Welcome to the National Parks Grand Tour

With a capable mode of personal transport, a cosy tent and a decent amount of time off work, you have all the basic ingredients of a proper Grand Tour. Even if you possess none of these, the complete kit is fairly attainable.

Get ready for the Grand Tour – All 15 National Parks By Motorcycle

I’m lucky enough to have colleagues from both near and far afield. On occasion, I find the energy to brave the 6h round trip to our London office to catch up with folks. At any given time I could be chatting to a fellow Welshman, an Aussie or with anyone from the in between. Yet on the topic of travel, even in my own country I often find myself the least travelled.

“You live in the South West?”

“…Don’t you just love the Exmoor coast road? I’d love to try wild camping in Dartmoor. What’s it like?” Awkwardly I have to explain how I’ve not been yet - despite living less than a couple hours away. It was on a client visit to Newcastle (a 5h commute) where my (predominantly international) client team were discussing the wonderful virtues of Britain’s Northern Parks - a major welcome itinerary event for new joiners in the international careers programmes. “I love the Lakes. Which one’s your fave James? You haven’t been yet? It’s not that far.”

I’m actually planning to visit them. All of them!

This is how the idea of touring the national parks was born. Ultimately out of a spur of the moment, then hollow, promise so as to mask the shame of having visited only 3/15. And yet, as many would-be explorers before me have done, I made the claim.

It’s not like we didn’t see any of the parks growing up. Me and my brother grew up on the border of the Brecon Beacons and we spent most summers camping in Pembrokeshire. After getting my big bike licence nearly 5 years ago I’ve added Snowdonia to that list. It’s stunning for backpackers and a biker’s paradise. Wales has always been more than enough to please. But to echo the sentiment of my opening statement, there was really nothing stopping me from experiencing more.

It took a day to plan and cost less than a holiday abroad

While I was travelling I met people who have travelled across the globe to visit our parks. For me, it was as simple as deciding on a clockwise or counterclockwise movement. The order was fairly easy to work out. I live in the South West so it’s easiest to start in the Beacons, Exmoor, Dartmoor or the New Forest as my most local parks. I opted for a clockwise movement as I would be able to figure out any teething issues in a familiar environment before working my way up north, further from home. If I hadn’t figured my issues out by Snowdonia I could always come home.

I already had a capable touring motorbike which I’d purchased a couple of years earlier. A scuffed up, but mechanically sound example of a BMW K1200GT from 2007 (more on that in a later post). Not only did it cost only a couple of grand (thanks to BMW’s famous value depreciation) but it had recently passed its MOT with no work and flying colours. It comes equipped with a massive front fairing for the rough weather and heated grips & seats for the colder mornings on the coast. It will eat plenty of miles (and drink plenty of petrol).

How do I find the right camping gear?

This was a tough question for me as I’d never camped alone and only ever with a car. Furthermore it had been close to a decade since my last camping trip and before that, almost another decade. Fortunately much has changed in the realm of gear since then and we are absolutely spoiled for choice these days. I’ll go into more detail at a later date but for the purpose of this trip I wanted something that met requirements in order of priority: fits comfortably inside my top box, plenty of room for my mutant 2m tall body with space for my kit, light enough to carry if needs be and easy enough to pitch (ideally in under 20 mins) as I’d be packing up and pitching again almost every single day.

I settled for the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 XL paired with their super lofty Rapide SL XL Insulated sleeping mat. It’s roomy, has enough headroom to sit up and even crouch without touching the top of the inner tent, and no more than my tippy toes hang over the edge of the mat. While they aren’t the lightest or most compact things on the market, they are perfect for us tall-bois. I went with the sleeping bag I already had: my OEX Fathom EV 300. I wouldn’t recommend it for off-season camping as it is suited for 8-degree-plus conditions. It just about did the trick but it did require me sleeping in the thermal inner jacket from my motorcycle armour.

For power I was able to rely solely on solar (buddum-tss). I got a cheap deal on an Anker Solix C300 with a full array of portable packaway panels. £195 for the lot and it kept me going for the full 18 days with no mains power! For cooking, I picked up a JetBoil Trail Cook 1.2L burner and non-stick pot. Famed for being overpriced, that set me back another £150. I was able to cook a full chana tikka masala on Derwentwater in the wind and rain, however. So it was worth it.

The real luxury purchase was the chair. I picked up a Helinox Chair Zero Ultralight High Back for (brace yourself) £150. It sounds like a lot for a chair, but I felt that after 270 miles (the longest leg I had to travel) my lifelong back injury and saddle-sore bum would appreciate a decent place to sit. I can confirm it was well worth it.

The risks are fairly low

There is no real Great British Wilderness. You’re never more than 30 minutes away from civilisation should anything go wrong. There’s a filling station with petrol and food around every corner and plenty of hostels to spend the night in if the tent doesn’t work out. If you live here, you’re no more than a day from home, and if you don’t, there are major transport hubs all over the nation if you can wait it out until the morning. We like to complain about the quality of driving in the UK, but statistically it’s one of the safest places to drive/ride in the world. The same could be said about the quality of healthcare should the worst happen.

Why should I tour the Parks?

We have established the first reason: because I can! And the second: I already started bragging. But if you’re a little more sensible than I, you may still be requiring some convincing. So allow me to share with you some of my highlights, which I can’t wait to write about in later editions.

Due to time constraints I couldn’t explore them all. The ones I took the time to experience were strikingly unique. Despite only being 100 or so miles apart, no two are the same. I promise, you will not get bored and you will not see the same thing twice in another park. Loch Lomond looks and feels different to Derwentwater in the Lakes. The Pembrokeshire coast feels different to the Dales.

The people are amazing. Even though I took this trip solo, I wasn’t prepared for how friendly the strangers in these places were (especially in the North). I would regularly be approached at my motorcycle and/or tent by enthusiastic caravanners, excited to find out what I was doing and prepared to cheerlead me on for what to them was their leg of my trip. I won’t lie, most days were exhausting and some even stressful, but knowing I would have at least one shoulder to lean on to trade tales upon every arrival was relieving.

There are many more. I could go on and on. So I’ll settle this entry with the most important. Eventually, even if things don’t quite work out at the start; even if things get a little shaky in the middle; there will come a moment where the tour normalises. You realise you’re not on holiday any more. This is your life for a little while. You sleep a metre away from your motorcycle. You get to spend all day tomorrow playing on it. You can stop wherever you want. You can completely change your mind about where you want to stay tonight. After the tent is packed up you will never see the faces around you again. There will be brand new faces in the evening. New stories to receive and brand new roads to ride. All of this will finally set in, and in that exact moment you’ll release the baggage you’ve been carrying around for a little while and place your wellbeing in the hands of Great Britain’s National Parks.