At Whitehaven we had a lovely 30 mile ride in the afternoon over to Keswick. This was the first touring ride so I didn’t know what to expect. Though I was a bit concerned that we were only managing about 8 to 9mph. This was brought about by the 16kg of luggage I was carrying (as my wife was on her race bike) plus gates and unsurfaced paths slowing us down.
As the 30 miles of the first day had proven quite hard I was not looking forward to the 70miles I had set us the task of doing the next day.
The climb out of Keswick is beautiful along an old trainline and the bike café in Greystoke has a wonderful view of castle. Unfortunately we didn’t get to stay to long looking at the view as we had all the Pennine hills to get over.
The climb up Hardside was easier than I expected. The gradient does not get too steep so you can really get a rhythm going. Also the descent to Leadgate is magnificent. Unfortunately for my legs the stretch from Garrigill to past Allenheads feels like you are on a rollercoaster. Just go up 200m to then go straight down and climb back up again and repeat. We finally made it to Parkhead station after 8 hours of cycling time. The advantage of Parkhead being that is all downhill (or level) for the last 35 miles to the coast.
The final day there is a lovely cycle down to Sunderland (with the exception of some of Sunderland and most of Consett) where we caught a train to Yarm, before cycling over to Great Broughton for another overnight stop.
We then cycled via Carlton in Cleveland (steep hill
), Chop Gate, Helmsley, Nunnington, Hovingham, Stearsby, Farlington etc home.A very enjoyable first go at cycle touring. We also had no rain. It rained on us in trains or to the left or right of us but never on us. This really made the Pennines much easier than it could have been. In hindsight we should have done the C2C over three rather than two days. But hopefully I will remember for next time. Rachel says she will take more interest in the planning to ensure I don’t get too excited and add mileage again.
