Vale of Eden

I am sitting in my room at the Edenhall Country Inn looking out the window at some beautiful stone cottages surrounded by acres of green grass and separated by beautiful drystone fences. Yesterday we completed the Cumbria Way Cycle route by cycling from Grasmere to Keswick. The weather was perfect for cycling and we even had the rare assist of a steady tail wind for a substantial part of the day’s ride.

The route took us through some magnificent countryside and it was easy to see why the Lakes District is so popular with walkers from all over Britain who come here to walk the ancient walking paths. The nicest cycling came when we cycled alongside beautiful Lake Thirlmere. For several kilometres the road followed the coastline and we stopped in the sunshine to just soak up the beauty that was all around us. On the other side of the lake the terrain rose steeply to Mount Hevellyn, one of the highest mountains in Britain.

Our destination yesterday was Keswick, quite a large town with an impressive park. Situated on the Derwent River, this town became famous for its very popular range of Derwent colouring pencils. When I was at school in the 1950s any child that appeared at school with a box of 72 Derwents clearly showed the rest of us that their parents were indeed rich.

Today we woke to grey skies and steady rain. This was a reminder that it is very hard to ride in this part of the country, even in summer, without encountering cold and wet conditions. We had no choice but to don our wet weather gear and pedal off from the hotel. Within minutes the steady rain increased to a downpour but surprisingly it did little to dampen our spirits. We were just so grateful to have the opportunity and the good health to do this iconic ride that the rain only added another dimension to our experiences.

The first few kilometres of the route took us along an unused train track which has now been converted to a rail trail. This was also our first encounter with the famous Coast to Coast cycle route, since we have now left the Cumbria Way Cycle route and joined the C2C route to Sunderland. Over the next four days this route will take us over a succession of mountain ranges until it eventually reaches the East Coast of Britain.

Although the weather was cold it did not take us long to warm up. It is impossible to stay cold when you are pedalling furiously to climb each new uphill path. In this part of the country we have learned that there is no flat land – you are always either going uphill or downhill and it always feels as if the uphills outnumber the downhills.

Fortunately the rain had cleared by around lunchtime and this was also the time that we reached the small town of Greystoke, famous as the location for the Tarzan stories. Greystoke Castle is certainly an impressive building but it is now privately owned and out of bounds to the general public.

After lunch at Annie Swarbick’s Cycle Cafe we continued on our way to our destination of Edenhall. The path undulated regularly and “blessed” us with one enormous climb on the outskirts of Penrith. By that time our legs were getting tired but we all managed to make the summit and then enjoy the fast downhill on the other side.

Tomorrow will be the hardest day of our entire trip with a succession of 4 mountain ranges to cross and a route that will take us to the highest village in the entire UK. I will let you know how we fare, but for now I am heading for an early night.Read more