Durham, and on to Allenheads

Well, I enjoyed Durham. We spent the morning walking along the inside loop of the river - which is very pretty, lots of birds - and then went back to the cathedral. As James noted, it doesn't allow photography inside; it's also one of the few big cathedrals that doesn't charge an entrance fee. Connected? It is a delightful church, and I enjoyed wandering around it (despite the WWI and II chapel with the "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" plaque - Wilfred Owen anyone?).



After that, I went to the little Durham archaeology museum, which is cute and focused, thankfully, on Durham; there's evidence of human habitation since at least 7000BC! That's cool. I spent the afternoon reading by the river, which was a delightful way to spend an afternoon off the bike.

After Durham, we hit the C2C (Coast to Coast) route - the most popular bike route in the UK, apparently. It's 140 miles, basically from the Lakes District to Tynemouth. We passed a school group doing it, and a bloke, at about 4pm, who had done it last weekend in three days and was planning on doing it on that one day... he had 60-odd miles to go, at that stage.



If you've read our Twitter, you'll see Henry and Argo (and consequently James and I) had rather different opinions on the day. The first half or so from Durham was fine - steadily uphill, but I can cope with that. Then there was a long-ish section that involved mountain biking skills, which I simply don't have. I walked a fair bit. The most interesting part was getting to a flat bit, with a carpark (because it's a popular walking and cycling area), and chatting to a bloke running a food van up there. He'd spent a number of years working in Algiers, as well as on an oil rig.

The last 1.5 miles or so into Allenheads is all downhill. We all know I'm a chicken-livered coward, so I rode the brakes down (hello deathgrip) - losing the height I gained in 30+ miles of climbing! I felt terribly guilty because I kept passing blokes (and a few women) slogging it up, while I was slowing myself down.

Allenheads is the most dead-end town we've been in so far. We stayed at the inn, and it was chockers with cyclists; people doing the C2C in three days stay in Allenheads on the second night, doing it west to east. It was... adequate. Just. We did chat to a bloke at the next table who had lived in Sunbury, once.

Anyway. 36 miles.



Sunscreen plus all day dirt roads = Alex's Legs

Durham

Pretty quiet day today. Just wandering the river, cathedral and town. Must confess Durham left me a bit cold, it has its charming parts, old bridges and a few nice buildings but it's mostly generic shops and a castle you can't see (it's student accomidation).

The cathedral is beautiful, but doesn't allow photos which is a big bummer for me. Heaps of carving into the blocks of the columns themselves and so on. I think the thing is I was expecting it to be like York again, but it's really not. Onwards towards Hadrians wall tomorrow.

Finally some of James' photos

I am a luddite, so my photos take longer to appear here, still good things come to those who ask their friends with access to high speed scanning hardware AND the internet.

I give you - The First Batch

and so to Durham

Hurrah, Durham!

31 miles (50km)

A fairly average day today. The first few miles were a bit tough, but then eventually we turned out of the wind (HOORAH). We followed the moor, again, for a while...



and then got back to arable country. We also went through quite a nice forest!



We had something of a competition through the forest: James confessed he had a song from Bedknobs and Broomsticks in his head (no idea why). I met this with "Oh it's a lovely day when you're with Maaaaaaaaaaary...". James promptly saw that and raised with "Achey Breaky Heart." I daringly went with "Mmmm Bop" ... ultimately I think we were both losers.

And then, mid-afternoon, we arrived in Durham. We went to Evensong at the cathedral, which was just brilliant.

Had Mexican for dinner (I don't think it was a chain) and now just chilling in our room. Looking forward to seeing more of this delightful town tomorrow - especially if the weather stays as good as it was today, which was lovely.

Also, yesterday we passed the 500km mark.

Barnard Castle

15 miles (24km)

A short little day today, still windy, oh and raining again. But only a few hours cycling after a lazy breakfast and that included a stop to look at an abby ruin along the way.



Barnard Castle itself is quiet big but really only the outer wall remains, a large part of the inside is taken up with a sensory garden, which is pretty but seems out of place. The town is a classic market town, which these days means a few interesting stores and one of each of the standard set of 30 odd chain stores. 'Thomas the Baker', 'Cooplands','Greggs','Slug and Lettuce', etc etc etc. It's probably ment to feel all authentic, but only the truly unobservant wouldn't notice the sameness which has descended onto these once interesting town centers.

Treat today ? (apart from too much Indian for dinner ...) our host insisted on doing our washing, hanging it out and then bringing it up to our room once it was done.

