out the Sustrans online mapping to piece the routes together: http://www.sustrans.org.uk/map I'd be interested how you go about finding places to stay as this is what I always struggle with when touring.

Good luck

Sam

 

[garythespud]

Thanks, Sam. I'll check those out. I think I'll spend a day just sitting at home trying to piece together a route through the NCN network. I think the biggest challenge will be navigation. Do you think it's best navigating from GPS or via a map? When I did the C2C I had the map in my hand most of the way! It was almost collapsed due to wear and tear when I finished!

 

[mr_hippo]

I have done Oxford to Widnes on a number of occassions and also reverse route. My ex wife destryed all of my records and diaries so i am working off memory here. I think my faqvourite route went something like this:-
Oxford, Chipping Norton, Moreton in the Marsh, Evesham, Worcester, Kidderminster, Telford, Whitchurch, Runcorn. Alternative suggestion would be Whitchurch, Chester, Birkenhead.
Ok, it is not the most direct but very scenic and avoids a lot of traffic.

 

[garythespud]

I'll check that route out, mate. Cheers. Losing the traffic would be my priority. 50 miles a day with about 6-8 hours cycling a day - should be easily doable.