28/09/2019 – Day 3

Day started with rain and I could hear it on the tent but I managed to dawdle it away. The riding was good but had lots of fords, thankfully all with a foot bridge as the rivers seemed quite high. One person let me walk through their garden as the normal foot path had flooded too.

I passed Hadrian’s Wall, which I hadn’t really expected, although vaguely knew it was around so that was a nice surprise. I passed through at Caw Pass and some of the wall that I could see what the original Roman wall, which was cool.

Following the trail it took me through an area of forest that was being cut and the track was really rough and winding which slowed me down but was different riding. Unfortunately I got my first flat tyre in over 18 months! Kick arse tyres but it took me three hours to change it, most of it was getting the damn tyre off the rim, next time I am going to make sure I have three or more tyre levers! But at least it was fairly nice and not raining, counting the positive things!

The long tyre change did mean I felt really behind what I had wanted to achieve that day and then to add to that following my hybrid route (Cycleway/Bridleway/router efficiency) it took me down a rail trial (cycle way on an old rail track) that ended in a steep flight of steps that I lugged the bike down. I met some walkers on the way down that told me it was horrific steps all the way down and up… So I had an argument with the bike dragging it back up to a slightly different point before getting on my way again…

I had irritatingly pulled my dynamo connection cables from their connectors so I didn’t have any lights (or charging but that was less of a problem). I was rapidly running out of light and no where near where I had planned to camp. I ended up asking someone, really hopefully, if I could camp in their garden, but it was all gravel. But instead they had a grassy verge I could camp on. They gave me a very yummy cup of tea (tea makes everything better).

When setting up I used my poncho/tarp for the first time to expand my covered outside space and to protect the bike. It worked really well and was nice to have less risk of setting fire to the tent.

Sleep time and crashed out. Zzzzzz

29/09/2019 – Day 4

So the TLDR version is RAIN! Today it rained…

Rain set in over night and it was still raining in the morning when I started packing up. So I managed to get the tent inner down without it getting wet 😀 With some breakfast in me and suited and booted for the rain, I hit the trail. But it turned out the waterproofs were failing 🙁

I got really really soaked, which wasn’t fun and it started to make me really miserable and panicy. Made it to a place called Alston, had a cup of tea and some warm food while I tried to work out what to do. There was a small outdoor shop in town and I went there to see if I could find something. Instead I had a melt down in the shop and the most amazing shop lady helped me out and gave me more tea and a radiator to cuddle and something temporary to warm up in. We then went through everything in the shop to find something that would let me hint the road again. It cost me £250 but I ended up with a full suit of new waterproofs but they worked much better.

From Alston I climbed Hartside Summit which was 1903ft. At first there was loads of walking and then a lovely cycle. The first bit of the climb was to steep for me to cycle and slightly worrying as the road was advertised as closed. I got really lucky and it was actually open to walkers and cyclists and so the rest was an awesome cycle with no other traffic and a gentle hill I could pedal up. I loved having the whole road to myself and the wild feel of the high moor land I guess.

And what goes up must go down :D. Massive zooms down the hill, and because of the road closure there were hardly any other cars on the other side so I could use the whole road to sweep down the bends. Then there were more pedal pedal pedal times to get to the next camp site. This is the point were I started to deviate from the Pennine Cycle way to do the Lake Loop.

The camp site was noisier then the others but it had a nice tent space set away from the caravans. There wasn’t a drying room but I manage to tumble dry some of my clothes and remove some dampness. I made myself a nice little den again with the tarp and tent to have a dry space to cook in. Was starting to get a little sick of pesto and pasta by this point need to get more adventurous with my food…

30/09/2019 – Day 5

What a difference a day makes! A beautiful day compared to the day before! On the way into Keswick I visit the Castlebrigg stone circle.

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Had a very gentle day in terms of distance, taking a long break in Keswick. I wanted to get the dynamo fixed as charging was really important. I got new brake pads for the rear as they were definitely not biting as much as I would like and I had a lot more hills to go. I took the chance to visit an actual Alpkit shop and look at some of the gear I was thinking about getting, as well as having a little geek moment about seeing them.

Treated myself to a yummy vegan lunch at the café next door to the bike shop before hitting the road again. It was a long climb (walk) out of Keswick but then a lovely ride along the lakes to Grasmere. I stayed at the YHA there which had camping for only £5 😀 but lucky for me I could hide out inside the youth hostel and get toasty and warm. I placed most my stuff in the drying room to get really dry. I used the kitchen to cook my dinner and chatted with other hostel peeps. Including one guy that does overlanding
adventures in crazy cars.

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Having had a lovely chilled evening and got really warm I retreated to the tent! Was soooooo warm in my sleeping bag even though it was really cold and rainy outside. Snuggled down quite early as I had big plans for the next day…