Head winds are Le Suck

46 miles (74km, my friends)

Today we headed further inland, basically due west.

Today, the wind was heading basically due east.

Perhaps the only thing worse than a headwind when you are trying to climb a hill is a crosswind when you are trying to descend a hill, that seems determined to push you over into the traffic.

We managed to leave Castleton quite early; the first 8 or so miles were along the edge of the great nothingness that is the moors.



There was a lot of wind, blowing right into our faces.

Eventually, we got into more farming-type country; still with the undulating hills, still with the insane headwind. We had an occasion of Fail in Hutton Rudby; two people, at different places, misunderstanding or not complying with a request for cash out from their shop did not make James a happy man. And he was already rather peeved at the wind.

Luncheon was taken in some grass on the side of the road. We crossed the river Tees; we crossed the A1 (over a bridge); we got to our Farm Stay B&B - Lucy Cross Farm - about to expire. As well as having been built in 1763 (there's a sign on the stairs, "duck or grouse", because the ceilings are quite low), the hostess offers a three course meal for £15 a head - which is good, because there's nothing else around and I have absolutely no inclination to go out tonight anyway.

Thing is, after starting out with rather forbidding-looking clouds, the day turned delightful - blue sky, fluffy clouds, etc. But the wind! The wind made this perhaps the worst day for cycling yet. I would almost have preferred rain.

Also, we passed 300 miles today, for a fortnight's riding.

Two open letters

Dear people in charge of UK roads

Today I rode along the edge of Kilburn Moor. In the space of a mile or so, I went down a 16% gradient - and then immediately went back up, also at 16%.

Take my advice: get out your nice earth-moving equipment, chop the top off some of the hills on the moor- trust me, no one will notice- and Fill In the Damn Valley.

Sincerely Alex and her aching quads

Dear walkers on the Whitby-Scarborough trail on the bank holiday weekend

Hiya! Wasn't it amazing weather on the weekend? And the trail is really quite awesome too, isn't it? It was great to see you out enjoying the sun and listening to the birds and even spending time with family.

One thing I would like to say, though. If I have politely called out to let you know I am coming- and which side I'm on, even- please do not a) continue to walk four abreast, completely blocking my path, or b) suddenly change the side of the path you are on.

I have more momentum, more determination, and more bloody-mindedness than you. I will win.

(Except perhaps for you, sirs, the morbidly obese gentlemen. You I may just bounce off.)

Best wishes,
Alex and 30+kg of bike

Whitby to Castleton

19 miles (31km)

After leaving town and re-crossing the spectacular viaduct style railway bridge at the entrance to Whitby we turned onto a quiet country lane and headed inland again. The short trip to Castleton should have been easy, except for the UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN gradients the roads followed. It seemed like when we were not racing down 15 to 25% gradients we were crawling or pushing back up them. The sections across the top of the moors were quite special though, it's a bleak landscape mostly full of shaggy highland sheep and clumpy brown grass; there really isn't an equivalent in Australia.

We stopped in at the Moors National Park Center at Dalby where we had the most spectacular lunch (sandwiches and plowman's plate) in the sun before lying on the grass and watching the clouds float by, reading and listening to some music. Then the clouds started to threaten, reality beckoned and we moved on.



We pushed on the final few miles to Castleton and are settled in to our little B&B now for the night. It's an unusual place, shower in the basement through the conservatory, split level room (1st and 2nd floors) and perhaps 7ft ceilings through the whole place. A quiet lentil dinner in front of the world's tiniest TV.

No internet or phone here, so this post is coming to you via our delayed telecast service.

Cloughton to Whitby

18 miles (29km)


James and Henry on the trail

Imagine you were a visitor to Australia and didn't know what January 26 was about. Now imagine Jan 26 was a Monday, and there had been crappy weather for a week or so, and Jan 25 happens to be an absolute ripper. Now decide, as that visitor, that you might visit Lorne. Or Bondi.

Welcome to our day.

Turns out tomorrow is a bank holiday here in the UK. Today was absolutely glorious: barely a cloud in the sky, temperatures probably in the high teens... and we're on the coast. Specifically, today we've ended up in Whitby, home of the (fairly) famous abbey - where the synod was held that reconciled Celtic with Roman tradition, and decided when Easter should be celebrated in Britain.



