Bikepacking from Bristol to Land’s End on Sustrans Route 3

In September 2021, I completed a cycle tour from Bristol to Land’s End with my friend Kate. After 330 miles in the saddle, 6 days of pedalling and 5 nights camping in the wild, this is what I learnt.

Plan your route

There are a few options to get you from Bristol to Land’s End by pedal power. The shortest cycle route (as recommended by Google Maps) spits you straight into 60mph freight along sections of the A370, A38 and A30. I’d probably not recommend following that one.

If you’d rather not dice with death alongside the UK’s holiday and haulage traffic, there are more relaxed, quieter routes you can take instead. Take a look at the Sustrans network on OS maps. The yellow sections are traffic free and the blue sections are mostly quiet lanes.

We opted to follow Sustrans Route 3 for our cycle tour to the bottom of the country. This cycle path passes conveniently close to my house in Bristol before swooping through Somerset, over to the north coast of Devon and then down to Cornwall’s south coast.

A huge benefit of following a single Sustrans route is the simplicity of navigation. With no access to mains power for a week, phone battery was precious and we were grateful to be guided by a treasure trail of Sustrans stickers, instead of relying on technology.

Sustrans Route 3 makes use of a several long stretches of traffic free cycleways, including the Tarka Trail south of Barnstaple and the Camel Trail near Bodmin. Other sections of the route are shared with traffic, but barely. It’s clear that care has been taken to seek out the quietest routes available.

We did divert from Route 3 a couple of times though, with varying levels of success. Just south of Bude, we snuck inland on Route 304 instead of following the coast. By all accounts, the coastal route takes in some stunning scenery around Widemouth Bay, but you pay for it with a monstrous climb. It was a price that, quite frankly, we were not willing to pay.

A little further south we deviated off-route again out of sheer desperation to flatten the Cornish terrain. This detour took us off the Sustrans network altogether, and as our lives flashed before us on a particularly hairy section of the A390, we resolved that it wasn’t really worth it.

Track your progress

If you’re anything like me, you’ll want constant reassurance that you’re doing alright. The route passes through countless towns and landmarks, so it’s never too hard to get your bearings and we met lots of helpful folks who gave us detailed directions whether we wanted them or not. If you’ve planned stops in certain locations, then it should be pretty easy to find out how far away you are.

I tracked our daily miles, elevation and speed on a Suunto 5 sports watch, which doesn’t rely on a mobile connection to track or log data. Again, this was really helpful in preserving phone battery. I found it valuable to have sight of how many miles we’d covered throughout the day, but this could easily be done without technology by figuring out checkpoints in advance.

Stop and sleep

We didn’t actually plan any of our stops. Instead we agreed to focus on covering the miles then pitch up in the wild wherever we happened to find ourselves. I guess that’s still a plan, in a way.

Within a couple of days, we’d settled into our own little routine. We’d pack down and set off early each morning (after a coffee) then search out supplies and facilities in the first town we came to. After that, we’d pedal for most of the day. At 5pm we’d look for somewhere to fill our water bottles and at 7pm we’d start scoping out a suitable place to tuck ourselves away for the night, before sunset at 7:45pm. If we felt uncomfortably close to civilisation, we’d press on to somewhere a little quieter.

It generally took a bit of searching, some discussion and a lot of staring at OS Maps, but we’d always manage to sniff out a suitable campsite in the end. We slept in a tranquil nature reserve, a woodland common, a secluded picnic area, a canal towpath and a little grass verge on a footpath to nowhere.

Once the tents were up, we’d warm some food on the stove by torchlight and we were usually in bed by 9.30pm. Once you’ve played a couple of rounds of cards in the dark, there’s not a huge amount else to do. We’d get back on the road early the next morning, careful to leave no trace, and beeline to the next stop with supplies and facilities.

For those who prefer a more structured itinerary though, this side of the planning is probably quite crucial. If you do want to pre-book campsites or B&Bs, factor the variable terrain into your estimated mileage. You’ll probably find you aren’t averaging the same miles every day. There are lots of detailed guides covering various sections of this route, so some of these should help.

Do some hill training

We were ill-prepared for how steep this route would be, but luckily we managed to keep the pedals turning. As we wound down at the end of each day, we wondered if tomorrow might be less hilly, but it never was.

So, with that in mind, if you can do a bit of hill training in advance, you’ll have a far more comfortable ride!

Prep your bike

This route isn’t always a smooth ride, so be prepared to get rattled around a bit, especially if you’re on a road bike, which I was. A gravel or touring bike would be a more appropriate steed, but if you only have a road bike then maybe treat it to some tough new tyres and a tune up, to give it the best chance under the weight of your luggage.

Plan for your arrival

After scrimping on accommodation costs all week, we splashed out on our final night with a B&B in Penzance. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was the most incredible night’s sleep of my life. I was beyond excited to have a real bed, unlimited power straight from the wall and warm water on tap.

Also, because we had to pass straight through Penzance to get to Land’s End, we dropped off all our luggage at the B&B on the way through. That lightened the load considerably for the final 30 miles.

If I’d had the foresight, I would have posted myself a little care package to the B&B before leaving Bristol. After my first shower of the week I really wished I had some clean clothes to change into for the evening and the journey home.

Pre-book a train

Why is it so ridiculously hard to take a bike on a train? Thankfully Kate organised the return train journey for us, and she’s brilliantly tenacious. It’s a painful reservation process and bike spaces are limited. After a lot of back and forth with customer services she managed to get us and our bikes all onto the same train at the same time. A commendable achievement.

Nice scenery though!