A 3 day riding holiday with our two sons, Chris and Matt. Starting at Whitehaven on England’s West Coast we rode across the country to North Shields on the East Coast – 150 miles with some challenging hills and some unexpected sea cycling.
We all arrived in Penrith on the Sunday evening at the door of our B&B at exactly the same time – Chris having cycled part way from Bristol, Matt and I together by car from Norfolk. Bikes duly re-assembled and stored at a very nice B&B and we were soon off in search of a meal. Not as easy as it might have been (many places shut or full), but eventually found a pub serving food.
This was an organised holiday ride – delivery of ourselves and our bikes to the start (and collection from the finish), B&B’s booked and luggage carried from one B&B to the next – by a local Penrith company, CycleActive. They provided the route (National Cycle Network/Sustrans 72), but otherwise we were on our own to ride at our pace. First class organisation, great B&B’s, worked really well for us.
So on the Monday morning we duly cycled to Penrith Bus Station where our bikes were loaded onto a trailer and we set off in a coach to Whitehaven along with 7 or 8 others on the same route as us and a few others with the same start point but different routes.
Riding along coastal, shared foot/cycle paths we headed north through Workington and Siloth (lunch) in some occasional light rain. At some point we left the coastal path and were on a very quiet road, I was in the lead and suddenly saw only water on the road and on the verges either side:
Realised later it was high tide and the road was subject to flooding but I just carried on up the middle (hopefully the shallowest part and less subject to potholes). Fortunately it wasn’t quite pedal deep. and we made it, unscathed, to Bowness on Solway for a tea break.
Heading into Carlisle for our first night stop, we somehow managed to get onto footpaths (with steps), so some bike carrying was required but then found our hotel in the centre of Carlisle. This time we quickly spotted a likely restaurant and made sure of our meal – we felt we’d earned it and were aware of the hills the next day.
Day 2 was definitely the hilly day – over 3,500 feet of climbing – I noted one or maybe more gradients of 17% and several of the hills a mile or more in length. Chris was having mechanical issues with his gears but he managed and I managed to stay on the bike and not fall off or have to get off and walk. Matt had little experience of hills but coped really well. Grateful to the kind driver who, on a narrow stretch of road, rather than crawl up behind us on one hill at 5mph, stopped in a layby and waited till we reached the summit before attempting to get past. 99% of drivers patient and courteous.
During the day we visited several of the Roman remains that give the title to this ride – a turret on the way:
Then spent a long time in Roman Vindolanda. This is the remains of a Roman town with a museum and some replica buildings – quite fascinating.
Then onto Hayden Bridge to another very nice B&B. There our landlady advised us to book our evening meal immediately as only one pub in the village was serving food that evening – too late – so fish and chip shop to the rescue and seats and pints in the garden of another pub. Our landlady and her husband had spent much of Covid lockdown in Lego construction:
Set off the next morning towards Newcastle and North Shields. No big hills today but lots of cycling on shared paths so slower speeds and continually looking out for dogs and people – a lot better than city traffic though. We had a deadline – we needed to be at the pickup point at 3pm else it might have been a very expensive taxi ride back to Penrith – so we kept moving, riding along the north bank of the Tyne for much of the way with its distinctive bridges:
And then we and our bikes were then transported back to the town we’d started from – Penrith – and another very nice B&B. The welcomes we had from the B&B hosts and the friendliness of locals, other cyclists and walkers all very memorable and made for an excellent holiday.