After visiting the Abbey (climbing 199 steps to get there, and 199 steps to get back down), we spent the rest of the day wandering around Whitby with the other bazillion tourists - up and down the harbour; past the Captain Cook memorial and the 40% original size Endeavour; past (and, to placate James, through) the various amusement parlours (which seemed to consist largely of pokies or equivalent); through shambly old streets; and having fish and chips and ice cream.

We have once again done well with accommodation; we're basically on the foreshore, and right up the top of the house.



This is the view from our window (with and without James attempting to dive out).

Rohloff Gear Hubs

Anyone who isn't a bike head should just move quietly along to the next post...


Gears after some muddy Fun

One of the most interesting part of our touring bikes are the Rohloff gears we put on them. 14 Speed internal gearboxes, rather than a normal set of mountain bike chain ring, cassette and shifters.

There are a couple of really nice things about it:

- Except for a few ratios it's very quiet.
- It copes very well with mud, grit, sticks and other things; the only thing we do is stick a bit of chain lube on our chains every now and again. It doesn't make any grating and grinding noises when shifting like normal gears do with muck on them.
- The range of gears is very wide, as wide as the highest and lowest gears on a standard mountain bike setup, and ours are actually setup just slightly lower than normal.
- You can shift when the bike isn't moving, which is surpassingly nice once you get used to it especially with a touring load.

The only negative (apart from price) is it moves the center of gravity of the bike back a touch, on a mountain bike jumping over logs you might notice, but on a touring bike with 20kg of stuff on the rear rack, it's hardly an issue.

The gearbox starts out slightly rough and noisy when brand new, but now both of ours have done 1000km+ they have really quietened down. They only maintenance they get is an oil change every 10,000km and a new sprocket as they wear out, even that's reversible. Those crazy germans they think of everything.


A nerds eye view

Pickering to Cloughton

34 miles (55km)


Scarborough Castle

James says:

After skipping yet another 'full english' breakfast (is it any wonder half the people here are enormous ?) we bid our jolly hosts farewell and rolled out. Through Pickering and then out onto country lanes quickly joining a beautiful bridle way, up along a river most of the way up to a mountain bike park on the edge of the moor. From there I watched somewhat forlornly as hundreds of mountain bikers bounced down purpose built and graded single track all across the hillside. We however do not have mountain bikes, even if sometimes it seems like it, so up fire road the hill we span past huffing and puffing english folks who did not have a full touring kit on their bike.

The climb up to the top of the moors was long but even and eventually we were floating our way back down the other side. A bit of a cross country slog along a muddy track lead to a very steep bitumen descent down a narrow lane cheated us out of most of the fun of enjoying our descent, then we rode through the most beautiful wet forest before coming into Scabrough itself (Henry says it was the 100 acre wood). A quick trip to the castle which was in the middle of World War II, a fly over from an original WWII paradrop plane and then the final leg up to Cloughtown where we're staying tonight.

After riding mostly off road today, tomorrow should be an easy spin up to Whitby along the coast before we tackle the north side of the moors on Monday.

Today it didn't rain.


Scarborough Foreshore (complete with bathing boxes)

Alex says:

After skipping yet another 'full english' breakfast (is it any wonder half the people here are enormous?) we bid our jolly hosts farewell and rolled out, through Pickering and then out onto country lanes. These quickly joined a gate-infested bridle way full of puddles, up along a river most of the way up to a mountain bike park on the edge of the moor. We watched dozens of mountain bikers do their thing, occasionally passing us - I got immense satisfaction in passing them on the longer ascents. It did involve a lot of huffing and puffing.

The climb up to the top of the moors was long but even and eventually we were death-gripping our way back down the other side. A nasty cross country slog along a boggy track led to a very steep bitumen descent down a narrow lane: losing all my precious, hard-won altitude in one long descent that was too steep for me to properly enjoy the free-wheeling. Then we rode through a wet forest along a track that was, for reasons completely opaque to me, largely paved with bricks at all bizarre angles (which was not, to James' disappointment, a Roman road). Finally we came into Scarborough itself; it was nice to see the sea again, and they have a spectacular coastline. We took a quick trip to the castle (not much left of it), which was in the middle of World War II; the most exciting bit was a fly over from an original WWII Dakota. The final leg was to Cloughton, to a pub where we're staying tonight.

After riding mostly off road today, tomorrow should be an easier spin up to Whitby along the coast before we tackle the north side of the moors on Monday.

Today it didn't rain.


Dirty Argo

Pickering and the NYMR

Today we only rode a few miles (6 miles - 10 km) into town, but from there we caught a TRAIN across the moors.



