Our C2C trip

14-16 May 2007

David, Mike, Andrés & James

The idea to do this trip started as an aim to get fitter. Myself, already 40 years old, had been sitting in a office for too long and cycling seemed like fun. Hence, around August 2006 (41 by then!), we bought a couple of bikes with Mike to train, have fun and ultimately do the C2C as an enjoyable challenge. David and James decided to join us after they heard about it, the 4th C2C for David, his previous one in 1995! And did we finally enjoy it? Hugely! I recommend it for absolutely everybody, this one or a similar one at least once a year, in particular for people like me, who spend most days sitting in front of a computer.

But let me tell you some things about the trip itself!

Day 1

We booked accomodation in Whitehaven for the night of Sunday May 13th. We stayed at Glen Ard Guest House (recommended by the c2c-guide). Great place, huge rooms, superb breakfast. The bikes slept in the garage, where we managed to do some last minute (well, couple of hours really!) adjustments to them, even borrowing some tools from the landlord. For info, accomodation costed us £22 per head. We set off at around 9:00 am on Monday morning, under a glorious sunshine, as you can see on the left, just before setting off from the start point in Whitehaven harbour.

Coming out of Whitehaven is an easy ride, the first 20 miles go past very fast. The only real climb for the day and first real test of your legs is going up the Whinlatter pass (miles 21 to 25), shown on the right.

Reaching the top of the climb rewards you with a nice place to stop for lunch (and you'll need it!), the Whinlatter Forest visitor centre. Nice variety of foods and nice tables to eat outside, enabling you to enjoy the place and the sun. After that, it is a nice and easy ride downhill towards Keswick. Of course, coming out of Keswick you have the option of doing The Old Coach road. However, we were carrying our tents, sleeping bags, mats, clothes, spares, etc in our panniers, so we decided to leave this option for the next time!

We finally stopped for the night at the Greystoke Cycle Cafe (mile 46). It does not matter if you are camping or staying in B&Bs, you have to stop here. The lady is unbelievable kind and the cakes she makes are delicious. If camping, her garden is so inmaculate, that you could sleep on the grass without need of a sleeping bag! Next morning she cooked a full english breakfast for us which tasted like made in heaven!! My apologies if I sound like selling this place, but she really deserves the praise.

Dinner that night was at The Crown Inn, a small pub in the village of Little Blencow, about 1 mile from Greystoke. Food was very good and you can even relax playing some pool and darts while having one of the many nice whiskies on offer! The walk back to Greystoke is ideal after so much food and a pint or two. Rain started to fall as soon as we were all in our tents, perfect!

Day 2

The second day of our trip we knew was going to be the hardest, but I don't think we thought it was going to be as hard a day as it was!! From Greystoke there is an easy ride into Penrith, where we stopped just for one of those C2C stamps. Getting out of Penrith you found already a steep hill, where we went past the only other C2Cers we met in our trip, Bob and Jo. Their story is a good one, click here if you are interested! In any case, they went past us only a few meters after that, when one link of my chain broke and cause havoc with the rest of the mech! I thought that my C2C was over. However, Mike and I left all our heavy weight panniers on the side of the road with David and James and then coasted downhill back to town, to Arragons bike shop, where Anthony fixed my bike in the time it took us to have a coffee and have a look at the impressive cycle shop. Back up the hill we went,, although we were now delayed by a couple of hours on our intended schedule! Not deterred, we made good time to reach the village of Little Salkeld (mile 60), where we stopped for an early bite at The Water Mill, where by chance Anthony's girlfriend works!

But well, I am glad we stopped for a bite, the real climb starts exactly at their doorstep! From then on, the day went from hard to harder! First climb is up to the Hartside Pass (mile 69). Tough and long. You get to the top and you feel really good, thinking the worst has been left behind. Make no mistake, the worst is coming and it will hit you really hard in only a few more miles!!

But before that, from Hartside you have an easy ride down to Garrigill, which I suggest you enjoy! There we saw for the last time Bob and Jo, who were stopping for the night there, without knowing what was waiting for them next day!! Right after Garrigil, you'll find the steepest climb on the C2C (or at least it feels like that!!).You'll ride very slow and very long to cross Flinty Fell. However, the most challenging climb on the trip rewards you with a very, VERY, fast descent into Nenthead (mile 80).

By this time we were all ready for some food and a pint. However, we had booked a place to pitch our tents in Rookhope!! Hence, another climb took us up to Black Hill and down into Allenheads (mile 86). It was getting quite dark and overcast by this point. We really wanted to get down the saddle for the day but we needed to do a last one. As you can see, we were too tired even to smile!

