Six teaching staff members plus a friend we set off to to the Coast 2 Coast from St Bee's to Tynemouth. I have previously done the Way of the Roses C2C route before, once with my family and the other time was with 28 students that were raising money for a new sports hall. I was hoping that this trip could provide as much challenge, beautiful scenery and enjoyment. Plus it is always good when the route is sign posted, especially as this is the recce for when myself and some more teaching staff take 40 students on the route in July to again raise money for the sports hall that will be complete this year. If you would like to donate to spur the kids along please click on this link.
So we met at Georges Square, Halifax at 0900 on the 9th of April. I had booked a Whitehill minibus to take us and the bikes to St Bee's and I arranged for them to pick us up from Tynemouth on Wednesday the 13th April at about 1700. I knew the last day would be easy and it would only take us a couple of hours to complete the ride but I wanted to ensure we had time to account for a mechanical issue with the bikes etc. We had six people travelling out and as we were meeting one of our party in St Bee's we would have seven people travelling back. Getting the six bikes and six people in was a bit of a squash and there was concern about our return journey, but I knew if we took both wheels off we should be able to get all seven bikes and people in the bus.
As soon as we got to St Bee's it was a case of setting off to our first digs which was The Herdwick Inn situated just before Penrith. Even though the whole route could be done in one day if you wanted a tougher ride I planned this to take three nights and four days as for this trip I wanted it to be more of a cycling holiday than a cycling endurance challenge.
The rooms and food at the Herdwick Inn were lovely and worth the slight detour off route to get there. The whole trip was well signposted and the roads were really, really quiet. There were only a couple of sections where I think a couple of cars might of come past us. Also it worth noting that if you are on a bike that has wider tyres there are quite a few off road alternative sections that are also signposted. The Sustrans cycling charity responsible for created routes up and done the country have done a very good job maintaining the route.
I hope you enjoy the images above.... And hopefully it will inspire you to get out on your bikes and have some adventurous fun. You can also go to the google album by clicking on this link .