Specifically the North York Moors Railway which is an incredible working museum railway running from Pickering to Whitby. They also welcome bikes, which is kind of annoying because we could have planned to do this little stretch on stream train, oh well. I think the highlight was the little station at Goathland (in the photo above, with our train coming in), lets ignore the fact that the town was used for Heartbeat and focus on the fact it was also in Harry Potter at the station for Hogsmeade, it was apparently used essentially as is, which isn't hard to imagine. The whole experience, staff, trains, stations and the scenery were all very enjoyable and very impressive. Imagine if we'd gone on a day when they run the A4 engines (Mallard's Class), I might have just ridden up and down all day.

Byland Abbey to Pickering

24 Miles (39km)

Perhaps one of the quietest and more uneventful days we've had yet; apart from the constant sun, rain, sun, rain and then sun cycle we rode through. The roads were easy, fairly quiet and easy to navigate. That was mostly thanks to having a real Ordinance Survey maps (1:25,000), rather than the sometimes vague 1:100,000 Sustrans National Cycle Network maps. If it was even vaguely feasible it would be much nicer to navigate with the ordinance maps, I wonder how many we would need? At 1:25,000 it takes about 450 maps to cover the whole country, 1:50,000 would be ok for touring as long as it showed every road. I might have to check out more maps next time we are in a big town. I have a bit of a thing for maps.

We've arrived early to our farmhouse accom today, there is a massive telly on the wall and a good collection of DVDs, I think we might just hide out here for the rest of the day and then go exploring on the moors tomorrow.

PUSH-biking around the UK

27 miles (43.5km)

We thought the Beech House in York was awesome - and it was - but the Abbey Inn is something else. Such breakfast! We're staying here two nights because there are a few places in the vicinity we want to visit; it will be hard indeed to leave.

Today consisted of 'adventures'. After visiting Ampleforth to divest ourselves of some... extraneous... items (including the sneakers!), sending them back to Sheffield because Liz was, of course, correct about us having too much stuff, we headed to the moors. The first aim was Sutton Bank, home of the North York Moors National Park Centre. Getting there involved going up a 16% gradient; this, I could not manage - and even James pushed his bike up some of it. The Centre was somewhat anticlimactic, but the view was quite impressive. It's at 981 feet above sea level; we had climbed most of that getting there...

From Sutton Bank, on to Rievaulx Abbey, and very impressive it is too. Dissolved of course in the 1530s by Henry VIII, there are still some impressive sections left standing. And the setting is beautiful. As it started to rain, we headed off to Helmseley, to see their castle.

It really doesn't look like much from below, but there are some interesting walls and chambers left to see.

This is where the day got interesting. Rather than following an A road home, we went back to Rievaulx and then picked up a bridleway, to go over the North York Moor - basically to see what was there, and take a shortcut. Armed with an Ordnance Survey map and James' indomitable sense of direction, we headed off... We took just two wrong turns, neither for very long. It looks like this particular track hasn't been used in many months, because in some sections there *is* no track: we had to line ourselves up between the gates. Particularly through several fields full of sheep. In the rain.


It stopped raining as we went through the next section, a forest north of Wass; which was good, because the last section of road involved a descent including a 14% gradient and a 1:6 gradient. It also had little streams of water running across it, and some sections of gravel. Earlier in the day I had nearly broken my hands gripping the brakes going down a very steep section between Rievaulx and Helmseley; it hadn't helped that a jet flew over at the same time, creating a sonic boom (first time I've heard one). Unbelievably, I also managed this descent, although with thumping heart and a deathgrip on the brakes again.

We got back to Byland in time to see the Abbey - and it too is way more impressive than it looks from the outside.

They have, apparently, the most significant collection of floor tiles still in situ of any abbey (in Britain? Europe? can't remember).


Ending the day in the restaurant here at the Inn seemed an appropriate complement to a 28 mile 'rest day'.

Coda: having seen many, been stalked by one amongst the sheep, and got close enough to take one's picture, unfortunately I have to admit that I will not be achieving one of my stated aims for this trip: I do not believe I will be eating pheasant at any time in the near future.

York to Byland Abbey

28.5 miles (46km)

Leaving York behind was slightly sad but we'd really seen all we wanted to see and we were due up the road today. We rolled out of town into the sun, and then stopped again. Time to oil our chains and pump up the tires a bit. After a that little false start we rolled on again, out along the river and onto a series of country lanes. There's not much to say really: 20 miles of pleasant rolling lanes and villages and we ended up in Easingwold. Lunch - 2 min noodles and some 'stolen' B&B biscuits. Then it started to rain a bit, we huffed and puffed up 'hills' for the next 6 or 7 miles into Coxwold. Then it rained a lot. We faffed about looking for a post office which didn't exist and then rolled out to the Abbey Inn where we're staying for a few days.

