10th - 15th August - Hadrian's Wall

10th Got our early start and set off for Huyton to catch our first train, which was a 2 carriage diesel. We arrived with ¾ hr to spare. We boarded the train and didn’t have to fold our bikes as there was a dedicated spot on the train for them complete with a coated chain to wrap around them so they didn‘t fall over. Excellent. We changed trains at Wigan onto a much nicer train and again we didn’t need to fold the bikes and this time they had Velcro straps to hold them in.We sat at a table where I was able to hook up to power with the PC to run the virus scan. We had beautiful scenery out of the window with great views of the lake district country side. We passed many small streams and lakes and it was very green especially when we were near the coast. We had tickets to Barrow-in-Furness but alighted in Ulverston instead as we thought it would be quicker as it was a more direct route. It bucketed down as Catriona was in the shop getting some things for dinner and then we had to ride up a huge hill into very strong winds. At the top of the first hill we had lovely views down onto the town and out to the coast.One of the hills was so steep I had to push my bike up for about 10 metres before I could get back on and ride. I had to pull the PC out along the route to make sure we were on the right track as we only had the google map we had copied the night before. Thank goodness we were ok as I (Cat) would have died if we did all those hills for nothing. We found this sign which David liked but there were a few more uphills before we got to the steep downhill.Again fantastic scenery at the top of the hill. We stopped at the Broughton Inn for Sunday roast turkey lunch, fantastic, just what we needed. We then called the caravan park in Ravenglass to make sure we could get a pitch. We cycled on through a few little towns up and down many hills along the busy A959. Again the wind was mostly in our face and it was tough going. It must be very windy here all the time as we passed quite a few wind farms with their huge windmills.We eventually made it to the caravan park at 6pm having cycled 38 miles. We set up the tent, had a gourmet dinner of Rivita, marmalade and ham finishing off with our mix of pecans, brazil nuts and dark chocolate. We then both had lovely hot showers and retired to the tent for an early night.

11th Yesterday must have taken it out of us because even after the early night we didn’t wake up until 7.30am. We quickly packed up as it started to spit with rain. Luckily it didn’t last long and we were able to have breakfast at the picnic table where we had dinner the night before. We set off for the beginning of the Hadrian’s wall cycle route at Glnnaventa Roman Bath House.It is amazing that something that old is still standing. We cycled on following route 72 Hadrian’s Cycleway, over the river Mite and along the waters edge. We went through Holmebrook, Drigg, Seascale and past the Sellafield nuclear facility. We had the option of taking an inland route through Egremont or sticking to the coast with it’s beautiful scenery and hills. David decided we should stick to the coast.The hills were not so bad as we haad a very strong tail wind most of the time. We passed many wind farms again today. There was a very steep hill coming out of St Bees and Catriona had to walk some of it again but tried to cycle on about ½ way up. This was a bad move as she ended up with one foot locked in to the pedal, overbalancing and landing with her leg stuck under the bike and being unable to release her foot. David had kept on cycling over the hill and had no idea what had happened. Catriona eventually managed to move the bike and release her foot and catch up to David. We ended up stopping at Whitehaven for lunch at a little café / bar having our favourite cycling meal of baked potato with tuna or chicken. After lunch we set off again with a strong tailwind but this time the route was almost flat.We made good time and stopped off at the visitors centre in Maryport for afternoon tea.We continued up the coast along the B5300 all the way to Silloth. We checked a few caravan parks, one wanted 32 pounds for the night for a tent site. We thought “tell them they’re dreaming”. We ended up cycling back about 1 mile to a caravan park that only cost us 12 pounds for the night. And we had another early night getting to bed around 9.30pm having cycled 54 miles.

12th Woke up to pouring rain at around 7am. We packed up all our things but deciced to stay in the tent to see if the weather cleared. David wanted to stay in the tent and have a rest day as the weather was so bad, but Catriona said we may as well get going as it was forcast for rain for the next 3 days. We waited until around 11am and then packed up the wet tent and rode into Silloth.It was cold and raining just like winter at home! We followed the route to Abbeytown where we ended up stopping for lunch. What a bargain it was too, only £6.95 for 3 courses. We chatted to the publican about our travels and about retrenchment.(He had been retrenched from Manchester Airport) We set off again into the rain after having warmed up over lunch. We cycled through farmland and through the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Maybe it was the weather but we didn't find it any more beautiful than other places in England we have cycled. We made it to Bowness-on-Solway which is the start/end of Hadrian's wall and was once the Western fort. We had views over to Scotland across the river. We then set off for the 11 mile journey into Carlisle straight into the strong/cold windy conditions. We finally made it to Carlisle and booked into the hostel which is student accommodation at other times during the year, so David and Catriona are in seperate rooms for the night. We cycled 31miles today.

