This chapter might be rather jumbled. It is neither a cycle tour, nor even a single trip away, but it simply records a few days in September when I decided to increase my Veloviewer Explorer tile cluster and in so doing, several events have conjoined, so I’m unsure how it will read.
Tuesday 2nd September 2025
There are two men who both live in Sheffield who have an outsize influence on where I ride my bike. Simon Warren (of 100 Climbs fame) suggests I spend my time in hilly regions and Ben Lowe (creator of Veloviewer) encourages me to visit every corner of the country by collecting Explorer tiles.
It’s Ben’s turn to influence my routes for the next few days and I’m starting off in his home city. When enough Explorer tiles are contiguous, they are said to form a cluster and I want to increase my cluster in this region. Before I get to Sheffield though, I plan to meander around Matlock to fill in a few gaps there. My tile count before starting is 17,887 and the cluster stands at 3,377. Let’s see by how much I can boost these numbers in the next few days.
Thursday 4th September 2025
When I came downstairs this morning, I noticed a puddle in the front room. After first blaming the cat, I quickly realised that even the most incontinent of cats couldn’t generate that much of a mess. Then I looked up and saw water dripping from the ceiling and my heart sank as I realised that above me was a bathroom. I shut the water off immediately and thought about the next steps.
What follows is a seriously abridged, almost illusory account of a most stressful day which omits all the horrible bits. I’m writing this a fortnight later and it’s only now that I can look back and capture the essence of the trauma without having to relive it. You wouldn’t be interested in all the details, but the highlights (or perhaps lowlights) are summarised below.
I’d removed most of the furniture before then gently prodding at the ceiling which quickly caused half of it to fall down, but at least then I could see the problem. The leak originated in the region of the mixer shower, but I’d no idea how I could fix it, so the professionals were called in.
To add to my woes, I needed to be in Sheffield before teatime as my daughter had gone on holiday earlier in the day leaving a poorly cat who needed medication. And Geraldine was imminently due to go away for a week. Anyway, all you really need to know is that I didn’t get away until 3pm, the leak was stemmed, the water turned back on and Felix the cat had his tablets on time.
Once in Sheffield, I didn’t really feel like doing anything in the evening, but I had tickets to a gig in Nether Edge, the most fashionable part of the city where the in-crowd goes, so I really didn’t want to miss this.
To get there, I went by bus. I know, cool people don’t use public transport, but I’ve just got my old codger’s bus pass and was eager to make use of it. I had to walk the last 1/4 mile, so no-one actually saw me get off the number 97 bus.
Cafe#9 is tiny venue (maximum capacity 40) so it was certainly exclusive and I got a seat very close to the stage, but then, so did everyone else.
Tommy Arch was performing his first headline gig that night. He was formerly the drummer with Holy Moly & the Crackers, a band I’ve followed for over eight years but who stopped touring last year. It was a great evening (Tommy’s a terrific singer and very good guitarist), but much shorter than I’d expected so when I started off back home, I found that the next bus didn’t leave for 45 minutes. Since I was only three miles from home I decided to walk which was the right decision; the bus never passed me.
Now back to the cycling blog.
Friday 5th September 2025
After the events of yesterday, my planned detour near Matlock never happened. The worry about my domestic issues was on my mind all day so to try to clear my head, I still went on my planned ride in Southeast Sheffield, although I found that I didn’t feel motivated to take many photographs.
The last-minute decision to take the Dawes touring bike (obliquely related to the issue that affected my delayed start) was a fortuitous one since the early part of today’s route took me down what I thought were paved trails, but in fact were quite rough, although they were quiet and away from traffic. And I’m proud to say that I’m now 10th fastest in the world on a quarter-mile Strava segment over one gravelly section. I managed an average of 8.5mph which doesn’t sound much up a 1.4% incline, but still, 10th fastest!
Some of the journey was along an old railway track – great surface and flat – but I met a snag when my Garmin told me to take a sharp left but there was no turning. There was, however, an overhead bridge, but no easy way onto it. I wasn’t for turning back so I found a way to scramble up the embankment to reach my goal. It was a bit hairy carrying a heavy bike up a 45º incline on a sandy bank wearing clippety cycling shoes, but I survived.
Most of the journey was through the former South Yorkshire / North Derbyshire coal fields. I could sense the spirit of Arthur Scargill all around the villages. Did you know that he’s still alive? I didn’t; I thought he’d be harassing St Peter by now, but no, he’s still with us aged 87. There are no mines left in this area, but I did see a huge solar farm which in my view blights the landscape as much as the mines ever did. Oddly enough, I don’t mind windfarms but solar panels look awful where there should be green fields.
Today I increased by cluster by 44 by picking up just 20 new tiles.
Saturday 6th September 2025
Today I headed North through a hilly part of town up to Hillsborough for coffee. An aside: I’ve only been to two football matches in my life, and both times I’ve seen Blackpool play. The first time was when I was about 14 and my sister’s then-boyfriend supported Sheffield Wednesday and took me to Hillsborough to see them play Blackpool. It was a no-score draw. The only other football match I attended was at Preston North End when my son’s brass band were playing in the interval of the derby match against Blackpool. No idea who won that game – we left well before the end. On both occasions I was bored out of my mind.
