Little Salkeld to Gateshead - 70 miles approx
203 miles running total
"Well, after a reasonable night's kip, it was an early breakfast and out onto the road by 10am, which was quite impressive for us. All rather hilly to start with and then after only 2 miles, we find our way blocked by a dug up road and a spot of roadworks.
So we headed towards Gamblesby before rejoining the original road near Renwick. Knew I bought those Sustrans maps for a reason.
And then the climbing started.
We were up at about 1000ft at this point, and Mr McDonald was suffering.
Suffering with a smile though.
Luckily, the weather was decent, you could see for miles. And speaking of which, you can see the cafe on the top of Hartside over on the left of this picture, miles away. I'm not sure that helped really. It looked a long way, all of it uphill.
So while I breezed up the hills effortlessly*, Ian took a bit longer, though it did mean a few lovely photos of him trundling up another steep bit. And this was a steep bit.
* Ok, so perhaps there was a little effort involved.
On and on up towards Hartside summit, on a very twisty road, but it was a lot easier than the off-road option. And then a spot of rather uninspiring nosh in the cafe just after midday. The view was great though. Probably should have taken a picture. We did remember to pose by the sign as is customary, though Mr McDonald wanted to get going.
Look, here he is the happy little camper. I think he needed the toilet again.
And he's our dashing hero, looking dashing. It was bloody cold up there. Bit of a breeze you know.
So, despite the cold, there was a very nice downhill section to enjoy afterwards, Ian went racing off at about 90mph as usual, too fast for pictures, but we reached Garrigill in about 45 minutes.
This is the road out of Garrigill. Well, less of a road and more the side of a cliff. Look at my feet to get some idea of the angle. You could hardly stand. The next 250 yards were the steepest bit so far by a long way. We both got about about 75 yards, though of course I stopped so as not to embarrass Ian. We walked for a bit. Slowly.
Half an hour later, and we're ploughing on up another long stretch of hill. Flinty Fell it's called, though we were calling it something else. You can just make out Hartside Cafe on the horizon if you zoom in above his head.
Full of energy and raring to go. (Well, I had been waiting for him to catch up for about 10 minutes)
So, after what seemed like forever, we made it to the top, and after a quick break, it was off down the steep hill into Nenthead.
Ian as usual went tearing off at about 40mph, "see you at the bottom" and all that, and he was long out of sight when for some unknown reason, and with a very loud bang, my front tyre's inner tube burst.
Must have been doing about 25mph at the time, and things went very wobbly for a few yards, but luckily the tyre stayed on the rim and I managed to stop in the vertical position.
Not the easiest place to fix a puncture due to the severe incline, so I had to wheel the bike down the hill which wasn't half tough on the legs, so it took about 10 minutes to get down into the vilage. At which point I saw Ian, clearly in a hurry to see why I was taking so long. Or not.
Well, we changed the shredded inner tube with a new one, Ian went for a dump again, and we retired to the village shop for a cup of coffee and some food.
Puncture fixed. Still alive.
You can see the hill where the tyre had gone, just up on the horizon there by the telegraph poles.
Once the nerves had settled and the hands weren't shaking quite as much, it was getting on for 4pm, which meant the daylight wasn't going to last all the way home. In fact we'd probably only done about a third of the required miles for the day. Time to get moving.
Another very steep hill out of Nenthead on the road, and we made it with a certain degree of jubilation to the highest point on the route, at 2000ft
It's all downhill from here Ian*
*lies
Quite a view from up there. And into Northumberland too. That's like the next county along from home really, isn't it?
A nice view.
Not such a nice view. Can't tell if that's a grimace or a smile.
Now, that's a smile. Probably a Sound Of Music moment or something.
So on we pressed, grateful that we hadn't opted to spend the previous night at Allenheads like we'd originally planned. I mean, we still hadn't reached it and we'd been cycling for 6 hours that day already.
Can't say I was too keen on going fast on the downhill sections after the blowout at Nenthead, but Ian will tell you I don't go fast downhill anyway.
Allenheads was reached just before 5pm, toilet stops of course, and then after the steep climb out of the village we stopped at Currick summit around 5.20pm for a last photo before the daylight went.
I don't like the way he's winking in the background.
It's the border of County Durham you know...
Well, after that, there was a nice downhill stretch past the old mine workings, where Ian managed to fall off when he stopped and forgot to release his foot pedals. I missed that, which was a touch disappointing.
We got into Rookhope and decided to take the "easier" route along the road to Stanhope and then up to the Waskerly Way. Apart from adding about 4 miles to the route, it also added Crawleyside Bank as well. Bad idea.
We pushed it most of the way up, and it was totally dark by the time we reached the top. We'd not eaten enough really, and I don't have the reserves to dig into like Ian, so I was exhausted by the time we reached Parkhead Station around 7.15pm.
I've always liked the place, but it was especially wonderful this time.
The best toasties ever made were eaten, along with some carrot cake too, and together with a hot drink and a rest, we were ready to set off again about 8pm.
It was pitch dark on the moors, and bitingly cold too, with the thermometer on the bike computer showing 0°C, but we kept going. Ian had a much brighter light, so he was racing away like he does on the downhill bits, so I had to keep reigning him in as I couldn't see that far.
He grumbled a bit at my slow speed, but we made it down the old railway line to Birtley at 10.35pm without killing each other. By this time, we were both pretty numb with the cold, as we'd been freewheeling most of the previous 2 hours.
Well, the last bit from Birtley saw us get a bit of a second wind. Probably just to warm up. Don't think we've ever done it so quickly. Those toasties are clearly performance-enhancing.
The Black Horse was reached, and at 10.59pm, I banged on the window and scared a few of the locals. We'd done it!
See. We even got back in time to get served.
Here, I show Ian how many days he should take to cycle the route next time.
Stats for the 3 Day trip:
Total Mileage: 203.6 miles
Total Time Cycling: 21hrs 04mins 30secs
Dunk's Max Speed was 32.8mph - Ian's was considerably faster, but he's mad.
Average Speed of 9.6mph
And that's it. I think we'll have to do another one in 2010.
I'll leave you with this hideous image found on the camera.
Could have been a lot worse I suppose.
I'll post the Google Earth file sometime before the end of the year with the last day's route on.
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