Saturday 15th November - C2C and Reivers
back ~ Extracts from a diary
Bob MacDowall and Paul Welch (June 2008)
Paul wanted
to celebrate his 60th birthday with something slightly different. Bob
said he could play too and thought Glenys Ennis’s idea of the Sea to Sea (the
C2C) ride from Whitehaven in the
The route in summary:-
Day From and to Day’s
Distance Trail Distance Aggregate Distance
Monday Start of C2C
Whitehaven to
Greystoke 48 48
Tuesday Greystoke to Rowlands Gill 71 119
Wednesday End of C2C:-
Rowlands Gill to
Start
of Reivers Trail:-
Northshields
to
Total
for Wednesday 69 188
Thursday
Westlinton
to Blackford for Dandy
Campsite, then flog
to Rockcliffe & back
for Pub Supper 5
Total
for Thursday 64 252
Friday Back to
route 1
Westlinton
to Whitehaven 64
Total
for Friday 65 Reivers
179 miles 317
NB Total split as:
Actual route 311
Odd diversions,
etc !...say 6 317
Monday ~ 48 miles
Started the
138 miles
Breakfasted
in Macdonalds, sustaining but not quite the usual traditional fry-up !
Friendly
and expectant photos were snapped at the start signified by the modern
stainless steel C2C sign at the harbour in Whitehaven, back wheels were dipped
in this the Irish Sea, following a nice new tradition, and we looked forward to
dipping the front wheels in the North Sea at Tynemouth when we finished.
Started with several other groups, one group from a twinned town near
Wound our
way through Whitehaven and onto the converted railway track for a very pleasant
gentle climb into the countryside, passed lots of attractive signposts
depicting local activities and rode through the remains of old stations.
Later
joined quiet twisting lanes with great views of the Lakes, and enjoyed a long
climb up
Tuesday ~ 71 miles
Woke up
after a cold night to the splosh splosh of rain on the tent. Packed our gear,
sat in the garden gazebo and tucked in to a great bowl of home made porridge
topped with fresh honey; ”pay what you want” said our delightful host, ”and
lock up when you go”, leaving the place to us as she took her son to school !
Long day
today, through the rain to Carlisle, lovely assistant in the Penrith bike shop,
on to 11’s in the bus shelter at Langwathby, where Bob chatted to a local
waiting for the weekly Fellrunner bus. Then lots of climbing, slight hold up
behind a shepherd with a large flock of sheep following our lane for a mile.
Great descent, then straight over the road to the track, some track ! All
uphill, rideable for a while, then off and pushing, nose on handlebars, till we
eventually arrived at the Cafe at top of Hartside Fell; Phillipa’s group in the
cafe already, but they went via the roads, softies! Very windy and wet again!
Great drop now though, strong wind behind, glad I had disc brakes, I think Bob
wished he had too! Now another climb and good drop down to Nenthead. Still
raining and blowing! More climbs to Allenheads where we stopped for 4’s and met
Phillipa’s group again, they had finished for the day and couldn’t believe we
were continuing for another 30 miles that day ! Great roughstuff climb now,
rideable for two miles on stones and rocks to the summit, then a tremendous
ride across the moors of Stanhope and Edmondbyers Commons, remote and sunny at
last, but so windy...we could hardly keep a straight line as the wind tried to
grab the handlebars from us...but challenging riding and great views all the
way to Parkhead Station. This ex-railway station seems to have been used in the
past for a mineral quarry railway line, climbing up from Consett in the glory
days of steam and the iron and steel industry. Now it was just a cyclists’
dream of a track, the
Wednesday ~ 69 miles
Challenge
today, tent put away wet again, but weather then cleared for an easy and sunny
first bit of riding down into
Celebrated
the finish by tucking in to real fish and chips at the traditional old
“Kristians Fish Restaurant” at Fish Quay in North Shields, a fitting end to
this part of our adventure.
Now we had
to get to
An
excellent route too, similar to the C2C with great lanes, converted railway
lines and Waggonways, as well as superb tracks; though nowhere near as well
signposted as the C2C, take care and a map when you ride this trail.
We followed
the Waggonway, an aged sloped railway for simple wooden wagons built before the
days of steam trains, out of Northshields towards Ponteland. This was an
excellent and easy ride away from the built up towns and into the countryside
again.
