8. Cycling

Basecamp Adventure 8: Cycling

Our latest Basecamp family adventure  (number 8 out of 25) was one that involved a day of off-road cycling in the forest. Road cycling has never appealed as much since we like to appreciate the environment and escape into nature plus there are no vehicles to content with….only pedestrians and the odd tree root! We love cycling because it is something that we can all do together, some maybe slower or faster than others.

Riverside camp2

We chose a campsite (Camping and Caravanning site: Riverside Gardens) not far from the National Trust site, Clumber Park which meant that we could cycle from the site to the park and then explore the trails – a good warm up really.

Clumber chair
Clumber has a range of numbered tracks and a map providing the route. We entered the park and began following the nearest numbered track that took us around the perimeter of the park before gravitating towards the more populated central area where we stopped for the compulsory playground break. Taking a packed lunch meant we could stop and munch on food whenever hunger struck or we found a nice spot with a view.

Cycling is great exercise and a fun way to spend time outside. Unlike walking and running which we also love to do, you can cover more mileage. For this cycling trip we had no set route and spent a few hours exploring the park freely. In the past we’ve followed set tracks of varying distances and even completed longer trails such as the Trans Penine trail over consecutive days. There are all sorts of tracks and trails around the country of varying lengths – some of which are linear or circular – so there’s always somewhere to cycle!

Cycling through fiord

Cycling has become an increasingly popular sport but you don’t often see whole families out enjoying it together. We had our bikes stolen last year and certainly missed going out for pedal. We’ll be looking our for more places to explore by bike in the future.

For more information about Swift's Basecamp, visit: swiftbasecamp.co.uk