This place is plush! The Abbey ruins are across the road; we can see part of them out the window. If the sun comes out later we might even get some decent photos of them.

Update: The sun came out but photos on this internet connection would be dreaming. We've also had spectacular thunderstorms so we had to time our walk to the Wass pub quite carefully tonight. Pasta and sauce cooked on the stairs seems a little at odds with our very nice room here but ya gotta save money somewhere !

Yorkshire Museum

The Yorkshire Museum is, coincidentally, in the Museum Gardens. The Gardens are a wonderful place just inside the walls of York: there's a possibly Tudor house that's now available for wedding receptions etc; the ruins of St Mary's Abbey; a bit of an old Roman tower; and lots of lovely gardens, beautifully landscaped, complete with squirrels (and nasty fat pigeons).

Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the Museum itself. Having paid my five quid, I wandered around an exhibit on how to date stuff; then through rooms of Roman, Saxon, Viking and medieval artifacts. I think my main problem is that I expect or hope to learn something new in places like this; but they're not designed with historians in mind, they're designed for the general public (which is probably how it should be). I have to change my attitude and expectations, I think! Aside from the info panels, there were some pretty cool objects, most of them found in and around York itself (although why they also included replicas of stuff from Pompeii and elsewhere is beyond me). My main issue here was that the displays were quite poor: it was frequently impossible to figure out which description went with which object, and some objects had no information at all. Anyway - whinge whinge - I still walked around for 45 minutes or so; possibly the most interesting bit overall was the little snippet of video they played explaining that the museum had got in local tradies etc to look at Roman artifacts to figure out how they would have worked: butchers, builders, hairdressers - all helping archaeologists and historians understand the objects better.



New shoes: old shoes
Waterproof: not so much

The other thing I've done in York is buy new shoes. After riding with mobile puddles (aka sneakers), it dawned on me that my choice of footwear - which occasioned serious angst before leaving - had been flawed. So now I have to decide whether to keep the sneakers - will we go running on days we're not riding? - or send them home. Stay tuned to discover the resolution of this captivating dilemma...

York Minster and the Trains

200ft to the top.


Almost 600ft long.

The first thing that strikes you walking into the Minster is just how big it is, the size of the stone columns which hold the roof up, the arches upon arches upon arches down the length of the main axis of the cross. Then you start to notice the little things, each block is hard carved, most of them have details; and that's just the physical structure. Around the stone pillars are endless plaques, chapels and graves. All this is wrapped around a busy working city church, it really is quite something to see.

After we'd had our fill at the Minster, I took Alex to the Museum (and left her there) while I snuck off for another look at the trains. I'll have lots of photos to show from there in a few weeks when they get processed and then wing their way back to Australia and finally make it to the internet so I'll post all about that later.

The rest of the day was taken up with chores, staring at maps, planning the next little leg of our trip (there seems to be alot of looking at maps). We walked around the best section of the wall again and then ducked into a slightly strange little pub for dinner. Coal fire, gas lamps for lighting and a view straight out the window up to the western towers of the minster. I'm sad to report that pubs here sell 'beef casserole with a bit of pastry floating on top in a mini pot' as a 'pie'. The Tim Taylor made up for it.

I like the old York better than the new York

Ah, York. Once a Roman settlement; taken over by Saxons; made more famous as a Viking settlement called Jorvik (for a long time England, particularly in the north, was much more Scandinavia-oriented than Continent-oriented): it was one of our favourite places to be last time, and we're enjoying it again this time.

Yesterday we visited the National Rail Museum; James was happy to see the Mallard (officially the holder of the speed record for steam traction - perhaps because to break the record, American engines would have to break the speed limit, and they wouldn't do that.... He was, however, devastated that the Flying Scotsman was undergoing repairs, and so was all in pieces! For the afternoon, we walked the Shambles, an endlessly entertaining area of shops and windy cobble-stoned streets.

Today, we walked the walls: York has some of the best preserved medieval walls in the entirety of Great Britain. You can walk on top of a huge chunk, and there are a couple of little museums in some of the original towers (including the Richard III museum, where you can vote for who you think done in the Princes in the Tower! Today, Richard was leading was 34%).


