I completely forgot to pack any sort of camera and to tell you the truth for that reason I forgot that I could use my phone. So at the end had near zero footage. So I have scraped together what I could to make this short film that is probably just going to appeal to us on the ride as some sort of memory. But some information about the route. It is planned and mapped out by Cycling UK https://www.cyclinguk.org/ . Using Sustrans https://www.sustrans.org.uk/ routes. It goes from the highest UK pub Tan Hill https://tanhillinn.com/ to the debatable lowest (sea level) Marsden Grotto https://www.marsdengrotto.com/ .
The GPX file is here. https://www.cyclinguk.org/route/weekender-britains-top-pub-ride
What we did and what happened.
We set off on Friday after work the plan was to get the 1600 train and be at Kirkby Stephens at 1830. We were then going to ride the 13 miles to Tan Hill, put up our tents and we were booked in for a meal at the pub at 2030. What really happened. There was a signal failure on the line which meant we were running about 30 minutes late, then a cow walked onto the line and got run over by a train in front. So we were an hour and a half late which meant we would miss our meal at Tan HIll. We had to get a quick takeaway in Kirbly Stephens and then make our way up to Tan Hill in the dark. It was a lovely atmospheric ride, a bit of mist but no rain or wind. We got up to the pub at about 2230. We put up our tents next to a couple of others. Little did we know what were were in store for. The tents there were occupied by a gang of lads that were opening taking loads of drugs and drinking loads of booze. They did not start until midnight though, and they were in and out of their tents. It seemed the safest thing to do was to just stay inside each of our tents so as not to get involved in any tensions. They were so loud, swearing their music was blasting out, they were shouting out about the drugs they were on. It was a bit scary at times, but it was a case of just hunker down and hopefully they would burn themselves out at some point. They did not stopped not even for a second until 0530! Then they packed up and DROVE off at about 0700!
We got up at 0800. You can see from my eyes in the video…. sleep, not a chance. The breakfast at Tan Hill was lovely. We set off at about 1030. It was only a 70 mile day and you would of thought going from the highest pub to the lowest pub it would be an easy 70 mile in a downward trend. The trend was down hill but I only remember not pedalling for about 30 seconds on a little stretch, the gradient profile on your preferred app does not tell the full truth! But to be fair, I was on the Brompton that could have made a difference on the muddy bits through the woods, it was sapping my energy a bit on those sections. On the roads the Brompton was fine. I was surprised by the length of the wooded muddy sections though. I was well aware of the gravel section at the start, but I was not expecting the length of the rest of them. We only stopped twice. Once at a cafe in Barnard Castle. It seemed a lovely place. Then we had a late lunch in Bishop Auckland. It was just a quick bite to eat in the supermarket. We were expecting to finish at about 1800, but due to the unexpected lack of free wheeling and the amount of muddy bits of track we did not get to the Marsden Grotto until about 2200! We missed meal time. A quick drink in the pub and then to our digs for pizza.
The next day we had to get the train from Newcastle. We rode under the Tyne in a special tunnel made in the 50’s just for bicycle and pedestrians. Apparently it has the oldest wooden escalators and it used to be used by 10000 people daily in the hey day. It just proves we were more forward thinking. Now, I would prefer not comment, we only need to look around at the state of play. But it a nice feature to ride through a bit of history on the route.
Would I do it again. Hell yeh. Both pubs are lovely and the route is lovely. I would just make sure I was on a different bike and also make sure I am well away from any other tent.
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