Day 8 Sat 11th June Cracoe to Toft Hill

Today felt a bit stange having to retrace the first 10 miles of our journey from Hill Top House to the starting point at Cracoe. Even though I had managed a few extra miles from Skipton yesterday afternoon, I didn't really feel that I was in credit until I passed the village of Starbotton on my journey north.

Having said that, I did cycle through some really beautiful scenary in the North Yorkshire Dales National Park. We'll definitely come back next year to explore some more.

First stop of the day was at Buckden Tea Rooms, where I enjoyed an absolutely fantastic pot of tea and warm flapjack.

This fortified me for the climb to Buckden Pike at over 700m before the equally magnificent descent to Aysgarth. From there I picked up the eastbound A684 through Swinithwaite and Wensley (home of the famous cheese) before arriving in the market town of Leyburn and a turn to the north on the A6108 to Richmond. The road sign welcomed you to Richmondshire, apparently a local government district of North Yorks, including the beautiful Swaledale.



Ricmond with a threatening sky



George had been visiting Ripon, Richmond, and the Black Sheep Brewery at Masham (we have some samples) and Morrisons for the picnic lunch.

After lunch the weather caused a few problems - it was a very stop start afternoon as I tried to shelter from the showers, or changed from windproof to waterproof clothing. Having purchased a bargain set of base layer equipment at Bakewell during the rest day, I was glad to be able to wear the tights today. I even encountered some hailstones this afternoon when crossing the A66.

At one point I was sheltering in the lea of some trees when the support vehicle pulled up with a piece of walnut cake beautifully presented on a plate - what service!

Eventually we made it to Staindrop for our last pit stop of the afternoon, with every intention of making it to Crook (a 10 mile gain on the schedule). However, wind and rain forced an abandonment at Toft Hill (this gives me a head start of 5 miles on tomorrow's leg).

Despite the stop start afternoon there have been two notable landmarks today - passing the halfway point of the journey and also completing 500 miles. Tomorrow we head for Scotland.

Tonight we are staying at Redworth Hall Hotel - a Jacobean Manor House dating back to 1693. I has been the family seat of the Crosier and Surtees families until 1950 and is now in the Barcelo group. The Hall is set in beautiful grounds but unfortunately our tight schedule means there is not much opportunity to explore or make use of the spa facilities.

Today's Mileage: 60.4

Duration: 4 hours 43 minutes cycling

Calories burned: 4038

Max speed: 32.04 mph

Average speed: 12.77 mph

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/93779479

Total mileage to date: 506 miles

Total pints of Black Sheep consumed to date: 5 by Rich, 1 by George

Day 7 Friday 10th June Disley to Cracoe

This morning I felt that it was quite difficult to get any rhythm into my riding, due to the short distance I had to travel on a number of roads. The terrain itself wasn’t particularly challenging and I still managed 25 miles in the first two hours but I didn’t feel that I was making the sort of progress I have been used to.

I started out from Disley (waved off by Pam and Graham) eastbound along the A6, before turning north on A6015 and then A624 to Glossop, along the edge of the High Peak. From there I turned towards Manchester, via Stalybridge and Mossley, before traversing a myriad of roads taking me through the villages of Grasscroft, Delph and Denshaw before heading up onto Moss Moor. The only point of note in this part of the journey was an unusal pub name - The Walzing Weasel.

Once up on the moor, the A672 passed under the M62. In doing so I got a real sense of moving from the South West quadrant of the country to the North East. The A672 ran parallel with the M62 for a few miles and whilst I could see the rest of the nation going about it's daily business a few miles away, I was strangely detached in my own little world as I sped off Rishworth Moor towards Sowerby Bridge and ultimately onto Halifax.

It was at this point that George and I were hoping to meet for lunch. The plan was for her to overtake me and then find a pub, cafe, or garden centre that offered suitable food. We are still not quite sure how it happened but she must have overtaken me unbeknown to us both. It wasn't until she got to Keighly and hadn't found me that we made conatct. As it turned out I found a great pub, The Moorlands Inn http://www.themoorlandsinn.co.uk/ , at Ogden which served a mean Giant Yorkshire with gravy.