We also walked through the Museum gardens; we'll visit the Yorkshire Museum tomorrow, but for today we visited the ruins of a monastery, closed by Henry VIII in the Dissolution of the 1530s, in his bid to get money and land from the church - er, in his bid to reform corrupt and outmoded aspects of the church....



As a slight detour, we went to Clifford's Tower, and used our English Heritage cards for the first time to get in for free - hurrah! It's not that impressive any more, compared to other castles; there used to be a lot more of it but it's all gone and buried, largely under a carpark. It's perhaps most well known for being the site where, in the 1150s, a group of 150 or so Jews took refuge and then took their own lives rather than be killed by the Christian rabble outside. Grim times.

Sometimes I wish my feet were smaller...

Other than that, today we have walked the Shambles again; we're about to go to York Minster for Evensong.

Selby to York

20 miles (32km) and it was almost sunny some of the time.

Today marks some what a milestone for us, as we rode along the river and through the gates of the walls around York we'd arrived back somewhere we've both been itching to be again since last time a few years ago in winter. It's also been something to look forward to during the last 10 or so hours we rode in the rain and now we're here having ridden off the end of our first map (~15 odd to go). The sun also came out for about 2min while Alex took this photo in a little village along the way.



We left the hotel in Selby pretty early, skipping their not included breakfast to go into the town center of Selby itself. It was cold, and then it started raining, at least we were still following the pretty canal into town. A quick trip to the bakery and then we popped into Selby Abbey, amazingly big and ornate for such a small town church and also inspiring to look at a building 800+ years old. We hit the trail again and after going through a little satellite village we were onto the main reclaimed railway route to York. 15 miles, almost perfectly straight and all bitumen.



We were also traveling in through the solar system. Pluto is about 15 miles out from York and an 2m diameter sun hangs above the end of the trail. There are also quite a few cool artifacts like this Cassini Probe.



The last 3 miles into York itself follows the river through parks and the walls of the old city. A quick right, left, left and then another right and we're at the one of the nicest places I think we've ever stayed in our lives. (Score one for Alex and one for www.tripadvisor.com) The bikes safely tucked away around the back in a shed, locked to each other, locked behind a door and locked behind a gate, so they should be a bit happier about that than last night.

Next stop, the Railway Museum and 2 days of wandering the walls, abbey and the shambles... Toot Toot.

Day two

I started the day with something of an anxiety attack: nausea, and generally feeling rather icky. I know that's what it was, because it's happened to me once before, on the second day of our trial trip to Daylesford. It was odd, happening today; I knew the trip to Selby was going to be basically flat, and what worried me last time was the hills. Anyway; I could barely choke down cornflakes and toast, which was an utter tragedy since I could have had French toast with berry compote! Talking to my mum briefly helped a little; then, as soon as we were outside on the bikes, I felt just fine. Being out of our sauna-like room probably also contributed.

A long day, but overall quite good; saw a nuclear power station and a squirrel, and heard a cuckoo! (It's the small things...) Also, Maggi noodles have never tasted as good as they did in that bus shelter.

Generic motel room in Selby tonight; very much looking forward to seeing York tomorrow. And Pluto along the way, as long as some bugger hasn't knocked it over.

Doncaster to Selby

Today we moved for 4 hours and 43 min at a flying average speed of 9.1 mph (14.6 km/hr) to rack up a startling 44 miles (71km). At least the average is 2 miles better than yesterday.

After a few miles winding our way back through the streets of Doncaster in heavy rain we rejoined NCN62 towards York, mercifully skipping the 2 flights of stairs I carried everything up in the rain last night. It turns out my father is right and it really does just rain in this country all the time. It didn't let up all day from when we left to when we arrived in Selby. Apart from wet feet we survived it just fine in our trend setting jackets. Not too many pictures today though, mostly it was just too damn wet.

The first main section of train follows disused railway lines which are flat, well graveled and completely flooded when it rains; so our shoe covers did a great job for about 5 miles and then after that it was pretty much a squish-a-thon. Next we took a little 'detour' down the Greenland way, which is very pretty, very smooth, very fast, and also about 6 or 7 miles out of our way ... oops back we go. Once we picked up the trail again we rode through the center of Barnsley and then back out into farm land. I think the next section was the highlight of today for me, we wove our way through farmers lanes, bridle ways and dirt tracks through classic middle english farms full of cows, sheep, lambs and quite a bit of canola. Following these National Cycling Network routes might not be direct, or even very fast sometimes - but it's very pretty and also quite safe. The driving of the British off the motor-ways and A roads can only be described as incredibly polite.



