With hopes of a summer holiday rapidly disintegrating (due to good things such as a new job), we snatched 5 days over the late May bank holiday weekend. We have long wanted to cycle the C2C, and noticed that in 5 days, we could just about cycle back to the start.
So we headed up to Carlisle and after a dry night in the van we set off in the drizzle. Luckily it soon dried up and never rained again. The first day saw us zoom along below the high tide mark sandwiched between Hadrian’s wall and the Solway Firth before turning south and riding along the coast to Whitehaven. Unsurprisingly we were the only cyclists at the start of the C2C late on a Thursday afternoon, but took the obligatory photo and set off over two singly arrowed hills to the nearest campsite at St. Bees, where dinner, showers and a walk along the beach concluded a good days ride (if slightly longer than hoped).
The next day started well, but the slow uphill gradient of the old train line wore us down and the first few real hills on the edge of the Lakes were tough. Luckily Jo’s ML course had allowed her to scope out the Kirkstyle Inn, which although off route down a hill, lived up to expectations for coffee and scones. Whinlatter Pass was easily ascended, and the gave the best downhill zoom of the trip. A quick stop at a very bike friendly (large portion) cafe set us up for the second half of the day. Unfortunately, the unexpected diversion (due to floods) up past Castlerigg was tough after such a large lunch.
We then got tangled in a couple of groups – 2 mountain bikers and 5 roadies for the next few miles. This was great as we timed our overtake to mean that the roadies each stopped to hold gates open, and by the time it was our turn, there were no more gates and we could ride off unencumbered by gates or other groups. After buying dinner in Penrith, the last 10 miles were a bit too far, but we were soon the only guests at a great wee campsite in someone’s back garden, complete with dog that tried to help with the bike adjustments and dinner cooking and view over horse fields to Penrith.
The next day had only a short warm up before climbing Hartside. Jo found the gradient just perfect and enjoyed zooming past other cyclists before finding ourselves at the top too early to justify the cafe. The descent was fun, but then the hills just kept coming. The cycling map had kindly removed large numbers of arrows compared to the OS maps, perhaps to make the route less intimidating. However, it made it no less easy to cycle. This wasn’t helped by the lack of cafes in this section, but hill after hill we climbed and soon we had passed the highest point and had a fast ride into Stanhope. The struggle back up ont’moor was one of the hardest and steepest climbs, and I regretted not having front panniers. However, the Waskerley Way was a relief as we pedalled easily to Consett. Once again, we bought dinner (ever increasing amounts of tortellini each night) and had another 10 miles to cycle that we really didn’t want.
The next day was slow moving thought the towns, but we managed to get to the coast at Roker for second breakfast at 11. We gave up on the cycle paths and used the A road to get north to the start of Hadrian’s Cycle Way in South Shields. Once again, the town cycle routes were frustratingly slow and even once we got out of the city, the bank holiday weekend Sunday afternoon crowds prevented us from zooming along. Eventually we made it to Hexham, but after the major shops had closed. Slightly oddly, for a town that has 3 major supermarkets, it has no small shop open on Sunday evenings. We opted for a take out curry, which we ate in the evening sun. Filling and delicious until we realised that it was basically spicy custard, at which point it became a bit odd.
In what was now tradition, we then needed to go a bit further, and the biggest hill of the day led us up to the Hexham racecourse (and campsite). We had a pleasant evening on the hill wandering around the racecourse, before speeding (almost literally) down the hill to Hexham and the supermarket the next morning.
The highest point on Hadrian’s Cycle Way is thankfully significantly lower than the C2C and it was a pleasant ride across the country and alongside the wall before nearing Carlisle. At that point exciting signs for Carlisle being only a few miles away by road were consistently followed by a cycle sign pointing us up a hill alongside a significantly larger number of miles left to Carlisle.
Only once we were driving home did we realise how little walking we had managed over the last few days. Dave took at least two days to relearn how to walk. A fantastic little trip, slightly overambitious and very lucky with the weather.
Yellow Van Mountaineering 