Anyone fancy a ride out?? A Dales circuit from Halton (nr Lancaster) to Dent, Dentdale, Ribblehead, Ingleton back to Halton. Sunday 30 April - lots of parking at Halton - starting out about 9:30am. It's a hilly route, aiming to do 12/13mph average, light road bikes. a couple stops to refuel, 60 miles approx ... Martine and Mike.

270 miles in 4 days.

Whitehaven was like the wild west - on the eve of a long bank hol everyone had come down from the surrounding hills to drink the town dry ... thankfully our b&b had secondary glazing. Can't recommend the Waverley Hotel - well past it's best - what were they trying to disguise with the 3 different air freshners?? ... Doris cooked up a passable full English and we left the bikes with a chap called Brian (£5 a day in his lock up) - welcome after the lawlessness of the night before ...

The ride out of Whitehaven took in the obligatory Sustrans council estate .... but we did see a barn owl out on it's morning hunt - a great sight amongst pebble dashed social housing. A prize for owl spotting in the photo!



Destination Alston - we had ridden to the summit of Hartside before so we knew what lay ahead. Portinscale fed us well at lunch - the first of our "cake survey of the north" - a brief stop in busy Keswick showed us why we were not shopping on a bank hol.. A slight hitch after the old railway track from Keswick when Mike got a "snake bite" - not more wildlife - just a puncture.

The climb to Alston told us we were 1900ft from our sea level start and boy was i looking forward to the swish hotel (Alston House) Mike arranged .... thankfully they were able to sort us out even though we had booked for the next night!!!! 10/10 and a great place - great food, and nice room - we ate our tea and lay down for the night!

Day 2 - Onwards to Rookhope via Allenheads - even the sheep had gillets here! We left the C to C after 100m and headed north towards Kielder and our night stop - the Black Cock at Falstone. We soon realised that we were no longer following valleys but crossing them big style ...


Hexham provided more cakes at the back of an alternative therapy shop - we resisted the ear candles and massage .. just. Finally rolled up to the pub at gone 5:00pm after another 6hrs in the saddle. The 21st party going on downstairs never touched us!

Day 3 - We were now loosely following the Reivers route and realised why everyone goes West to East - wind. Navigation was easy - uphill and into the headwind! On to Scotland and a lunch stop at the Royston Varsey of the Scottish Boarders, Newcastleton. We knew we were within a sniff of Carlisle when we met a bunch of Boarder City Wheelers (Mike's brother's club).


The day ended at Low Hesket - Alison and David (Mike's brother and wife) provided first class hospitality - and no english breakfast!! In the morning young Thomas (18 months) took to his bike seat to ride out of the first few miles with us and we were off back to the sea via more cakes in Cockermouth.

Whitehaven took it's time coming. Calbeck Common was cruel with the driving rain and headwind. The cry of "last hill before Whitehaven" when up half a dozen times before we even saw the sea. If they can not make wind farms work in the west of Cumbria, alternative technology has no future! By now it was a challenge to get out of the saddle - thighs and back hurting or sit on a sore arse? Finally - the road down to the sea - an ice cream van was spotted and two large 99's werewas ours!!


Lessons Learnt
Cake makes the wheels go round - credit to the cake makers of the North - banana, carrot, ginger cake; scones; mars bar cake; fruit crumble - we ate it all and more besides.

M&M


www.alstonhouse.co.uk
www.c2c-guide.co.uk
www.reivers-guide.co.uk

C to C to C (well almost) - On the job training!

After a "winter rest" skiing and house cleaning ...., we are planning to spend Easter doing the "coast to coast to coast" - taking the Sea to Sea route from Whitehaven across (neither "white" nor a "haven" I suspect) and returning via the Reivers Route through Northumberland. We had a training run over the Trough of Bowland yesterday with a mixed bag of weather - sun, hail, snow and rain and just about managed to drag our bones home via the pub for Timothy Taylor's .... Thankfully it was just down hill from there!

Our route is fairly "loose" with no plans to do any muddy off road sections plus we will skip the urban metropolis of Newcastle and turn north at the outskirts. With only 4 days to go, it is feeling an ambitious undertaking! However being Easter, we may take a few choclate eggs for sustenance. Thoughtful planning sees us staying at some cosy B&Bs which serve food (no staggering off in search of a meal after a hard day in the saddle ..) with a night with Mike's brother in Carlisle, could save the day.

Glynis was invited but injury leaves her only to blog! We will be available for route planning advice should anyone else care to attempt the crossings in due course!

Martine

Events Calendar 2006

M&M tours to Reiver Boarders Cycle route 14th - 17th April (Martine and Mike)
www.reivers-guide.co.uk/routeindetail.htm

Chorlton Fun Run 1st May (Sue and Glynis)
www.stclement-chorlton.org.uk/funrun

Swimforlife - swim a mile 14th - 28th May (Heather and Jo, maybe Glynis) www.swimforlife.org.uk

D&R Randonnee Pyrenees 26th May - 7th June
(Chorlton Men's Cookery Club go French)

J&L Pennine Cycle Tour
www.cycle-routes.org/penninecycleway

Manchester Run 21 May (Rog, Glynis and Martine)
www.greatrun.org

Cheshire Triathlon 4th June (Liz, Jo and Lynne)
www.fun2tri.org.uk

Manchester to Blackpool 16th July (Liz and Bike Right! staff team)
www.bike-events.com

Manchester 100 cycle 3rd Sept (Glynis, Liz, Dave and Jude? Irene?)
www.bike-events.com

NW Triathlon 17th Sept (Glynis and Dave)
www.fun2tri.org.uk

A team that dreams........through rain and cold synergy found 6 people, a newspaper advert, a camping barn and fields and woods, a torrent of talent, a level of unrest with city life and unspent entrepreneurial energy. It served its purpose and then took its rest at the end of the day!


















The food of entrepreneurs!

Coniston 14 April 1st 2006

































Well done Roger and Dave.....we are proud of you!


Both 'boys' exceeded their targets......we would like to think it had something to do with the quality of support; Heather, Glyn, Jo and Liz were there with grease, carbs, plasters, photo opportunities and roadside Go Roger, Go Dave, Go Go Go.
We finished the event with a good soak in the hot tub at Crosslands Farm!