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.