Epic Journeys

Done Land's End-John o'Groats and wondering what next? Serial End to Ender Rob Ainsley (e2e.bike) reveals his favourites

- Rob Ainsley

'End to End' has an appealing simplicity: riding a country from one extreme to the other. Top to bottom. Alpha and omega. All-embracing, complete.

You do the place, in all its authenticity and reality. Not only the beautiful scenery and tourist honeypots, but cement factories and humdrum garrison towns too. (You don't want too much of those, obviously, though a little gives you bragging rights as traveller-not-tourist.) Encountering the people, the places, the history. Interacting from the saddle in a reciprocal, positive way, impossible by any other form of locomotion.

You want a clear narrative: a strong sense of beginning, middle and end. Islands are promising for that reason. You want totality: the feeling you've at least glimpsed something of everything. Linear countries help with that. And you want a pleasant, practicable, affordable journey: most of us have finite holiday, and limited appetite for subsistence wild-camping.

All of which rules out some places too inconveniently shaped, crazily-driver, big or expensive, however Instagrammable. So, goodbye Iceland, Italy, Australia, USA, Japan, Antarctica, etc. I'm also discounting sabbatical-sized projects such as Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, or Tarifa to Nordkapp. And, conversely, weekendable drollery like the Isle of Man or Luxembourg. There are no definitive routes and we haven't included them all here. Yours should fit around your own requirements.