Tuesday 22nd May

When I arrived at the bunk house in Thoralby there was already someone there. There was only the two of us booked in that night so we took a dorm each, pottered about a bit and went up the road to get some lunch. Luckily the other person knew where the local pub was which was back up the main (for want of a better word) road a little way, within walking distance.

We set off, I phoned my wife, he'd already ordered so I sat with him, ordered something to eat and had a couple of pints before I headed back for something to read.

When I got back to the bunkhouse I popped into the farm and payed up for the night, I sort of figured they wouldn't be too happy with me knocking them up at 6 in the morning. The other bloke came back about an hour later and dropped off too sleep in one of the arm chairs. I took myself off to bed and read one of the books in the bunkhouse. We were both off to Hawes the next day but through different routes, he was getting the bus to get there for about 9-9.30, I'd be long gone by then, remember this prediction, it comes back to haunt me.

The bunkhouse was an old school house with solid wooden floors that resonated with every footstep so it wasn't easy to sleep until everyone was still and about 11ish someone else came in and took another dorm. What a loud little bugger he was, clumsy sod, so it took me a little while to get to sleep.

I woke at 5.30, got all my gear together and set off for 6 through into the village and off to the north west heading over heck brow. It was quite sunny and warm so it was light shirt and shorts, that's another prediction that went wrong. As I climbed up to heck brow I climbed into a cloud line and the wind started to pick up. Out came the coat and so began a long and hard climb, pushing the bike most of the way as it just wasn't possible too ride in some places, especially on the top where the wind was blowing so hard I literally couldn't stay upright on the bike.

The tops were open moors, at the mercy of the elements providing no shelter whatsoever to the bloody awful wind that blew the moisture through your clothes and into the pours of your skin. As I reached the farm track by Bush Moss I was so happy, there was a wall to ride alongside and then it was downhill all the way to the reservoir. Once on the other side the decent quickly took me away from the cloud line and the wind although the path was rutted and full of wet rubble with small streams meandering everywhere with the run off.

The reservoir was used for sailing and water sports but it was empty that day, it was like all the locals knew what I didn't. I climbed up the tarmac road through the winding bends and took the bridleway up behind the small wood and across the face of the hill side before rising to meet the old roman road and then on to Buttersett High Pasture before dropping finally into Buttersett and Hawes.

It had taken me 3 1/2 hours to do 20km, I was cold, tired and full of dread at the thought that I still had 50km to go. And to impress this upon me, as I rode into Hawes there getting off the bus was the bloke I'd dined with at Thoralby. Bollocks.

Needless to say I did't take any sodding photos.

As I rode through Hawes I looked for somewhere to eat but everywhere was just setting up, at the end of the town though there was a greasy spoon for motor bikers called Penny & Garths. Go There. I went in, tiled floors so no worries about the shit all over me, I looked at the menu, the usual combinations of sausages, bacon, chips, eggs, etc. but is was over £4 for sausage, chips and beans. Hunger took over and I ordered that and a hot chocolate (I don't drink caffeine, haven't since I stopped smoking 5 years ago), sat down, finished the hot chocolate, ordered another and then out came the biggest pile of grub I'd seen in many a long while. It was too much for that time of day but it was worth every penny and possibly more so when I say go there I mean Go There.

When I left Hawes I was supposed to go up to Thwaite Bridge Common but when I looked up there at the climb topped nicely by cloud again I decided that prudence was the better part of valour and I bottled it, went up the A684 and then the B6259 instead.

I followed the road all the way up to Pendragon Castle near Castlethwaite. Here I made up nearly all the time I'd lost earlier and managed to take some photo's.




From the castle I headed down the B road to pick up the A683 and then at Crooks Beck I was able to get back onto my original track, heading slightly east of Ravenstonedale and then over Smardale Fell:



You can see from the photos how much the weather had changed. It made me wonder for a while that I could have stayed in bed another couple of hours and still got there at the same time as I'd have missed the bad weather, but you can't dwell on that and I had places to go. After Smardale it was a mixture of farm tracks, bridleways and country lanes through Crosby Garret, Southby Grange, Stockbar, Grassgill Rigg until I reached Helm Beck Cottage where I turned to pick up my last bridleway. I found the track heading towards the woods and off I went through knee high grass, through one field and then the next until I came to small field full of cows. Now they aren't going to harm you and they don't mean any harm but when I got to the gate, and I could see the other gate on the opposite side, they all headed towards me, it was obviously close to milking or feeding or something but human near gate meant something good for them and over they came, and off I went. Sod that.

So I went round the back through little Ormside to get to Great Ormside and was just going through the farm gate when the farmer came over. Now I'd seen some notices about flooded fords and he told me it was impossible to cross without a high vehicle, there weren't any stepping stones anymore so I went back and thought sod it, I went down the footpath that lead along the river to Appleby. I walked in the open fields and rode through the woods and loved it, it was pleasant riding.

When I got to Appleby I was quite refreshed, I didn't have any after affects from the mornings escapade and so I checked into a nice B & B with friendly people called Bongate House and popped into town for some bananas and Germolene.

One of the problems I'd started to get was a massive rash over my shoulders, Carrying 10kg every day, especially on the hot days when I only had a shirt on, had brought me out badly and I had to do something before it became infected. So for the rest of the night I smelt of Germolene, lovely.

Still Appleby was pleasant enough although the castle was closed which was a shame but I think I'll go back there again, it looks like a goods base to do some sight seeing.




It had been a hard day and the climb the next day would be, on paper, the hardest but at least I'd had fun since I got back telling everyone I was blown off by Hawes.



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