Blogs from North Pennines, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Crossing England on Hadrian's Cycleway gave me new-found confidence that I'm not a complete amateur when it comes to bicycle touring; destroying the rear derailleur on my week-old bicycle just a day later had the exact opposite effect! So when the train drivers of England decided to go back to work after their second nation-wide strike in five days - and with my no-longer-shiny but still-new bicycle armed with an ancient-looking, second-hand rear derailleur courtesy of the bicycle shop in Consett - I immediately hopped on a pair of westbound Northern Railways trains to head back to the Irish Sea coast, so that if the weather ever improved from 'awful' to 'mildly disappointing' I would be in the perfect position to strike out on another sea-to-sea cycle route (appropriately named the C2C) with the almost-guaranteed prevailing ... read more

Sunday 11 May - Feeling a bit weary and tired from the boom, boom, boom of the party taking place in the hotel last night before, we still awoke in good spirits. Especially because we knew that after seven days of solid hiking, we had a day to relax before undertaking the final 89 miles to Scotland. After breakfast, we promptly headed to the tourist information centre in Alston, as we had heard that they had access to the internet - hooray!! We decided to type up as many of our diary entries as possible and add the photos and videos at later date. We have been typing from 10.30am this morning through to 15.30 this afternoon, and so we are now going to head off and get something tasty to eat. We are still a ... read more

Saturday 10 May - After the most 'fantastic' breakfast at Hall Croft - with a welcome mixture of fresh fruit, homemade yogurt, a homemade smoothie, homemade baked bread and a tasty vegetarian cooked breakfast it was time to say a sad goodbye to our delightful and extremely hospitable hosts Ray and Frei. We were also very grateful to them for letting us have our lunches for free - the money will be donated to the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust. We were hoping and praying for a cooler day, as hiking in the hot sun for hours on end is no fun for any walker. However, it was not to be - as soon as we stepped out of Hall Croft we knew that we were in for another very warm day and within half hour we had ... read more

Part VII 1st June - Thursday Goodbye Liz and Lucy and thank you so much for the hospitality. Off across ‘the tops’ or the Pennines to the northeast of England and “home” for Linda today. Howard got a short piece of the M6 motorway to start the day and then we were heading inland to Appleby-in-Westmorland Appleby Fair, held each June in the town of Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria, is probably the best known of the horse fairs attended by Romany families travelling to meet up with old friends and conduct business. Appleby Fair itself, which has existed since 1685 under the protection of a charter granted by James II, survived an attempt at closure by Westmorland Borough Council in 1965. The autumn fair at Brough, also in Cumbria, has a charter date of 1330, and these two, ... read more