Unfortunately, whilst we were lunching, the weather took a serious turn for the worse. As we came out of the pub to re-start the journey there was a massive black cloud approaching from the west and you could smell the rain. I decided to hold off cycling to see if it would pass. I'm glad I did as I would have been absolutely soaked had I continued. The downside was that it took 2 hours to pass. We killed this time by planning some more sections of the journey and then falling asleep in the car. We returned to the pub for a quick afternoon tea including hot fudge cake and Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

Finally the rain stopped and I resiumed my journey at 17.30. Fortunately, from then on I made good progress on A629 onto Keighly and Skipton and finally finished in the village of Cracoe about 19.30, still 10 miles short of our acommodation but at least a few miles in the bank from the intended stopping point at Skipton.

Our accommodation in Starbotton is Hilltop House B&B http://www.hilltophousebandb.co.uk/ run by Claire and Nick Proctor. Like us they have two cats – Maisy and Daisy.  Hilltop House is a Grade II 17^th century farmhouse with a datestone of 1670.

Starbotton is situated in a beautiful area of the Yorkshire Dales and can be recommended for a much longer visit. Starbotton derives from the 12^th century meaning “the place where the stakes were got”! Currently it is  a hamlet of about 70 dwellings – the neighbouring property to our B&B is up for sale. There is a river running through Starbotton and the other local villages.

We ate at the local pub, The Fox and Hounds, which is in easy walking distance and had a very friendly landlord. The open fire was very welcome even in early summer, as the temperature dipped as the sun went down.

Today's mileage: 66.2 miles

Duration: 5 hours and 5 minutes cycling

Calories burned: 3285

Max speed: 30.35 mph

Average speed: 13.01 mph

Day 6 Rest Day. George's Blog



Apparently, so I've learned, as a non cycling day it's bloggers support night and Rich has asked his co pilot to come up with the goods... I'm sure his cycling expoloits are far more exciting than my blog but here we go!

Lets start from the beginning.....

Managing co-pilot support and trying to squeeze in sight seeing has been a little tricky a couple of times.  Planning and timing being critical.  I had a fantastic hour or so walk at Lands End on day 1, genuniely thought I'd have time to look at St Michael's Mount too.  But in the end a photo/drive by had to suffice in order to have time to catch up with Rich and get in a pub lunch. I did also have a quick look at the point where the Minack Theatre is, but you can't see the amphi-theatre unless you buy a ticket and go in (which I didn't have time for, maybe one day!). The view from the top of some of Cornwall's best West coast beaches near St Levan was amazing with such beautiful blue water.  I kept thinking Rich's cousin Lizzie would love to see a Shakespeare play from here.

View from Land's End

View From Minack Theatre near St. Levan

Keeping close to Rich at times has turned out to be important on a few occasions, helping to lead Rich in to the accommodation at the end of that first day was one of them.  The B&B was on an unnamed road and Rich's bike sat nav wasn't getting him there.  He looked so pleased when I first turned up, I could see his grin - ear to ear! - from the car mirrors as I overtook him.  He later told me that at that point towards the end of Day 1 he was feeling particularly spent having had a steady and unrelenting flow of hills all afternoon, so seeing me really spurred him on.  When he finally finished he was actually still out of breath, which he hasn't been since.  The owners of the B&B came out and met him too which was such a lovely welcome. 

Rich has already put a lot about this first phase (days 1-5). But the trials for me have somewhat different. 

Day 2 - A reconnaisance of the point we were meeting our Plymouth friends at Dartmouth to ensure Rich didn't need to cycle off his route any distance.  Needless to say Ed and Caroline were spot on with their chosen meeting place and I worried unduly. 

Day 3 - trying to find a suitable pub at the right distance with my Dad and June in convoy was a bit of a fiasco.  Having driven past the first decent pub, tried to turn back only for Rich to catch up, then the next pub was grotty, the next they told us they were closed and finally where we ended up I had to walk back to flag Rich down so he didn't miss us, leaving Dad and June to get the drinks.  Thanks Dad - ever patient!

Day 4 - trying to find a birthday card for me from Rich as he'd left it at home and was fretting over it - but despite 3 village stops being unsuccesful

Day 5 - couldn't find a supermarket for our picnic lunch, actually spent an hour driving around before googling on my mobile.  Why oh why didn't I do that earlier, not rocket science!  Rich admitted he was getting a trifle hungry when we finally ate around 1.30pm...

