Saturday 20th October 2001

Trip Time & Ave Speed include all stops during day

After a good sleep, I woke to heavy rain at about 6.45am and thought about going home.  However, the rain eased, and over breakfast we decided to carry on with the original plan.  Our clothes had dried OK, but my shoes were still a little wet but I'm sure they would get wet again very quickly.  Our mood had improved, and we felt ready to tackle the second day.  We checked the weather forecast - 80% rain, SE wind, 15 deg max.

We left the pub at 9.45 after a good breakfast, and with trepidation we eased ourselves into the saddle. The ride out of Greystoke was nice and at one point we noticed that the travelling seemed easy, not realising initially that the wind direction had changed and we finally had a tailwind.  This was nice while it lasted (about 2 minutes!). The weather was drizzly and misty as we approached Penrith.  We did not take the route through the college due to F&M restrictions and stuck to the main roads which were fairly quiet.

We got out tickets stamped at the Spar in Penrith and started the climb out of the town.  We decided to modify the route slightly by taking the A686 to Langwathby.  Michael knew of a place to stop in the village for a break, and at about 11.30 we arrived at the 'Brief Encounter' cafe.  We can highly recommend it as a stopping point - it was clean, warm and served good food & drink.  Apparently though, it is not open all year round, and would be closing not long after we were there.  Well worth the half mile diversion off route.

In Langwathby, we met two other cyclists (not the most chatty people) who were on the C2C.  We would see them a few more times throughout the day.  It is a nice run through Little Salkeld and into Renwick, where the climb to Hartside starts.  The climb out of Renwick was deceptive because what looked to be downhill stretches were actually uphill - you cannot understand why you are putting so much effort in until you realise this.  The panniers were making their presence felt at this point, and were being described by Michael as a 'millstone'.  At 1000 feet, we stopped for a drink, prior to starting the major climb to Hartside.

We chatted to a man who had a house on the corner, who said it was 2 miles to the top, and climbs all the way.  We changed shoes to walking shoes, and started to push.  At times we got back on the bikes, but most of the time we were walking.  We had made a decision after Day 1 that we would not cripple ourselves on the climbs and make the remainder of the day difficult.  I think this was a good decision, as sometimes even the walking was tiring.

We could eventually see the Cafe at the top through the mist and drizzle, and decided to take the off-road shortcut rather than stay on-road.  There was a sense of achievement when we reached the top, but the cafe was the worst place we encountered on the whole of the run for atmosphere, cleanliness and staff.  They weren't doing food, they were closing at 3pm, and you got the feeling that you weren't wanted in there.  We bumped into the cyclists who we had met at Langwathby, and found that they were aiming for Consett today.  This sounded optimistic to us as it was now 3 pm.

Changed back into cycling shoes, and enjoyed the run down from Hartside into Alston.  Got the ticket stamped in Alston, and climbed steeply out of the town.  We thought that the climbs were done after Hartside but we were wrong, the road was hilly between Alston and Nentheads.  On the advice of the man we met on the climb to Hartside, we decided to take the alternative route from waypoint 25 to avoid Garrigill.

Michael went in to the stamping point at Nenthead, and two men at the bar told him that the climb into Nenthead isn't as bad as the climb out!  We started the climb after changing shoes, aiming for 'the highest point on the C2C'.  When we arrived at the top of Black Hill, the GPS said 1992 feet and we took a photo to commemorate the achievement.  We were very relieved to be there as it was another big climb out of the way.  Just don't make the mistake of thinking it is all downhill from here.

We had a nice run down the hill, the sky was getting dark and we were looking forward to reaching Allenheads.  We went through a F&M disinfectant point, although nobody came out of the Portakabin to spray us (admittedly, we didn't slow down, but I thought it was roadworks).  We then had two uphill climbs back up to 1800-1900 feet.  After the final climb, we had a good run down to Allenheads, went past the roadworks in the village, and finally got to the Allenheads Inn at 5.30pm.

We locked the bikes up, and had a drink in the bar.  It was a bad day for the pub as they had electrical problems, my room had no heating on, and no hot water.  Michael was OK in the other room as he had heat and hot water.  I was going to go across and have a shower in his room, but when he tried the water, his had gone off.  This setback did not lessen our enjoyment of the pub, and the owners did their best to get them sorted out.   We had a nice meal in a good atmosphere and were definitely less tired than on the first night.