13th Set the alarm for 6am but woke up at 5.54! Had quick showers and breakfast while checking emails. Received and email from Chris who was still at work so we called him using skype. It was good to have a chat with him. It was raining when we set off but we were not the only mad cyclists out as two women who were 9 days in to their 20day John O’Groats to Lands End ride were heading off at the same time. We stopped to take photos of Carlisle Castle, then cycled on through the city and out through a lovely park by the River Eden. We had a slow climb all the way, getting a little steeper around Brampton where we stopped for lunch. Our legs were feeling pretty strong after the past 3 days of riding so the hills were not too much trouble. It had been lightly raining on and off the whole time While we were having lunch the rain got much heavier so we stayed a little longer watching the Olympic swimming heats. The rain eventually eased and we set off for Banks passing Lanercost Priory on the way which had been built of stones from Hadrian’s wall in 1169. Our first view of Hadrian’s wall was just after Banks and all we could think of was “What have the Romans ever done for us“. We were amazed to see quite a few people walking on the wall which is a Unesco world heritage site. The sun decided to come out and we actually saw pieces of blue sky for the first time since Ludlow 9 days ago. This part of the wall included a turret or watch tower. We cycled on past a few more sections of wall and turrets before stopping at the Birdoswald Roman fort. We took the self guided tour of the fort which was quite interesting. We then set off in search of our overnight accommodation. We phoned a bunk house that we thought was at Once Brewed and managed to book 2 beds. We cycled up huge hills passing through Melkridge where David stopped to take a photo and another passing cyclist offered to take a photo of the both of us.
We arrived at Once Brewed to find it was not where our accommodation was. We managed to find the directions to Gibbs Hill B&B and Bunk House which was another 2 miles on up hill. We passed another huge section of the wall and were out in the middle of nowhere the scenery was spectacular with the rain pouring down and the clouds rolling across the sky. We had ridden 41.3 hard miles today. We found our way to the Bunkhouse on the farm and had lovely warm showers and a bite to eat before heading off to bed exhausted.

14th Woke this morning at 6am ready to have an early start. We had breakfast and packed up then realised that our first destination Houseteads Roman Fort didn’t open until 10am. We watched a little of the Olympics (archery and boxing) before setting off into the rain. It was up hill for one mile out of the property and our first stop at Steel Rigg the large section of wall we had passed yesterday evening. Very dramatic scenery that does not really show up in the pictures. We arrived at the fort at 10.30am wet and cold so we stopped for a hot chocolate before touring the site, one of the most complete examples of a Roman fort in Britain. By the time we finished the drinks it had stopped raining so we were able to walk around and take photos without getting the camera wet. Grainery
Latrines

It started to rain when we got back to the bikes so our next destination was lunch at Fourstones passing Crindledykes lime kilns,19th century kilns used to make lime to improve the acidic soil. We also passed the sumit of the ride and stopped to take a picture at the mile marker there. We were soaking wet by the time we arrived at the Inn where we had lunch and stayed there for a couple of hours hoping the rain would ease. We even stayed and had a drink after lunch David having a Cumbrian ale and Catriona having a port in the hope it would warm us up. We ended up having to set off in the rain after having dried off and immediately got soaking wet again. A couple of cars drove by as we were passing large puddles on the road and covered us from head to toe. We decided we could not cycle much further in this weather so headed straight to Hexham tourist information centre to enquire about accommodation for the night. We met up with one of the guys who was staying in the bunkhouse last night and he was there tying to find out if he could get a bus back to the bunkhouse with his bike. We managed to get a night at a B&B for only £25 each. We arrived at the B&B and Ann ,the lovely lady who owns the B&B let us store the bikes in her laundry and even offered to wash our wet clothesWe had ridden 34miles.We went out to dinner at the local J D Wetherspoons hoping to update the blog however their wifi didn’t seem to be working so after dinner we went back to the B&B and watched some TV.


15th Started off the day with a huge breakfast of cereal, banana, coffee, juice, toast, bacon, eggs, cooked tomato, mushrooms and sausage. We packed up our nicely laundered clothes and put some of them on and headed off towards Newcastle. Ann wouldn’t accept any payment for the laundering of the clothes so it was a double bonus to have stayed at her B&B. We headed to the library to try to use the internet there. They didn’t have wifi so I had to join the library to be able to use one of their PCs. It ended up that I couldn’t access the blog, so only managed to check emails. We set off over the Hexham bridge stopping off at Corbridge and took some photos of old buildings..One of them was the oldest building in town built in the 13th century. It was a rather flat ride along the river Tyne. Our lunch time stop was at the Adam and Eve Pub at Ovingham where we had a lovely dish of chicken covered in BBQ sauce and cheese. After lunch we stopped off at George Stephenson’s birthplace a small house that was shared by 3 other families.George is the father of the railway. We cycled on through Newburn and into Newcastle Upon Tyne. We took photos of some of the bridges crossing the riverthere and also some of the cranes they are dismantling at the old ship building port. We made it to North Shields and caught the ferry over to South Shieldsand the end of the Hadrian’s wall cycle route at the Arbeia Roman Fort.The fort was closed as it was 5.30pm by the time we arrived so we decided we would come back tomorrow. We then continued on to Marsden where we set up our tent for the night at Lizard Lane camp ground. It started to rain just after we got into our tent, but stopped so that we could clean our teeth and have showers. We ended up having ridden 45miles.