Out of Allenheads and up again to Currick and another problem was waiting for us round the corner. The bearings of the front wheel on David's bike desintegrated basically. With a spanner fixed with zip ties he managed to just make it to Rookhope (mile 92). We got there a few minutes before him and were lucky enough to make it to the pub just before they stop serving food!! We ordered 6 dishes for 4 of us, plus a couple of Sticky Toffee Pudding with Custard. It usually comes only with either cream or ice-cream, but if you promise the lady to go back with chocolates, flowers and jewelery on your next C2C, she will more than happily make some custard for you!!

We pitched the tents at 'The Old Vicarage', where Colin and Pauline where waiting, ready to cook something for us in case we were too late for the pub. After pitching the tents, Colin brought us tea, biscuits and a few blankets to help with the bitter wet and cold night coming upon us. Again, it started to rain right after everybody had a shower and got into the tent, excellent!!

Day 3

Next morning after breakfast, David's wife came to the rescue with another bike for him. Only needed some pedals, but otherwise, he was soon ready to rock'n'roll again. However, we need to exposed him here. He cheated by giving his wife all the panniers with tent and other things, so he was much lighter than us, who wanted to finish this properly!

Well, finally the rain caught up with us, or it may have been because we were finally in County Durham, but the last day was very very wet! And the first thing we had to do that morning was to climb out of Rookhope, which can just be seen on the right of the picture.

However, once up on the hill, climbing was a thing of the past. However, as you can see, the first few miles were off-road and quite muddy!!

The real off-road bit finishes in Parkhead Station (mile 100), where you can have a very nice cup of coffee and enjoy the thought of a job well done. But do not get too excited, you will now join the Waskerley Way and ride on a very shallow downhill towards Tynemouth, but you still have about 40 miles of it!!

Eventually you arrive in Newcastle. Your legs and bum feel tired, but the exhilaration of being so close to the end helps you overcome all pain and get on with it!! You could stop for lunch or a bite, but we were so tired of being soaked, after riding 40 miles on the rain, that we just stopped for a photo and kept going.

At this point, we knew we had finally flipped but we didn't care. We needed to touch the North Sea water with our wheels, so we went down to the beach next to Tynemouth Priory, even if the idea of climbing out of it felt like utterly madness!! By this time as well, Mike had fallen from the bike and hurt quite badly thanks to a very slippery, wet, downhill bike path about 5 miles from the end (be extra careful!!). It is not the path itself, the slippery bit is the tarmac/concrete, sometimes painted in white, separating footpath from bikepath.

Final Tribulations

I just wanted to leave here some more tips that may help somebody else when trying this enjoyable ride. Two comments about the Tynemouth finish:

1) Somewhere we read that to claim having done the C2C trip, one must get a tyre wet with Irish Sea water at one end and with North Sea water at the other. Well, arriving into Tynemouth you will be dissapointed because the finish point is nowhere near the water!! You have to keep pedalling, uphill by the way, and then when you reach a place in front of the beach, you will find that this beach is 10 mts below the level of your feet!!! Yes, you will have to climb down with the bike to the beach and push it over the sand to get to the water. Hence, the funny thing is that you have to climb out of it at the end just when you thought the were no more hills!!

2) And another 'minor' issue about coming back home. We went straight to the pub and had a nice meal. We asked a nice old man on a bike whether it would be possible to take the Metro back to Newcastle with our bikes and the guy said there was absolutely no problem. Well, he was wrong!! We tried to get on the Metro and we were told to get down the train because bikes are not permitted except foldable ones. Tired as we were, the last thing we wanted to do was getting back onto our bikes for a 30 miles trip home! Hence, beware, the best thing you can is to arrange for somebody to pick you up. In our case, we rode a few more miles across the Tyne Tunnel to the south side of it, in order to keep us warm while my wife was driving towards it to pick us up.

I'll keep thinking about useful things to mention and come back to it, but don't hesitate about this, just go and do it, I promise you will have lots of fun!! We are already planning for next year either Walney Island to Whitby, or Inverness to Glasgow.

