PhD by bike: fieldwork cycle tour overview

Disclaimer: this is a personal blog post and does not reflect my academic writing.

It's been a week since I've been back in Exeter after finishing my fieldwork cycle ride, the Farming Futures Cycle Tour. Transitioning back to everyday life after spending 85 days on the road has definitely been a little weird, but I've enjoyed having time to rest my body, spend time with friends and family, and begin looking through the (many) photos and videos from my trip.

Although there were challenging points, overall, I had a fantastic time on my PhD fieldwork adventure. What a privilege to experience England's farmed landscapes by bike, and to be welcomed onto such a diverse range of farms across the country. I'm so grateful for the support and kindness I received throughout the trip, including from my supervisors, colleagues, family, friends, and complete strangers. Thank you, in particular, to my participants for opening up your homes and sharing your visions for the future of farming – your resilience in the face of so many challenges is truly inspiring.

It's funny to think that cycling across England was probably the easy part of my PhD! I'll have a bit of time to recover over the next few weeks, and then the hard part will begin – the analysis and write-up of my results. I'll try to share more about my fieldwork adventure here when I can, but for now, I just wanted to share a little round-up of the trip.

Tour stats:

• Total distance: 3,242 kilometres (2,014 miles)

• Total elevation gain: 28,800 metres (94,500 feet)

• Longest day: 118.5 kilometres (73.6 miles) from Reading to London (also my longest ride to date!)

• Hilliest day: 1,244 metres (4,081 feet) from Bude to Okehampton

• Highest point on the ride: 535 metres (Tan Hill, Yorkshire Dales)

• Days on the bike: 71 days

• Nights spent camping: 41 nights

• Nights spent indoors: 43 nights (including nights at hotels, hostels, and inns, as well as nights with friends, family, participants, and strangers)

The route:

As you can see from the map below, I didn't take the most direct route from Land's End to the Scottish border. I knew I wanted to go out east so I could experience the diversity of farmed landscapes across the country. I had estimated my route would be around 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles), but I hadn't accounted for the distance of cycling out to farms and campsites that weren't close to my route – oops!

To protect my participants' identities, this map does not include my entire ride, just the stretches that made up my A-B route

The Farming Futures Cycle Tour in numbers:

• 85 days of fieldwork

• 50 interviews with farm women (across a wide range of farm types, scales, and farming practices)

• 17 drone flights (to capture the farmed landscapes I was cycling through)

• 14 counties cycled through (Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Berkshire, London, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, Cumbria) on many National Cycle Network routes (including: 1, 10, 13, 165, 2, 23, 27, 236, 3, 30, 32, 305, 323, 4, 6, 65, 68, 7, 70, 71, 72)

• 10 Sunday roasts

• 9 books read

• 8 wild swims

• 6 national parks cycled through (Dartmoor, New Forest, South Downs, North York Moors, Yorkshire Dales, Lake District)

• 6 cycling companions (Brett, Becca, Elva, Heather, my dad, Maggie)

• 3 farming events attended (National Women in Agriculture Awards, North Yorkshire County Agricultural Show, Carbon Calling regenerative farming conference)

• 3 radio interviews (BBC Radio Devon, BBC Radio Cornwall, BBC Farming Today)

• 2 heatwaves

• 2 preventative visits to bike mechanics (in Exeter and Lincoln)

• 1 emergency visit to the bike mechanic (in Exmouth for new pedals)

• 1 seminar given (at the University of East Anglia)

• 1 time using my emergency phone (my normal phone had fallen out of my pocket in a participant's car)

• 1 accident (tumbling backwards into a ditch, pulling my bike on top of me. I was incredibly lucky it wasn't serious, I just got covered in stinging nettle stings)

• 1 injury (unrelated to the aforementioned accident), associated with 1 phone appointment with the doctor and 1 pharmacy visit

• 1 time eating vanilla pudding for breakfast because I couldn't find anywhere to buy food

• 0 times putting up or taking down the tent in the rain

• 0 saddle sores (and no chamois cream used)

• 0 flat tyres (thank goodness!)

• Over 9,000 photos taken on my camera, as well as almost 6,000 photos and 1,500 videos taken on my phone

• Many hours of voice recording fieldnotes, reflecting on my fieldwork experience

Favourites:

• National Park: Yorkshire Dales

• Cycle route: NCN 1 between Scarborough and Whitby on the Cinder Track

• Campsite: Dorset Nectar Orchard

• Sunday roast: Week 12, The Mess Hall at Basecamp North Lakes farm shop

• Event attended: Carbon Calling regenerative farming conference in Cumbria

I wasn't able to focus on my fundraising goals as much as I would have liked, so I haven't reached my fundraising target, yet. If you are able to donate to support the important work being done by the Farming Community Network, you can do so here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/farming-futures-cycle-tour

I look forward to sharing more about my research as I begin the analysis and write-up stages. Do let me know if you have any questions or anything you are particularly interested in learning about!