Having left my car at our destination of Robin Hood's Bay, we drove across the country to start cycling at St Bee's, on the west coast of the northen Lake District. There was warm sunshine over a large almost empty beach, and it was fun to gradually climb out of the village and into the Lakes.
Small, shaded and windy roads, great views over Scafell and Scafell Pike and lots of dry stone walls filled the first hour.
Then we started slowly climbing up towards the Hard Knott pass, a single lane tarmac track that winds up the side of a running brook. There was the scary sign, warning of 30% inclines, which were mostly on corners! It is one of the classic passes and driving it later was actually more scary than cycling it! So I gave it my best shot, but with the cars going up and down, and the lack of gears to go any slower, I interspersed walking with cycling, while Mark made it all the way on his montain bike with road tyres.
The views on the summit were amazing and it was a test of my brakes as I slowly made it down, to the quiet valley. This was the first of 3 passes on our way into Great Langdale, and it was a real treat to enjoy a drink at the Old Dungeon Ghyll, with lots of walkers, before we settled into the evening at the local climbing hut. We had cycled 50 km in just over 3 hours.
On the second day, we cycled through undulating foothills in the very green Lakes, alongside Easthwaite water and up to the ferry across Lake Windermere. It was fun to cycle on and off the ferry and we headed up through the hills to pass north of Kendal before leaving the Lake District.
We found a quiet A road and covered 75 km before staying overnight in Nateby, a quiet village beside the more infamous Kirkby Stephen, which is also a key stop for coast to coast walkers.
On our third day, we headed up above the Yorkshire Dales onto the high moors to visit Britain's higest pub, the Tarn Hill Inn, at 1732 feet above sea level.
This is where our route crossed the Pennine Way, another classic north-south walk. It was great to cycle through this barren moorland on a wide undulating road, before we descended into Swaledale, a classic Yorkshire valley. The road was mostly shaded, bordered by more and slighly lighter dry stone walls, and it crossed the babbling brook several times between many absolutely gorgeous villages. We cycled about another 70km to stay overnight in the northern city of Northallerton, where we found a great curry house to stock upon carbohydrates!
Our last day was the longest and most challenging in terms of height gained (almost 2000m) as we cycled through the Yorkshire Moors. At first, they were undulating and I was impressed at how the hillsides were completely covered in bright green bracken. Everywhere, there were sheep, and it was uncanny how they always found some shade to rest in. But soon, we entered steep valleys with villages at the bottom, the top and along the way.
This was truly hard work, but it was ultimately rewarded by great coastal views as we flew down into Robin Hood's Bay. Over 4 days we had cycled for almost 19 hours, covered 280 km and climbed 3,900m. What a brilliant adventure!
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