{"id":11951,"date":"2024-10-11T10:50:49","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T10:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/?p=11951"},"modified":"2024-10-05T10:53:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-05T10:53:07","slug":"a-family-cycling-adventure-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/2024\/10\/11\/a-family-cycling-adventure-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"A family cycling adventure in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Valerie van Mulukom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the summer I attempted my first cycling holiday in the UK with two small children. We headed for Southampton for beach and forest visits, and the long-desired Peppa Pig World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tackling the challenges<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Challenge no 1 was packing all the luggage for one adult and two children onto my Tern GSD longtail e-bike. The front luggage holder held my 55L waterproof backpack, while bungee cords took care of the rest (including an entire child carrier).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I loaded on the children and headed to Oxford station. I had requested disability assistance onto the train in the form of a ramp as I have long COVID. Really I feel such assistance should be available to all single parents and even all cyclists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenge no 2 was getting the large, heavy GSD into the vertical bike storage on a CrossCountry train. I was nervous about this and the woman at the station said she didn\u2019t think I could manage it. The train manager said he would throw us off at Reading if I didn\u2019t (for safety reasons). Thankfully, a German woman passenger who also had a bike helped me and we Tetris-ed the bike in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kindness of strangers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This kindness of strangers became a theme of the trip. At Southampton Airport Parkway, multicolour mohawk man helped us get the bike off the train. Challenge no. 3 was navigating out of an airport by bike, as we headed off for our campsite, an hour\u2019s ride away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I picked a route that included the coastal pathway\/Cycle Route 2, and was \u2018mostly flat\u2019, according to Google. This turned out to be a euphemism as we traversed hilly Southampton, but the kids loved seeing all the birds in Southampton Water, and after a small playground break we reached our glamping site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some fun\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

Taking the ferry across to the supermarket was fun, especially since the kids had never been on a boat before.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>

\"Back<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were plenty more challenges during our trip. Taking the ferry across to the supermarket was fun, especially since the kids had never been on a boat before. The ferryman gave me the golden tip of reversing the bike onto the ferry so I could cycle off at the other end\u2026where there turned out to be no jetty but an expanse of mud. A bit of family teamwork pushing the bike got us out of that one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crossing Southampton to get to our second accommodation was notably less fun. It included cycling for half an hour on the pavement next to a deafening and exhaust-fume-filled three-lane road. Some of the driving in the city was terrible too \u2013 motorists passing us way too close while driving 20 mph over the speed limit. We only saw three other cyclists \u2013 hardly surprising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Barrier<\/figure>
\n

On a footpath deep in residential hills we came across motorcycle-stopping barriers that had no fewer than three tight turns \u2013 barely accessible for us, but I wondered about those with additional mobility needs, like wheelchairs and prams.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day, we got to our coveted destination: Peppa Pig World. This is within Paulton\u2019s Park, which has no bike-parking information on the website. When I emailed them, I was told to ignore \u2018No Entry\u2019 signs and find (staff) bike parking near the entrance. I did this, and got yelled at by a member of staff \u2013 not something I needed after a sensory-overloaded day at the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming home<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the journey home to Oxford, Google Maps took us to the wrong side of Southampton Airport Parkway, which meant transporting the bike vertically in the lift and coming back for kids and luggage. But rail assistance was great, and once again both here and on arrival, I was helped by other passengers on the train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Travelling by train with two children, luggage and a longtail bike<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>

\"Two<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, we had a fantastic time. But there were many obstacles to cycling that were only overcome by requesting disability assistance, and most of all, by the kindness and support of fellow passengers. My own determination that an environmentally friendly holiday must be possible also played its part. And next time I won\u2019t rely on Google Maps, but a cycle-friendly app such as cycle.travel or Komoot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Valerie van Mulukom<\/p>\n

n the summer I attempted my first cycling holiday in the UK with two small children. We headed for Southampton for beach and forest visits, and the long-desired Peppa Pig World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,189,190],"class_list":["post-11951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-active-travel","tag-cycling-with-children","tag-holiday-by-bike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11951"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11957,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11951\/revisions\/11957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}