Day 6 - today finally a rest for Rich having had his longest day in the saddle yesterday and finishing later around 6pm.  Spent the day with Mum and Graham. After a lay-in until 8am, for me 24 lengths of the swimming pool, then a leisurely breakfast, we set off on a drive around the Peak District and went to Buxton, Bakewell and Whaley Bridge.  Very picture-skew.  At Bakewell we hit the rural shops looking in the outdoor wear/walking gear shops for cycling "tights" for Rich - finally found something similar that will do the trick.  We all flashed our plastic around picking up some bargains in various sales.  Rich even managed to buy me a replacement birthday card (phew!).

We had lunch in a shop advertising itself as producing the original Bakewell pudding.  Fairly light lunch, sharing paninis and soup, then tucked in merrily to a taste test - the Bakewell Tart versus the Bakewell Pudding. Tough call as the former was homemade so better than anything you get in a shop, but the pudding which was hot and with custard and cream won the day.  We all talked of trying to make one at home another time.  It's a more like an egg custard filling than a cake and in a flaky pastry case.

When we got back to the hotel I managed another shorter swim, then steam and jaccuzzi, whilst Rich had his body massage.  The bit he said he was most impressed with was the massage around his knees (!!) but he came back rather oily (I did warn him), so had to have a second shower to get it off.

Tomorrow I'm dropping Rich back where he finished in Disley just down the road, then back to the hotel for a facial.  Trickier route tomorrow with a rough plan to meet for lunch just before Halifax.  We've got into a good routine of studying the route, comparing the map to what my sat nav comes up with and the likely distances.

Both of us felt it's been nice to be in one place more than one night - unpacking and packing is a bit tiresome.

George



Day 5 Wed 8th June Stourport to Disley

Today's forecast was sunshine and showers and that was exactly what we got. Fortunately the showers didn't last too long and were largely dodged by (a) sheltering behind a lorry, (b) having lunch and (c) hiding in a hedgerow. The sunshine unfortunately didn't last that long either.  The changing weather resulted in frequent changes of shirt/jacket, glasses and a change of socks at lunctime.

Setting out from Stourport I picked up the A451 to Kidderminster, leaving George to enjoy the pool at the Stourport Menzies Hotel  http://www.menzieshotels.co.uk/ Seeing signs for Bewdley as well, reminded me of all the enjoyable cricket tours we had to the area in the early 90s, although there was no time to see if the Coach and Horses still serves Lumphammer (or Sledgehammer according to KB).

When I was planning this route, today's leg was the one I was least looking forward to. The question was how to negotiate Birmingham? The options as I saw them were to go west via Telford to enjoy a more scenic route but that would add unnecessary miles or to flirt with the outskirts of Birmingham and A449 via Wolverhampton. Certainly not scenic and probably also very busy but more direct. I opted for the latter. Having safely negotiated the route, I am pleased with my decision. Whilst it was certainly busy, the combination of dual carriageway (where cars generally pull over to the outside lane when passing) and cycle paths meant I was able to negotiate the section safely.

From Wolverhampton, it was straight forward cycling along A449, with cycle paths on some sections, to Stafford. From Stafford to Stone on A34. We stopped on the outskirts of Stone for lunch, making use of a brand new Aldi's car park to enjoy our picnic and shelter from the elements. From Stone I took the A520 passing to the east of Stoke-on-Trent and onto Leek. It was along this section of road that Pam and Graham joined us. They have come up for a few day's holiday and will be spending the rest day with us exploring the Peak District.

From Leek, there was another directional decision to take - A523 through Macclesfield and towards Stockport or A53 to Buxton. Whilst A523 looked the most direct route and followed the path of Maclesfield Canal (i.e. realtively flat), I thought the route to Buxton would be far more scenic although it would obviously involve a fair climb. I chose not to take the climb and was glad I did. Whilst Macclesfield itself was a bit grim, the trip along the valley was beautiful and afforded some great views, particularly over-looking the Rudyard Reservoir. We'll enjoy the A53 tomorrow from the car!

From Macclesfield it was a fairly stright forward route up to the A6 and the short journey into Disley. In the closing stages I was making steady progress up the last incline to Disley when a chap came tearing past me on his bike. Halfway up the hill he had to stop for a rest. As I went by at a steady rate I thought to myself: "and I bet you haven't already cycled 80 miles today". Sorry, but can't help being competitive.

So five days completed and definitely looking forward to a rest day tomorrow. I have manged to book a full body massage in the spa hotel we are staying at and looking forward to that.

