Friends of Goodlids, Britt and Alan, recently spent a weekend bikepacking the North Devon coastline. Having explored by bike across the globe - including New Zealand - this journey was a reminder that adventure doesn't always mean going further. Sometimes it's simply about slowing down, taking the scenic route, and appreciating the places closest to home. Just the way we like it.

After a year spent bikepacking, we’d got used to searching for adventure in unfamiliar places. ‘Epic’ climbs, ‘wild and remote’ single track, ‘200km until the next border’, we were always chasing the next best thing.

This year has looked a little different.

We have been at home. Not in a tent. No longer fixated on the basic logistics that shaped every day: water, food and a place to sleep. Instead, life has slowly returned to normal. At first, it felt strange returning home and leaving this simple life behind. But over time something shifted. There was a quiet contentment in it we didn’t expect. We realised we’d been overlooking one of our favourite places all along.

A year on the bikes has changed the way we see the world, but more unexpectedly, it has changed the way we see home. With bikes loaded up, we set off from our doorstep to explore the familiar stretch of the North Devon Coastline we’d ridden, surfed and walked countless times before. 

But this time it felt different.

Travelling by bike changes your relationship with a place. And last weekend it offered a different perspective on home. Pedalling from our doorstep slowed everything down, just enough for us to notice things we’d normally pass by or sleep through. The route linked together familiar trails, quiet lanes and a few surf spots. Nothing about it on the map was new, but moving through the landscape on the bikes revealed details we'd somehow missed for years.

Wildflowers lined the stone walls of quaint cottages. Beaches transformed as the sun dipped, pulling shadows across the sand. At dusk, bats skimmed over our heads as we lay outside the tent, while wild horses swayed their manes and watched us with quiet curiosity.

The first orange glow of morning seeped across the horizon, seals basked on the rocks with their pups, completely unbothered by our presence. A farmer on a quad bike passed and stopped for a quick chat, while a pair of runners drifted along the coast path in the distance. And then, out in the water at 5 am, another species was spotted: surfers, these strange motionless figures sitting in the line-up. All of these things added a richness and depth to an area we thought we already knew. It was a reminder that this stretch of coastline holds more than we usually give it credit for. 

North Devon is home to both the UK’s first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and its first World Surfing Reserve. The 30km of coastline we flowed along is shaped by an extraordinary variety of waves, wildlife and unique ecosystems. Each beach offers a diverse set of waves, from soft peelers at Saunton to heavy A-frame barrels at Croyde. Travelling through it by bike gave us a new appreciation for our home and why we need to protect it.

Looking back, there was nothing that ‘extraordinary’ or ‘epic’ about the weekend. No borders crossed, no great passes accomplished and no huge distances to speak of. We rode bikes, surfed a few waves, cooked dinner on the beach and slept under the stars. Yet those three days outside gave us everything we were looking for. Keeping it simple and doing something local was enough.

Sometimes it’s just about loading up your bike, rolling out from your front door and rediscovering a place you thought you already knew.