Spain 2022: ...on to South Devon & Dorset

After nearly 3 weeks of wandering around the English countryside touring gardens, they are beginning to blend together as a blur! Last week we visited several interesting ones, and even more this week, but the big change has been improving weather, so I've finally gotten my bike out again, and begun riding around on the crazy English roads.

Riding on the UK isn't terribly different than Spain, or even the US, especially as the drivers here are quite courteous... But the roads are all about 30-50% narrower than anyplace I've ever been! Primary highways ("A" level roads) are strictly 2 lanes (roughly 20-22' total), with no shoulder (a paint strip, then nothing, zip, nada... Minor highways ("B" roads) are more like 1.5 lanes (about 12'-15' total). On minor rural roads (no letter or number designation, and often no name!), it's no more than one lane, often just 6-8' of pavement, with no shoulder, just a hedge on both sides running vertically up 8-15' high.

On similar rural roads I spend most of my time on in upstate NY, they are a full two lanes of 12' each, plus a rough or soft shoulder if needed. The countryside here is like riding through a postcard from the mid 19th century... Gorgeous, but often nerve wracking in a car- on a bike, however, they are really pretty nice, as cars cannot travel at much more than 20mph safely!

Consequently, off the main roads, there is essentially no traffic. I've ridden about 100 miles now on these tiny roads, and probably encountered fewer than 25 cars in total. I've seen more cows and sheep on these roads than cars (which is another reason the cars tend to go slowly!So... I do all I can to stay off the main roads!

The other thing we've been up to is lots of walking. Norma and I are averaging about 25-30 miles per week, as there are public "footpaths" through our the countryside all over. The coastal paths cover some fantastic areas, but almost every town has walks extending our into the farmland too. We've really been enjoying that!