Lunch in a bus stop (Yes dad, still raining), and then back onto the farmyard trails.

Apart from a few mile section along side a canal, the rest of the trip followed quiet country roads with the odd small town to break up the monotony. In Australia we think mudguards are kinda dorky, over here it's hard to imagine riding without them. For the bike nerds, it's also kinda hard to imagine riding a road bike here at all, the road quality is terrible, the only vaguely well kept roads have masses of traffic and no shoulder. Anyway on our tractor bikes, with their full length mudguards, there are worse things to do than spend a day splashing about in the rain.



Henry can jump puddles

Tomorrow: A shorter day with the trip to York, apparently there is a whole solar system on the trail.

That's what tiredness gets you

... an incomplete blog post.

Do you like my red jacket, in the last post? I don't mind it. It's a bit long in the arms, though. And it's not as good as *my* red jacket, which fits quite well and is hanging nice and dry in my wardrobe in Melbourne. Turns out I packed James' red jacket.

James pointed out yesterday that if it was easy, what would we blog about? That was after the discovery about the jacket, and as we realised that we'd managed to pack two panniers meant for the same side, so we had to adjust two of them.

Oh yes, a barrel of laughs.

Our room here was so hot last night we barely needed the sheet. In fact, we opened the window.

It's been raining for an hour or so already, the rain radar looks bleak and it's 6.50am.

Sheffield to Doncaster

38.2 miles - 62 km along NCN 6, 67 and 62. About eight hours, including lunch, stopping for gates, getting a little lost, reading maps, and the occasional trailmix break.

Leaving Sheffield was fiddly; the route wasn't especially well signed and it also started raining at one point. It took us a good hour or so to get out of the town itself and onto the National Cycling Network (NCN) to head north and then east to Doncaster.

Eventually, we got on the Trans Pennine Trail. Much of it was offroad, and most of that was along a series of canals - which was nice, because it was largely flat. However, the surface was quite mixed; there was a lot of gravel, and some sections were quite bumpy.



Lunch - tomato soup and pitta breads, courtesy of our fabulous MSR Reactor - was on the trail.

The last hour and a half was raining pretty hard. We were quite a sight when we arrived at our hotel: shorts soaked, shins and calves damaged from pedals, and mud up our legs too. They've let us leave the bikes in a corridor downstairs, which was unexpected but good - hopefully the handlebars will dry out!

Our cheap and cheerful room is full of soggy clothes and the smell of the dinner James made on the window sill; we're a bit exhausted now.

The best things in life are free

Today's outing was to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, paid parking £4, but free entry and someone else passed us their parking ticket as they drove out so free. Anyway it's a huge manor with gardens and fields full of all manor of sculptures, works range from a 15 year old refugees first works through to a few Andy Goldsworthys.



Perhaps the most spectacular was this 'deer shelter' - A room with a light lock, and a simple hole in the roof, sloping walls and the feeling of having been transformed to another world where time, space and perception were all slowed down somehow ? From the outside there is no suggestion of a chamber even, and yet once you get inside it's rather like being in the tardis.



We only saw a fraction of the place and hope to go back later in the year.

Henry and the Argo go Forth (Almost)

Well, they got out of town anyway. It did seem a bit folly to head off around the country without at-least one local ride to make sure everything was back together straight so we rode out the back gate and followed the signs to the Peaks District.

Tried to follow would be more like it, I think we rode along more trails that were marked "No Cycling" than not on the way out. But once we got the hang of their systems of foot paths, bridal ways and signs for everything (the british have LOTS of signs, I can see why James May likes it here) we were on our way. The trip home was a bit more fun, a nice rough descent (not Alex's favorite) and downhill all the way.

... on the other hand, maybe we'll just stay here

For four nights, we're staying with James' relatives in Sheffield. This is their house.

Their cellar is half the size of our house. Ground floor is kitchen, dining and living rooms; the first floor has two bedrooms and a bathroom (our room has an en-suite as well); and the attic has two more bedrooms. And another bathroom.








This is the view from the kitchen window...



... and this is the garden itself.








See the greenhouse? Lovely and warm in there; tomatoes growing. Also the summerhouse, which is lovely too. Martin spends a lot of time on his garden, as you can see. And that green stuff? That, my Aussie friends, is real lush grass.