Be careful
how you pronounce Ponteland, we were working out the next part of the route
from there when a local vicar on a scooter stopped to offer help. It seemed
Paul may have innocently caused offence as the vicar gently guided Paul to say
Ponteeee-land, not Ponty-land, maybe it rhymes with something else ! Anyway, he
was an affable vicar, suggested a quick route to
Back on
course we then began serious climbing, and the rain began serious falling, and
the countryside became seriously remote. After a dark afternoon of serious wet
riding we finally saw the signs for Bellingham and just hoped the Bunkhouse we
were planning to stay at was open, easy to find, and not at the top of a hill.
Once again we were lucky as we stopped at the first cottage in
Thursday ~ 64 miles
Real
roughstuff day today. Good weather too. Steady climbs up to Falstone and an excellent
cafe in the converted schoolhouse. Then continued climbing up to the Dam end of
Kielder Reservoir ! Fabulous views, fantastic spread of water, and an excellent
8 mile ride round the edge of the reservoir to the start of 15 miles of superb
off road tracks through the Kielder Forest from the mouth of Lewis Burn to
Bailey Mill. This was high, remote and rugged country and included crossing the
English border over a splendid wooden bridge, and four miles of downhill
picturesque delightful tracks in Scotland, before we then wound back into
England. We then rolled, generally, downhill for 24 miles into gentler softer
country again. Just got lost a little around Bewcastle and a very friendly and
helpful farmer guided us back on route, albeit rather bemused by our insistence
that we didn’t want to go the direct way but wanted to follow the longer
official route instead ! Finally got to our planned stop near Westlinton, just
one mile off the official route at the Dandy Campsite in Blackford. This was
great, but after pitching our tent we had to flog another 2 miles to Rockford
for a pub supper again, just got there with ten minutes to spare, didn’t really
need those extra miles but the beer and the grub was good, not so keen on the
marauding midges on the way back though !
Friday ~ 65 miles
Last day;
the first morning we were able to break camp in the dry, sunny all day and a
great route through gorgeous country. Started alongside the River Eden and the
salt marshes and then rode into Carlisle, crossing the Millenium Bridge near
the splendid Castle. Lost the route on the way out of town but, lucky again,
cloth-capped Barry, a very local local, riding an old sports tourer bike with
chrome ends, led us back onto the cycle track by the side of the River Caldew. Amid
banter from his mates along the track of “Got your own cycle club now Barry?”
we rode in echelon behind him until he had to stop then return home, having
pointed the way we should continue to Dalston. Excellent 11’s here and after
bacon butties we began some gentle climbing towards Caldbeck. From here we
puffed up a particularly tough climb and carried straight on after Branthwaite
for yet another great track, having a traditional lunch stop by a chattering
brook. The descent was fabulous down to Over Water Lake with the Caldbeck Fells
on our left, and lead us back with a colourful entry into the Lake District
again, skirting round the edge and giving wonderful views into the hills
beyond.
But it was
near here that Paul lost Bob again! Paul had stopped to take some photos and
Bob went slowly on ahead. Paul then flogged on because he thought Bob had
flogged on, but Bob wasn’t there for the next four miles. We hadn’t swapped
mobile phone numbers after all and Paul finally needed to phone our wives to get
each other’s own phone numbers so that we could phone each other and get riding
together again...how embarrassing was that ! Sigh of relief when we finally met
up again, Bob had missed one of the many signs that wasn’t there! So we rode
very close together from then on, and in good weather and countryside to
Cockermouth, quite a trendy town these days. Followed the lanes out to Camerton
and then joined yet another excellent ex-railway line converted to cycle and
footpath. This was a splendid downhill route past monolithic wind turbines,
with classic views to the sea, and wound down into Workington. Once through the
town we then got back on the cyclepath and rode towards the outskirts of
Whitehaven, where we needed all our touring skills to work out which way next
as some major road works were disrupting routes as well as cutting a rather
ugly swathe through this magnificent scenery. Success though and we joined the
last part of the route where it clings closely to the foot of the cliffs via
the coast track.
We finished
with the backdrop of a setting sun and placid sea back almost where we started,
five days later, on Friday evening at 8.00 p.m. True to form of the poor
signing throughout the Reivers Route though, we never did find the official
finish and couldn’t dip our wheels in the sea again, so took some pictures by
Whitehaven Harbour to prove we had got back anyway.
We had
ridden, wobbled and walked the C2C and Reivers in 5 days, a truly unique route,
especially on mountain bikes and camping; it’s a great circuit, although 5 days
is probably a bit of a flog for this type of 317 miles, but it’s very enjoyable
and we would recommend trying aspects of this to anyone, whatever their age!
Now what will Bob want to do for his 60th ?.....I’ll be ancient by
then !