I have spent over five years of my life on cycle journeys across five continents.
Here is a list of some of the most spectacular, enjoyable segments I have ridden.
But there is so much world out there so please do let me know in the comments what I have missed and the delights that still await.
- Chapman’s Peak Drive winds along the cliffs of the Atlantic Coast, at the tip of South Africa. The beautiful city of Cape Town and the stunning Cape Point are both nearby.
- Highway 1, or California State Route 1, was the most beautiful section of coastline I rode up through the US. There must be loads more stunning routes for this British traveler to discover – let me know in the comments!
- The Top of the World Highway is a mere 66 miles long, but this link between the Yukon and Alaska is gorgeous. Make sure you visit the tiny village of Chicken (so called, allegedly, because nobody could spell ptarmigan): the ceiling of the bar there is hung with the shredded remnants of women’s underwear blasted from the in-house cannon!
- The Road of Bones runs through Russia’s far east. Its name comes from the thousands upon thousands of Gulag prisoners who died during its construction and whose remains were simply ploughed into the road. A sad, remote road which was brutally cold when I rode it in winter. Silent, vast landscapes stretch far away across the emptiness of Siberia.
- The Karakoram Highway is one of the highest paved roads in the world, crossing one of the highest international border crossings along the way. Linking Pakistan and China, the road winds up through steep-sided valleys up into the majesty of the Karakoram mountains. Stunning, hardcore travel.
- The Carretera Austral, or Southern Highway, was constructed in the era of General Pinochet to link the remote southern communities of Chile. Traveling the length of this gorgeous 800 mile gravel route requires three ferry journeys. Rivers, lakes, forests, fjords and tiny villages will keep your camera busy.
- I rode the mountainous road from Macedonia to Albania in pouring rain. Despite that it still stays in my mind as a beautiful experience. Looking down from on high towards Lake Ohrid, camping in one of the numerous concrete bunkers that litter the Albanian landscape (they are relics of the Communist era there), and swooshing down through pretty pine forests.
- The 88-Temple pilgrimage route on Shikoku Island, Japan, is memorable not only for the lovely coastal scenery and relaxed villages along its way. The 750 mile route was first completed, it is believed, by a Buddhist monk 1300 years ago. Pilgrims walking the route are easily recognizable by their conical hats and long walking staffs.
- South America, and the Andes in particular, is full of hard-core, thrilling roads. One of my favourites is the mountain roller-coaster running from Cusco (the gateway to Machu Picchu) down towards the mysterious, fascinating Nazca Lines which are ancient geoglyphs of spiders, monkeys, hummingbirds and long lines scraped into the arid surface of the Nazca desert.
- The 830 mile ring road, or Route 1, in Iceland circles the country. I love the idea of being able to pedal a lap of an entire country (especially a country as beautiful as Iceland) on one single road.
This post originally appeared in the Huffington Post.
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The Hai Van Pass in Vietnam is spectacular!!!
Hi Al,
Wow, that gets me in the mood! And I like the fact that a road in my home town makes no. 1 spot! The Road of Bones had me realising that you partnered Rob Lilwall on that trip. Hadn’t put that together until now!
Regards
Paul
The Yungas Road in Bolivia is supposed to be the world’s most dangerous – but must be equally spectacular.
The Pamir Highway is incredible – remote and surrounded by mountains it seperates Tajikistan and Afghanistan – I’ll be there in six weeks so will let you know if it lives up to expectations!
I think the Pamir Highway should definitely be on here – I just couldn’t be bothered to ride it by the time I reached Central Asia. *shame*
Highway 1 in Australia goes all the way around — over 11000km according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_1_%28Australia%29 . That would be quite a ride. I’d love to cycle the Andes too – so picturesque.
I’m planning on going from Tirane to Elbasan then into Macedonia and around Lake Ohrid passing through Struga then Ohrid then on towards Bitola. Is this the route you are referring to at no 7?(albeit I’ll be doing it in reverse, maybe less swooshing)
I think so. You can swoosh the other way – nice hairpins.
I’d be interested in what your top ten “cultural” roads are. Where it’s not about the scenery but about the local people you meet along the way
Maybe a little less exotic than all of that and certainly a lot shorter but have a look at the Trollstigen in Norway. 9% grade, 11 hairpins and the only road where I’ve ever managed to emulate a GP motorcycle by getting our tandem centre stand grating on the bends! (disk braked strongly advised on tandem :O)
this link gives a 360° view:
http://www.visitnorway.com/360/geiranger/index.html?image=pano/aalesund71.jpg&heading=223.62399999999985&pitch=-25&zoom=100.38041043348792
go to the lower part of the photo and scroll across to Trollstigen.
I miss the European roads. Simplon in Switzerland, Stelvio and Gavia in Italy, Col du Galibier. Maybe Europe is not that exotic but when you have just a few weeks to ride your bike and you live in Europe and want to start from your hometown there is a lot to climb and marvel.
I am curious about a European list. Anyone?
By the way I like the lists and the posts on your web site.
Go on
Thanks, Nico
I was in Iceland recently and thought cycling a loop of the country would be incredible – wouldn’t require too much time either, and the views would be incredible! One to consider!
This reminds me of our list of 10 Places to ride your bike before you die. So many nice roads, so little time! I think the ride around Lake-Song Kol in Kyrgyzstan stands out as one of my all-time favourites though.