I like it here. Maybe we'll just hide in the attic for a few months.

Also, I saw a squirrel.

Getting Online

Land in Manchester, jump on a train, jump in a car and jump into a shower. What's the next priority for these some what weary travelers ?

1) Getting online.
2) Getting a cask beer.

A quick bus ride in to the center of sheffield and I'm struck immediately by a couple of things (it's about 8 or 9 degrees and sunny). Firstly, everyone here walks SO slowly, getting around the center of town is like sliding through molasses, perhaps I just walk fast ? The second thing is, why oh why girls do you think that tiny denim hot pants are a good idea ? It's not like they are flattering on your white, slightly fat and dimpled british legs and it's bloody cold out ! I'm sure all the blokes in their 'trainers' and baggy tracksuits (the young male uniform here) were impressed though.

Mission 1 - Get Online: A quick trip to the O2 store, 2 local mobile sims, one local mobile broadband card and we're done. Their rates over here wipe the floor with what we get in AU. 3GB per month for £15 on the 3G stick and £10 per month for unlimited internet on our phones. The only annoyance I've discovered so far is their online top up site doesn't take VISA cards with foreign addresses. Have to try the call up service.

Mission 2 - Get 'real' Beer: Abbots Ale, only in a chain Green King pub but it really is the way beer is ment to be. A stella later in the day with Pizza really didn't compare.

Eating and viewing my way to Manchester

Singapore Airlines has the greatest food in the air business, in my vast experience, and I am not ashamed to admit that I enjoyed every single meal on this trip. (That bit of chilli I accidentally ate and burnt my mouth so badly I downed a water and two things of milk in 30 secs notwithstanding.) Went the Asian option each time; probably the highlight was the pork dumplings and noodles for breakfast. The chocolate Cornetto was also a treat..

Don't know what people did before on-demand entertainment on long haul flights. Madagascar 1&2 and Top Gear saved my sanity. Defiance was also excellent.

At any rate, it's now early in the morning (not late afternoon, stupid body!) and we're waiting to catch the train the Sheffield, where family will pick us up. Hello, UK.

2 Bikes - 85.6 KG and a Smile

Apart from waiting to see what state our bikes arrive in, one of the more stressful parts of this little journey to get to the UK is done. We're kicking back now in the departure lounge watching planes take off (which never gets old) waiting the two hours before our flight leaves.

The luggage allowance for our tickets is 54kg between us including bulging carry on, the luggage we arrived at the desk with was 85.6kg ... There was always going to be a problem with that equation. Add a confident smile and a gentle reminder to the helpful gal behind the desk that there were special rules for bikes with SQ, plus her some what clumsy understanding of mathematics and we're checked right through to Manchester for a mere 6kg of excess. Her boss was also super helpful supporting my assertion and yet hastily wandering off without really explaining the rules at all. Eventually our bikes were taken off as specific fragile items with a promise they should arrive some what less smashed than if they went down the main chute. I guess we'll find out in about 24 hours.

As she was tagging our bags, I made some joke about baggage handlers, using the feet and the fragile stickers (which peeled off the nylon almost immediately)... Our 6kg gal cheerfully informed me that handlers are basically a thing of the past and the automatic machines don't take any notice of the fragile tags. Or anything else much I guess.

I'll post later about the essential list of items that sees us traveling with quite so much weight, but suffice to say for now we're on our way to Singapore and then through to Manchester to see what state our babies (@henryandtheargo) arrive in.

Twitter

Beyond the blog, for the truly obsessed, we have 3 twitter accounts.

Me - @jamespierce
Alex - @random_alex
Henry and the Argo - @henryandtheargo

Five sleeps to go. Some changes.

The changes? We are no longer going to be camping. Which is why, in this picture, you see just four panniers (plus handle bar bags and a rack suitcase), rather than eight panniers - the other four would have had sleeping bags and lots of cooking stuff. And the tent would have gone on the back of one of our bikes, in its own nice little bag. Now James is feeling as if we are not taking *enough* stuff... but I'm sure he'll get over it. Especially once we add some food to the fourth, currently empty, pannier.

We've got 1.6kg of maps; 40 rolls of film (should last oh, half the trip?); and I have yet to decide which books to take. (With a bit of extra space, I now get to think more seriously about how *many* to take for the first part of the trip.)

We will stay in Sheffield with wonderful relatives for five nights, to start off - get over jetlag, shop for food, etc - and then we head towards York. We have accommodation booked up to May 20 at this stage.

Apparently this is real.