Blogs from Cumbria, England, United Kingdom, Europe

After the torrential downpours on the coast, the weather forecast was an an improving picture for the following few days. We are in the Lakes though I thought to myself, as I watched the clouds initially lift from the opposite hills only to descend again within minutes. I consoled myself with the full English breakfast, which arrived shortly after. We were staying at the Embleton Spa between Cockermouth and Keswick. The village of Embleton lies just off the main trunk road linking the coast to the M6, making it both peaceful and convenient. It even has a very regular bus service stopping in the village next to the hotel, which links Workington to Penrith. If you therefore fancy giving the car a rest from parking woes in the height of the summer or just want to ... read more

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

Between the years 122 and 128AD the Roman Emperor Hadrian had a stone wall up to four metres high built across the narrowest part of Great Britain (in what today are the English counties of Cumbria and Northumberland) from the Irish Sea to the North Sea, delineating the northernmost extent of the Roman Empire. Nowadays there exists both a walking trail and a bicycle route that follow the surviving sections of Hadrian's Wall, with the cycle route being one of three that cross the country roughly parallel to each other (Hadrian's Cycleway, the Rievers Route and - by far the most popular - the Coast2Coast). Having run out of time in Western Europe due to the 90-day Schengen limitation, but with three weeks left before my flight back to Australia and a desire to tackle some ... read more

Hadrian's Wall Path - 128 km in 6 days During the Covid many things have changed and we, since then, have started walking. We are in the 50's and we have discovered that trekking is a nice way to enjoy nature, visiting places and meeting people. Of course, It is often combined with a glass or glasses of beer and wine, as a reward for our daily efforts. That's how we decided to walk along the Wall from East to West during 6 days. The Emperor Hadrian's Wall was started in AD122 after failed attempts to conquer Scotland. It runs from coast to coast between the River Tyne at Newcastle in the east and the Solway Firth, west of Carlisle. We set off from Segedunum Roman Fort and we followed the path along - Heddon on ... read more

That’s the Lake District National Park done and dusted. Over 17 miles today saw us complete the trek through the Lake District - and hopefully the monster climbs are now all done. Baptism of fire this morning after a nice breakfast. Crossed a very lovely unassuming bridge and through a non-descript gate and into the realm of climb hell. Over 3 hours going up to a peak of 780m - but climbing more than 1,000m with the slight down relief - and covering only 5 miles. Legs burning and feet sore we eventually made it to the top. The highlight was definitely turning a corner on the way up to see Angel Tarn - absolutely beautiful and stunning. The guide said there was a steep descent to the reservoir, it didn’t say you needed to bring ... read more