I agree!
See http://www.flickr.com/photos/alastairhumphreys/2984664228/
I cycled around Issyk-kul as well but that wasn’t something spectacular. Didn’t go to Song-kul though (which is what Friedel mentioned) but apparently THAT is awesome :)
my mistake – thanks Luka!
See – http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_raw_lin_son/205231109/
I loved Wadi Dana
A few less well-known but very special roads in my cycling memories:
The King’s Highway in Jordan for its epic wadis
From Wadi Halfa to Dongola (Nubia, Sudan) for pure serenity on Earth
The track from Bahir Dar to Weldiya (Amhara, Ethiopia) for fierceness
The road up to and through Jebel Akhdar, Oman for pure steepness and vertical scale
The Irkeshtan Pass between Osh, Kyrgyzstan and Kashgar, China is stunning. More sandy track than road on the Kyrgyz side in 2009, the Chinese builders were at work so I imagine it is a much smoother pedal these days. Small mountain villages, ‘edge of the world’ style border town check points and big mountains. Man, that air is fresh!
Nepal – Katmandu to Pokhara via the Daman pass
You mention the Ring Road in Iceland. Having had 4 cycle tours in Iceland, I regularly advise people that this is not actually the finest cycling in the country. Many other cyclists who have had a broad experience of Icelandic cycling agree with me. Rather a lot of it isn’t very nice for cycling because of heavy traffic or sub-par scenery, and on the whole you would have a nicer time on you cycling tour of Iceland if you made a habit of avoiding it. There is an exception, however. The SE part of the ring road passes through unique scenery, and fortunately this bit isn’t too busy, and also this is the bit that doesn’t have convenient alternatives.
I would have mentioned Gaesavatnaleid in Iceland, also known as F910, as the greatest road to ride in that country, and certainly among my top 10 rides. Though it is certainly very challenging to ride, and I spent quite a few hours dragging my bicycle through deep sand on various stretches of it.
But probably the difficulties of F910 are beyond the willingness of most cyclists to endure. So if I discount that, then I would vote for another stunning route in the southern highlands of Iceland. I call this the “gourmet route to Landmannalaugar” in my webnotes here. It’s hard work, but within the capability of anyone willing to ride on unpaved Icelandic roads, with the possible exception of one really nasty ford.
I agree. you miss the Snaefellness peninsula which is beautiful, you completely zap the interior which is maybe the most interesting bit of it with all the bubbly bits and the lunar landscape (and the volcanic sand which grinds your gearset away in 3 days of rain) and the westmann islands which are well worth the look.
Maybe doing just the route n°1 would be like visiting Paris by just going round the peripherique- you get a flavour but don’t get really inside.
Anyway, didn’t visit the east of Iceland so I’m not an authority on the matter but the bits I did do, I would have regretted to just stay on the ring road.
I loved Iceland and I saw absolutely nothing of the ring road (except for crossing it at the very start and end of my trip).
i think, amongst others, my favorate roads have to be Canyon del Pato in Peru from the coast up to Huaraz, 40 rock strewn tunnels above precipitous cliffs in 38 kilometres…….and the road from Uyuni in Bolivia across the Lipez desert into San Pedro in chile’s Atacama desert. high, dry and quite rightly the inspiration behind Dali’s life of the surreal!
Being a man of travels a bit closer to home. A ride that is amazingly beautiful was sketched out for me (on a post-it note) by Helen Moriarty, the landlady of Teddy O’Sullivans Bar at Kilmackilogue Pier on Ireland’s Beara Peninsula. It took me down the centre of the ring of Kerry turning onto the Glencar pass from Waterville. It is a serene 15 mile ride down a scooped valley on a single track road, followed by a gradual climb up into the Balaghisheen pass into Glencar dropping down to the beautiful Lough Caragh and finishing around the Kilarney National Park. If you could design a perfect day’s riding, for me that would be it.
One of my favourite rides ever was in Norway. Cycling from Geiranger fjord up Dalsnibba Mountain, reaching arctic like conditions at the top before descending to a place called Bismo in an alpine like valley called Ottadalen.
Another favourite area is Mid Wales, the mountain road from Abergwesyn via the Devil’s staircase to Tregaron is a favourite.
There’s also a few gems on the west coast of Scotland.
I was afraid that you are missing your very own adventurous South American roads into and out of Andes that you covered very well in your book ‘Thunder and Sunshine 2’ till I reached the end of the list.
Personally, I have been on smaller and less challenging road sections of Quebec, Massachusetts, Ontario, New York, Virginia and North Carolina and I think each of one deserves a mention, but then your list comprises more kilometers of extreme awesomeness than anywhere else.
Correction: I wanted to say “your list of greatest roads comprises more extreme awesomeness per kilometer than anywhere else”.
yes to Number 10!
Rarotonga ( Cook Islands), completed in 2007 – a short 20 miles! (but its a start!)
Then September last year, completed the 300+ miles around the mainland of Fiji in 4 days –
blog here http://stukimberley.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/fiji-bike-ride-part-one/
…and now thinking about the next country to ‘lap round on a bike’……
Lesotho would be unusual for a lap…
The Baja California – Mexico. Tijuana to La Paz. 1200 miles of cactus forests, desserts, mountains, coastline and fish tacos – Great adventures!
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