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