On arrival in Carlisle I had a little time to wait, so decided to book a b&b in Keswick for my first night. I phoned all 8 I had listed in my guide & none had a single room available & I began wondering if I was going to sleeping rough on my first night.
I arrived in Workington & made my way to the start point at the lighthouse for around 2pm. I set off on my way to Keswick & felt a little tired, before I had even started. The first day didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. I’m not used to cycling hills, as it’s all flat near home & certainly not used to cycling up hill with my bike fully loaded, with equipment & 3 days worth of clothes. I managed a few gentle climbs, but as soon as I started the first serious climb I was in trouble. With my bike fully loaded, the extra weight made it feel as though I was cycling through treacle, so after a while I had to dismount & push for a while. This continued for the day on any serious climbs & started giving me a little doubt as to whether I could complete the route, as I new my next days had far more serious climbs to tackle. On my way to Keswick & managed to take a couple of wrong turns, which ended up adding a couple of miles to my first days cycling which totalled 28 miles. I arrived in Keswick at around 4.30pm & the first B&B I stopped at had a room available & room in the garage to store my bike. I showered & then went for a wander round the town centre, where I was spoilt for choice with many good pubs serving food & real ale which was very nice . I went to bed around 10pm feeling very tired & did not wake until nearly 8am the next morning.
On the Tuesday morning I woke up feeling refreshed & better than the previous day. Went for breakfast, which was very good. At the breakfast table I had the pleasure of the company of a rambler who was a Man City fan, with a dislike of Leeds Utd, so we got on well. I set of on my way around 10am & passed quite a few cyclists early in the day. On the climb out of Keswick, near Threlkeld I met Sheila & her brother Jim on his butcher’s bike who were also cycling for charity. Shortly after passing them I went passed a llama farm & hearing about there spitting reputation as cycled as fast I could past them, but I was safe as they seemed more intrigued by Sheila & Jim behind me. After about 15 miles & just before 12pm I arrived at a cyclist’s café at Greystoke, so stopped for tea & toast. I was felling much better than yesterday & was more confident of completing the route, but I had not had any big hills to climb, yet!
The ride to Penrith was pleasant & just after leaving Penrith a saw a red squirrel run across in front of me. It was the first one I had seen since I was about 9 years old.
I was soon arriving in a village called Renwick & knew I had a daunting climb ahead of me up Hartside. I stopped at the bottom for a break & a bit of tuna pasta in preparation. I knew this was the longest & probably most difficult climb of the route & didn’t want to be beat. I managed to cycle up the full 4 mile climb, although I did have to stop a few times for a breather, but I achieved my aim of not walking up. On the top of the climb was Hartside café, which to my relief was open. I had not eaten chocolate for 2 days, so when I saw the homemade chocolate cake there was no other option. At the time it felt like the nicest chocolate cake ever, but on reflection, I think it was a little dry & cheap chocolate on the top, but it was very much appreciated at the time.
The descent from Hartside was fantastic & I recorded a speed of 40.7mph which is the fastest I have been on this bike. It was plain sailing pretty much all the way to Alston, until I arrived at the steep cobbled main street. I dismounted & walked up to the guest house I was booked in, at around 3.45pm after covering 47 miles. The guesthouse was actually a pub, the Victoria Inn, which is probably unique. It must be the only pub in Cumbria with a Chinese landlady & running an Indian restaurant (to be opened soon).
After changing & showering, I realised I had quite a bit of laundry with me, so decided to post it home & lighten my load to help me with the climbs on my final day. My package weighed around a kilo & cost £4.20 to post home. This was about the weight of a bag of sugar & thought £4.20 would be money well spent the following day.
Soon there was another party of cyclists arrived, who were doing the Pennine way cycle route. Five cyclists from around the country, Northampton, Cambridge & Dorset. They had the luxury of a chauffeur who was transporting their luggage between stops, making their bikes lighter, how jealous I was I enjoyed the pleasure of their company most of the evening, which really made the night pass quickly, before retiring to bed at around 10.30pm. It wasn’t the best nights sleep. The pub closed at around 11.45pm & I was woken buy the door being closed & locked, which was directly below my room & then at 3am there was a burglar alarm sounding for a while & then from about 5.30am there was the quite frequent sound of trailers & lorries on the cobbled street outside.
I was up early on Wednesday morning & had a really good breakfast at 8 & set off on the stroke of 9. The first mile of the day was all uphill & was quite a struggle as my legs were very tired from yesterday, but this first mile was nothing compared with the climbs to come, there were 3 more serious climbs to tackle, including the climb up Black Hill, which at 609m above sea level is the highest point on the route. These climbs consisted of a little cycling & more walking, but I was glad of the kilo I had posted home. The last climb out of Stanhope was very severe, the road had escape roads on the way down for runaway vehicles. Half way up the climb my legs were too tired to even walk, so I found a bench & had a breather, drinking juice & eating flapjack. I was so relieved to make it to the top of the last climb, covering about 25 miles in 3 hours so far today, but I was looking forward to the remaining 35 miles which were mainly downhill & hoping that the weather would hold out, as I had no long sleeves, or trousers. I finally arrived on the front at Sunderland approx 2.45pm to be greeted by rain. I didn’t expect to complete by this time & didn’t have any train times for this early in the day, but was just relieved to finish. I struggled a bit to find the train station in Sunderland, which people often find amusing, with me being a train driver, but got there eventually & had a short wait for a train to Newcastle. I only had a short wait for connections at Newcastle & York & got home in good time. My total cycling on the last day was 63 miles, which made a total of 138 miles.
If you are planning i doing this route I can not recommend it enough. It is well sign posted for the vast majority & the scenery is stunning throughout. I would class myself as a moderately fit cyclist. My cycling normally consists of a commute (35 mile round trip) 2 or 3 times a week & the occasional leisure ride of around 40 miles, all of which is on the flat, with virtually no hill work. The climbs were hard, but found 3 days ample time.
To view photos i took whilst on tour, they are avaialable at
http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/nn26 ... og_photos/
Apologies for the quality, it wa the first time i had used my new cheap lightweight camera
