Allenheads to Hadrians Wall (Haltwhistle)

Henry on-top of the world - England's highest road (626m)


Stats achieved yesterday:
Distance - 31 miles (50km)
Land speed record for the trip - 38.5 mph (62km/hr)
Highest Road - 626m on the C2C route
Highest Village - Alston


The last couple of days we've cycled some of the best roads I've seen in my life. Riding across the moors on old railway trails and then single track for many miles across the highest point yesterday was just superb, riding down the rocky descent fully loaded was a touch harder than on a mountain bike though. It finishes with a 5 mile long ~6 % road climb and finally a fast 2 mile descent into Allenheads. Today was more of the same, grinding up twisting mountain climbs to the top of the moors only to fly back down the other-side again on equally twisty roads. Totally fantastic.

The surface up here is good, the views are spectacular. There's something quite nice about getting to somewhere 'bleak' like the moors in England, everywhere else there are walls, sheep, crops, people, farms, lots of roads etc. Up here in the Pennines it thins out a bit and you can loose yourself riding a little more.

After a quick scone for lunch in a cafe, chatting to roadies on their 6kg bikes we jumped back onto our heavy touring bikes and finished up the day to Haltwistle. Another excellent section of recovered railway line - today we get to explore Hadrians wall itself.