But anyway, after that verbal diversion, today I found myself back in Hillsborough and was pleased to discover that neither Sheffield team had home matches today. That was pure good luck since my route took me directly past both grounds and I never thought to check beforehand.
I stopped at a café in Hillsborough for coffee and it was lovely. Quite basic with no frills but excellent coffee and cheerful service.
Duly refreshed, from here I headed West through beautiful, quiet but very hilly countryside. I was very glad once I’d returned to the city to cycle back through the centre on dedicated cycle tracks along fairly flat roads.
Rides on both days were 47 miles which is less than my usual distance, but the vertical ascent made the days quite challenging enough.
Sunday 7th September 2025
I had a bit of time before I needed to be back home, so this morning I followed a truncated version of the route initially planned for Thursday. I started in Rowsley and headed down to Winster before heading back, cycling beside Peak Rail, a heritage railway line running steam trains between Rowsley and Matlock.
Once more, this was very hilly, but in 11 miles, I scooped up just three new tiles which added a further 20 tiles to my cluster.
Over the three riding days, I covered 106 miles but climbed 9,610 feet. The cluster increased by 88.
Tuesday 9th September 2025
For many years now I’ve hankered after taking a ride on the Settle-Carlisle railway. I occasionally saw that excursions were running along that line, but they were part of a package and often steam-hauled, neither of which appealed to me. Now that I’ve got a senior railcard, I decided to make use of it and since today was glorious weather, I booked return tickets on a standard train. The return trip cost £15.99 with the railcard which I felt was better value than the starting price of £595 aboard the Northern Belle. OK, for than money, you got wined and dined, but I was happy with my piece of fruit cake brought from home. Also, if you’re busy noshing and appreciating the wine, you can’t be looking at the glorious scenery.
I expected that many people wanting to take that trip would start at Settle (seems obvious, doesn’t it?) but that might have meant an unseemly scramble for window seats (something I considered essential). With that thought, I chose to travel from Skipton, a few miles closer to Leeds where the train started.
It should have been a very straightforward journey to Skipton – less than an hour away from home – but since my car needed fuel and I had a ten minute walk from the car park, I decided to give myself 90 minutes to get there. After refuelling, I tapped in the Skipton car park address into the satnav and was dismayed to see that it was forecasting a 1 hour and 10 minute journey time! I still had sufficient time and so I set off and kept my eye on the satnav’s ETA. As I drove, the time gradually increased to such a degree that my expected arrival time at the car park only left me 12 minutes to walk to the station. Whilst this was OK in principle, it was insufficient time to allow a relaxed journey. I needn’t have worried, however since the forecast duration slowly reduced and I arrived at the station with five minutes to spare.
Once aboard the 9:58 train, I got a window seat but sadly had to travel facing backwards. When we reached Settle, the platform was crowded with people wanting to board, so I was pleased that I’d beaten the masses.
Years ago, Gee and I had the unenviable task of house clearing for a deceased relative. The chap had been a rail enthusiast and had many books on trains but only one interested me which was a pocket guide to the Settle line so I kept hold of it. Published in 1993, it gives a potted history of the line and how it came into being before the bulk of the guide displayed in detail every aspect worth knowing about the journey. Each page displayed diagrammatically five miles of the journey and interestingly, the information is repeated upside down for the return trip making it extremely easy to use.
The view of the countryside from the line differs quite a lot from that afforded by roads. At times, when the railway is on an embankment or viaduct, the perspective is very different, and I was delighted to see familiar views from a new angle.
I admit to acting like a geek on the train (well, I wasn’t acting) since I had my guide open at the correct page and I had the Ordnance Survey map on my phone following the journey north. Armed with these two information sources, I could plan when it would be appropriate to take photos. I’m sure other passengers looked at me with dismay, but I didn’t care.
I didn’t travel all the way to Carlisle. I didn’t really see the point, since the route down the Eden Valley is through very pretty but ordinary countryside and so I alighted at Appleby. I was there on the bike a few weeks ago and I knew that there were a couple of unexplored Veloviewer tiles that were close to the town. I’d taken the precaution of wearing my walking boots (more geekiness), and so after arriving in Appleby, I set off the gather the additional tiles. I had 2½ hours to kill in town, so after my walk up into the hills and alongside Hoff Beck, I spent a pleasant half an hour in a café enjoying a delicious piece of cake and watching the world go by.
When I returned to Appleby station to catch the return train home, both the platform and the train were fairly quiet, so I got another window seat, but once again, I was travelling backwards.
The return trip back home was a repeat of the way out but without any of the stress associated with missing a train. Today, I only gathered two new Veloviewer tiles, and my tile cluster didn’t increase; it will take a lot of effort to bring those few tiles into the overall cluster. My stats now stand at tile count 17,933 (up 46) and the cluster is 3,465 (up 88). I’m happy with that.
One reply on “Gathering tiles in September”
Interesting. For me at least.
I’m glad you pointed our which we’re the scarecrows. I had been wondering.
Note: Walking boots don’t identify one as a Geek do they? Do they? Every one of the five flighs and many taxis I’ve been on /in for the last month were with boots on. At least until I sat down.