 number 3, old railway carriage, old coach road, c2c, coast to coast bicycle ride June 17, 2007 Number 3 in a series of photos from the Coast to Coast bicycle ride Whitehaven to Sunderland, England Friday 8th June – Sunday 10th June 2007 I've just reread my last post and it didn't make too much sense, or make for a very interesting read, so I was going to alter it. Is that against blog rules? It seems wrong, but sometimes being wrong is right. Then I read it again and decided that I couldn't be bothered to alter it as only three people in the world would probably ever read it. And they'd be fat sweaty men who have stumbled across my website while looking for pictures of fat sweaty women. Friday 8th June (Whitehaven to Penrith) continued.. In brief, the Coast to Coast bicycle ride stretches from one side of our small country to the other. By car it takes about 2.5 hours to cover the 112 miles, but by bicycle it takes a little longer. That's because bicycles are generally slower than cars. Also, it's because the C2C ride takes a more meandering route. Minor roads, old railway lines, gravel paths, forest tracks. None of them very direct. In fact, at the end of day one, Kev as so fed up of meandering to Penrith, he saw a sign post, a busy main road, said 'F••k these meandering paths' and cycled off without us. I think he was quite tired and emotional by that point in the day. Anyway, back to the beginning. Very briefly, out of Whitehaven we cycled, uphill on a disused railway line for quite a while. Simple stuff. Then a few undulations. Then some bigger ones. Then the choice of travelling on an off-road 'old coach road'. We decided that it would be a good idea. If coaches once travelled up it, then so could we. Don't bother is my advice. So rocky and steep it was impossible to cycle up. It hurt even to push the bike. But the downhill that followed would surely make up for it? No. So rocky and steep it hurt to cycle down. I reckon it added two hours onto the journey. More pedal turning and Penrith was in our sights. First day, 57 miles. Lovely B&B, shower and then a meal at Gianni's Italian Restaurant. I've reread that account and it sounds quite dull. And over all too quickly. To get some idea of what we experienced, take a pair of scissors and jab them into each thigh twenty times. Now are you feeling it? Holga CGFN + Fujifilm Superia 400 © James Arnold 2007 Comment (17) | Permalink |