Huge thanks to Pam and Graham for our dinner at the Ram's Head www.theramsheaddisley.co.uk to celberte our birthdays. The food was absolutely fantastic, washed down (in my case) by a couple of pints of Black Sheep and (by the others) a bottle of Buckingham Palace White Bordeaux. Great food, great company, great wine; now for a great night's sleep.

Today's Mileage: 82.8 miles
Duration: 6 hours 1 minute cycling
Calories burned: 4493
Max speed: 29.2 mph
Av speed: 13.75 mph

Fundraising total to date: £560.00

Day 4 Tues 7th June Wick to Stouport

A fantastic day's cycling, although when I set out from Wick I was worried about what was to come. Within a mile I was heading up a long straight incline (with seemingly no end in sight) on the A420 towards Chippenham and it was raining quite heavily. Fortuntaely, the rain helped me realise I had left my cycle helmet in the car. A quick call to my superb support vehicle soon rectified the headwear situation, if not the topography or the weather.

It wasn't long, however, before both improved. A left turn onto the A46 co-incided with the rain abating and I was soon up to decent pace on a level surface. I passed through a number of familiar place names. It was just that they seemd to be in the wrong place - Pennsylvania (I knew I was on a long cycle but I didn't expect to go there!), Dunkirk and later Cambridge. There were also some interesting place names - Old Sodbury and Little Badminton caught my attention.

From A46 I turned left onto A4135 to Dursley, before turning north on A38 and onto Gloucester, where I made my first navigational error of the trip. I had intended to stay on A38 northbound towards Tewkesbury but lost the signs for the A38. Then I passed signs for A417 (which I know goes to Ledbury) on my right, when it should have been left. Finally, it sank home that I was going in the wrong direction when I was on A40 to Ross on Wye. Fortunately, my knowledge of the area from visiting growers, meant that I could pick up the Newent Road and eventually get back on track. A quick call to the co-pilot confirmed I could cut across country and reach the lunchtime rendezvous, albeit a different venue from the one we had planned.

As it turned out, the earlier mistake meant I travelled through Hartpury, where there is a beautiful church and onto B4211 which is a decent rural road, condusive to good cycling and passing through a number of lovely villages on it's way to Upton-upon-Severn. It was then only a short distance to return to A38 on route to Worcester. From Worcester, I took the A443 to Holt Heath and then B4196/4194 to Stourport, which turned out to be the most undulating section of the entire day.

On arriving at the hotel we found we had a bath in our room for the first time on the trip, so a cold soak to ease the legs was painful but necessary. We then set off to explore Stourport and to see how it had changed since I last used it as a base for our Worcester cricket tour in 1992. The bridge over the Stour still gives a very picturesque image, the pitch and putt coarse (home of the Stourport Open) is still there alongside the crazy golf course and the barges still traverse the locks. We spent a very pleasant half hour with a couple of guys on a journey around the Birmingham canal ring, as they raised their barge through one of the locks.

George learning the thoery of lock keeping

It was fascinating to see how the lock works first hand.

The only downside to our stroll through the High Street was that the Indian restaurant that we used to frequent is now a Lloyd's Bank. We did find a suitable restaurant and had a very enjoyable meal. Chicken tarka dal can be recommended but the nans were traditional size.

All in all a great day sampling the counties of Somerset, Glouestershire and Worcestershire.

Today's milage: 81 miles
Duration: 5 hours 26 minutes cycling
Calories burned: 4770
Max speed: 29.76mph
Av speed: 14.88 mph

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/93779534

Day 3 Mon 6th June Tiverton to Wick

Day 3 completed; 10 to go.

Today was an absolutely fantastic day's cycling. The sun shone brightly, the roads were much flatter and generally with a good surface and very little wind to speak of. The only downside was that being Monday there was considerably more commercial traffic on the roads.

I managed the first 30 miles in less than 2 hours. It would have been less than that if I hadn't hit on a recently resurfaced section of the A38 just north of Wellington. The new surface was loose gravel yet to bed down and it was like cycling through treacle. For one uphill section I had to cycle on the path to make any headway.

Thanks to John Tippins and June for taking time out of their holiday to come to meet us. It certainly helps to see friendly faces along the way.

Swapping stories with John and June in a layby on A38

I was a bit concerned when we were looking for a pub to eat lunch and saw both George and her Dad coming back past me. I was thinking that I'm not for turning around but it all resolved itself.

