Ambleside to Alston

Monday September 27, 2010
This morning I woke up early at 8 am. I had the most amazing breakfast, including traditional English, chocolate croissants, toast with jam, cup of tea, choice of four juices, cereal including muesli, corn flakes, rice bubbles, yoghurt, grape fruit, fruit salad. All for £5.

First serve of breakfast at the Ambleside hostel.

Ambleside hostel dining room.

Second serve of breakfast at the Ambleside hostel.

The bloke reckoned you wouldn't find a better deal on breakfast anywhere in the country.
I think I got my monies worth, ate all of the above, it was definitely up there with my best breakfasts ever! I was so full!
Stopped in at the local bike shop and bought some brake pads, the young bloke there was a seasoned tourer himself and reckoned I was carrying way too much stuff. He reckons when he tours, he can fit everything into the rear panniers, including the tent, mat and sleeping bag. He still takes front ones though, and spreads out the food across them.
I felt really good on the bike today, a combination of a good night's rest, an easy day previously, a great breakfast, new brake pads (you're always more motivated when you have new equipment on the bike), and beautiful scenery to motivate me, which always seems to help too.

People kayaking in Lake District National Park

Lake District National Park

Lake District National Park

Lake District National Park

Lake District National Park

Lake District National Park

Lake District National Park

Lake District National Park

Also I think my legs are getting stronger, getting some form in them.
I rode past a few lakes, again beautiful scenery, before the bike route divided into two routes: an on-road one, and an off-road one which runs along an old coach route and is rougher, steeper and tougher, higher risk and possibly impassable on a loaded touring bike, but probably has better scenery. Which do you take?
The off-road one of course! You've gotta live! That's what Scott McClelland said when he told me he was going to Splendour in the Grass, and I said "but it costs $470!" he said "you've gotta live Ned!"
So I took the off-road route, and it was very difficult to ride up because it was so steep and rocky, tyres kept slipping on, and sinking in between, the loose rocks.

Florey taking a rest against a fence in the Lake District.

Climbing a rocky goat track.

Looking towards a mountain in the Lake District.

Climbing a rough goat track.

Looking back down the track I'd just climbed.

A mountain with its head in the clouds.

Treeless landscape in the Lake District.

Lake District National Park

Lake District National Park

Lake District National Park

When you come to a puddle covering the track, what do you do, go around or take the risk, not knowing how deep or muddy it is and go straight through?
You go straight through! You've gotta live. Unless the puddle is like this one, then you go around!

A muddy puddle I had to go around.I wasn't going to attempt to ride through that one.

This track was particularly bumpy in places too. To give you an example, I've been using my iPhone to read and write emails and use Skype and I'm riding, and to write my blog. It's very tough to type while riding though, since it's hard to keep your hand steady enough. And to make matters worse, if you want to undo typing on an iPhone, you shake it. Of course with the iPhone sitting on the dock while riding, it shakes whenever you go over a pump or rough piece of road (which is generally pretty often). So it will ask you "undo typing?" No, I don't want to undo typing! And then you've gotta touch the "cancel" button. Another bump, "undo typing?" No! "cancel". Stop asking me!
I need to check if you can turn this feature off.
Anyway, this track was so bumpy that I could have undone all of the typing in all my blog posts so far I reckon.
There have been times on this trip when I've wished I was on a road bike, when the roads are fast and smooth, and other times when I've wished I was on a mountain bike when I'm on rough, hilly off-road sections. This track today was certainly one of those "wish I was on a mountain bike" sections.
Good thing about a touring bike is it's versatility though. It handles both on and off road sections quite well.
I eventually got to a town called Penrith and ate a quick lunch half way up a hill just past the town there (quick because the day was getting on) then jumped back on the bike. At was at this point that I realised I needed to "drop the kids off at the pool", colloquially speaking, as my mate Jim and I often say.
When bike touring you have a high energy consumption and hence a high food intake. So your digestive system doesn't muck around! It's liable to tell you it has a load ready to drop off without warning, and can be very impatient, which is what happened to me today. However I didn't want to ride back down to Penrith to find a toilet because that would mean I'd have to ride back up the hill again. I thought "I'll just keep going, the next town will have a toilet."
Tell you what, I was powering along to get there as quickly as I could, and guess what? No toilet, no open pub (it wasn't open for another half hour, and I really couldn't wait that long!)
Okay, the next town is my only option. Got there and it had nothing except houses, oh shit! Becoming unbearable, what to do? I was going to have a bowel rupture! I pushed on, only quiet fields with grass and rock walls concealing views from the road. And I won't say what I did next, that's enough of that story.
My planned destination for the day was Alston, which is a village over the other side of a mountain range from where I was.

Looking towards a mountain range in the county of Cumbria, north-west England.

It was just on dusk when I got to the start of the climb. Again there were two routes, an on-road one and an off-road one. I was that close to taking the off-road one then thought better of it, it was getting dark, it would be slower, and I just wanted to get to Alston. So I turned back to take the on-road one, stopped to give way to a car, and they pulled over to talk to me, a middle aged couple in a four wheel drive. I told them I was planning to head over to Alston, and they were rather against the idea, and suggested I go back to their place because they have guests stay, they reckoned they already had 11 other cyclists in for the night, and that they were just down the road, that they could put me up and provide breakfast the next morning.
It was tempting, I'd be able to meet some other cyclists, but I did want to get to Alston so I said "hmm, thanks for the offer, but I think I'll give the climb a go, see how I go."
You've gotta live!

On the road heading towards the mountain range in Cumbria.

So I hit the climb, and made it up no worries. It was cool with the thick fog, and was shorter and less steep than I was expecting.

Climbing up the mountain, looking back.

Hartside Summit: altitude 1903 feet.

Quite enjoyable, as was the gentle descent all the way down to Alston.
Having had a taste of staying in a youth hostel, I was keen to do it again, I spotted a YHA sign and pulled in. Plenty of rooms, £15 for the night, done.
I fetched some groceries then some very ordinary chips from the fish and chip shop, then cooked up some pasta at the hostel. I like to take advantage of a kitchen when I have one.

The kitchen in the hostel in Alston.

The only other guests there were two other blokes who were hiking from the northern tip of Scotland right down to the southern tip of England, the tip of Cornwall. 1200 miles, two and a half months. Now that's harder than what I'm doing!
They were going about it the same way as I was though, that is, with a bit of freedom: camping when the circumstances permitted (e.g. when the weather is nice and a locals just told them there's a good spot to camp just half a mile down the road) or staying in hostels and the like (e.g. when the weather is miserable, they've been hiking all day and are knackered and have just seen a sign that says "Bed & Breakfast". The bloke spoke some true words when he said "the wet weather saps you physically as well as mentally".
They wake up whenever they wake up and have a big breakfast so that they're right to go for several hours and they don't have to carry as much food.
They're doing it at this time of year because although it's wetter than during the summer, it's much cooler, and when you're hiking with a pack on your back all day, that's what you want, not to be sweating all day, having to carry heaps of water, etc.
I stayed up late writing my blog, drinking cups of tea and eating donuts. It was quite comfortable there, as though I had a big house to myself.

Ride Stats
Distance: 95.41 km
Average: 16.1 km/h
Maximum: 56.5 km/h
Time: 5:53:57