Last updated by Andrés on July 6, 2007

Coming out of Whitehaven is an easy ride, the first 20 miles go past very fast. The only real climb for the day and first real test of your legs is going up the Whinlatter pass (miles 21 to 25), shown on the right.
Reaching the top of the climb rewards you with a nice place to stop for lunch (and you'll need it!), the Whinlatter Forest visitor centre. Nice variety of foods and nice tables to eat outside, enabling you to enjoy the place and the sun. After that, it is a nice and easy ride downhill towards Keswick. Of course, coming out of Keswick you have the option of doing The Old Coach road. However, we were carrying our tents, sleeping bags, mats, clothes, spares, etc in our panniers, so we decided to leave this option for the next time!
We finally stopped for the night at the Greystoke Cycle Cafe (mile 46). It does not matter if you are camping or staying in B&Bs, you have to stop here. The lady is unbelievable kind and the cakes she makes are delicious. If camping, her garden is so inmaculate, that you could sleep on the grass without need of a sleeping bag! Next morning she cooked a full english breakfast for us which tasted like made in heaven!! My apologies if I sound like selling this place, but she really deserves the praise.
Dinner that night was at The Crown Inn, a small pub in the village of Little Blencow, about 1 mile from Greystoke. Food was very good and you can even relax playing some pool and darts while having one of the many nice whiskies on offer! The walk back to Greystoke is ideal after so much food and a pint or two. Rain started to fall as soon as we were all in our tents, perfect!

But well, I am glad we stopped for a bite, the real climb starts exactly at their doorstep! From then on, the day went from hard to harder! First climb is up to the Hartside Pass (mile 69). Tough and long. You get to the top and you feel really good, thinking the worst has been left behind. Make no mistake, the worst is coming and it will hit you really hard in only a few more miles!!
But before that, from Hartside you have an easy ride down to Garrigill, which I suggest you enjoy! There we saw for the last time Bob and Jo, who were stopping for the night there, without knowing what was waiting for them next day!! Right after Garrigil, you'll find the steepest climb on the C2C (or at least it feels like that!!).You'll ride very slow and very long to cross Flinty Fell. However, the most challenging climb on the trip rewards you with a very, VERY, fast descent into Nenthead (mile 80).
By this time we were all ready for some food and a pint. However, we had booked a place to pitch our tents in Rookhope!! Hence, another climb took us up to Black Hill and down into Allenheads (mile 86). It was getting quite dark and overcast by this point. We really wanted to get down the saddle for the day but we needed to do a last one. As you can see, we were too tired even to smile!
Out of Allenheads and up again to Currick and another problem was waiting for us round the corner. The bearings of the front wheel on David's bike desintegrated basically. With a spanner fixed with zip ties he managed to just make it to Rookhope (mile 92). We got there a few minutes before him and were lucky enough to make it to the pub just before they stop serving food!! We ordered 6 dishes for 4 of us, plus a couple of Sticky Toffee Pudding with Custard. It usually comes only with either cream or ice-cream, but if you promise the lady to go back with chocolates, flowers and jewelery on your next C2C, she will more than happily make some custard for you!!
We pitched the tents at 'The Old Vicarage', where Colin and Pauline where waiting, ready to cook something for us in case we were too late for the pub. After pitching the tents, Colin brought us tea, biscuits and a few blankets to help with the bitter wet and cold night coming upon us. Again, it started to rain right after everybody had a shower and got into the tent, excellent!!

Well, finally the rain caught up with us, or it may have been because we were finally in County Durham, but the last day was very very wet! And the first thing we had to do that morning was to climb out of Rookhope, which can just be seen on the right of the picture.
However, once up on the hill, climbing was a thing of the past. However, as you can see, the first few miles were off-road and quite muddy!!
The real off-road bit finishes in Parkhead Station (mile 100), where you can have a very nice cup of coffee and enjoy the thought of a job well done. But do not get too excited, you will now join the Waskerley Way and ride on a very shallow downhill towards Tynemouth, but you still have about 40 miles of it!!
Eventually you arrive in Newcastle. Your legs and bum feel tired, but the exhilaration of being so close to the end helps you overcome all pain and get on with it!! You could stop for lunch or a bite, but we were so tired of being soaked, after riding 40 miles on the rain, that we just stopped for a photo and kept going.
At this point, we knew we had finally flipped but we didn't care. We needed to touch the North Sea water with our wheels, so we went down to the beach next to Tynemouth Priory, even if the idea of climbing out of it felt like utterly madness!! By this time as well, Mike had fallen from the bike and hurt quite badly thanks to a very slippery, wet, downhill bike path about 5 miles from the end (be extra careful!!). It is not the path itself, the slippery bit is the tarmac/concrete, sometimes painted in white, separating footpath from bikepath.