After lunch it was a fairly straight cycle up the A39 to Bath, passing Glastonbury and Wells. There was a superb view of the Cathedral at Wells but then a challenging incline on the way out of the city. It needed two rest breaks to get up. I was beginning to think I had set out too quickly in the morning, but once at the top I was back to pace on the route towards Bath.

Now that I have progressed from the south west corner, it will feel that I am making far more progress as we move in a northerly direction. Over 200 miles already completed and on to Stourport tomorrow - I wonder if the Indian restaurant still serves nan breads the size of dustbin lids. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Today's mileage: 74 miles
Duration: 5 hours 12 minutes
Calories: 4052
Max speed: 32.8mph
Av speed: 14.24mph
Total Ascent: 4455ft.

Fundraising total to date: £475.00

http://www.connect.garmin.com/activity/embed/93779554

Day 2 Sun 5th June Redgate to Tiverton

Our hosts have their own weather station - the forecast for today was "Sunny spells in the morning, turning cloudy with isoalted showers likely in the afternoon". This is exactly how it turned out.

Hoping that local knowledge on directions was as good as the forecasting, I asked for the shortest route back to A390. Clive's directions proved to be equally spot on as I avoided as 3 mile detour back the way we had arrived and avoided travelling through Liskeard. Not that I have anything against Liskeard but I knew from reconnaisance that the route I had chosen for the day included 3 major ascents at Gunnislake, Tavistock and onto Dartmoor.

As it turned out the road to Gunnislake lent itself to superb cycling - generally flat and not too busy on Sunady morning. Whereas yesterday afternoon felt like hard work, this was fun and I was soon making good pace and enjoying magnificent views back over south east Cornwall. The descent to the Tamar Valley was very steep and I had to make the most use of my breaks so far, not wanting to risk utilising the well advertised escape lanes. For those of you that know how I play my hockey, as I crossed the River Tamar into Devon my thought was "that's Cornwall in my pocket". With that in mind even the climb out of the valley wasn't too onerous. It was a long gradual incline. I'm certainly glad I wasn't travelling in the opposite direction.

The next town was Tavistock and I happened to arrive in the middle of a steam rally. Fortunately, cyclists don't get held up in the traffic, so I was able to press onto Dartmoor leaving the town gridlocked. Not long after entering the National Park, I passed a pub called the Harevst Home. Harvest Home also happens to be the first single released by my favourite band (Big Country) so I starting singing to myself as I went along

 - "Watch how the waves must shatter, Watch how the shores divides. Watch how the nets will tatter. Watch Canute and his bride." Stuart Adamson - you're still having an impact on people's lives.

Then the climb up Dartmoor started in earnest, just as the rain started to fall. I'd had a text from George telling me we were lunching in the second layby after the Dartmoor Inn. The good news was I came upon the Dartmor Inn far sooner than I had thought. As I made my way up to the aforementioned layby I completed the first 100 miles, which felt like a really significant landmark.

Lunch turned out to be a magnificent picnic with Burchells and Crosby-Kinsons. What you can't see from the photo below is that we parked our 3 cars in a U shape and tied a tarpaulin across the space in between to shelter from the rain. It was really quite chilly and the hot pasties went down a treat. Thanks to Caroline, Ed and Suzette and all the children for coming out to meet us and offer some cheer on a gloomy afternoon. Fortunately, the worst of the weather passed while we were lunching.

From then on the cycle over Dartmoor was very rewarding and well worth the climb (about 1500ft) to get there. At one point I had to slow down to allow one of the Dartmoor ponies and 2 foals across the road.

Next stop was Moretonhampstead - which apparently means piece of land near the moor. The only thing missing at lunch was a flask of tea, so we decided to stop at the Gateway Tea Rooms http://www.thegatewaytearoom/ to consume a cuppa or two.

From Moretonhampstead I descended off the moor to the outskirts of Exeter where we picked up the road to Tiverton. By now I had worked out that we should end the day in Tiverton and drive onto our accommodation at Willand, as I would only be re-tracing the route in the morning if I cycled it. As long as I re-start where I finished the route remains unbroken. Add to that some clever navigation which yielded a much more dircet route than I had planned and I managed to cut the day's mileage to 69 miles.

We arrived at Wier Mill Farm in good time and even managed to catch the cricket highlights.

Duration: 5 hours 25 minutes

Calories: 4516

Max speed: 33.3 mph

Av speed: 12.67mph

Total Fundraising to date: £445.00

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/93779576