Planning to do the c2c road route next Monday over 2 days. Whitehaven to Sunderland. Fast and (semi)light, with a Carradice Barley on the back of my tourer.

Anyone done it before?

Any tips specific to the route? Things I should know? Recommendations on a place to stay?

Cheers!
Amit

Have not done it but will be setting out on Friday for 3 days.

Give us a wave – you’ll pass my front door. Stay in the Eden Valley – lunch in Keswick, then get to the bottom of Hartside.

You mean the Sustrans route???

I did that a couple of years ago – it’s really good.

Rachel

I did that route about 10 years ago in two days. It was brilliant! About 75 miles each day and we stopped at the yha in Alston I think. Petty much slap bang in the middle (highest Market town in England apparently, but you get a lovely 5 mile decent to finish your first day).

My advice would be, don’t make the mistake that we did, which it doesn’t sound like you will, but anyway… we thought
It would be a good idea to use mountain bikes instead of road bikes so that we could do the alternative off-road sections. They were fun, but added way more time than we’d expected and didn’t get to Alston until about 22:30, and it was pretty dark! Made worse by the fact that we didn’t have any lights and I was wearing prescription sunglasses!

Anyway, have fun, ’twill be great!

We did it in a long day – was a bit ‘interesting’ on occasion coming through Consett etc at about 10pm…

It’s uphill all the way from the coast to Alston!!

Call in at cyclewise in whinlatter if somethings not working after the first 25 miles!

Met some people in Keswick on a Sat afternoon (about 3pm) who asked how far Penrith was (I tried not to laugh as they said it had taken 5hrs from Whitehaven)

Use the cyclepath on the A66 or you might not make it

Thanks for the info.

It will be the sustrans route, and will try and keep it all on road.

Thinking of staying in Nenthead at present.

When I did it, I set out in my head that it is a 100 mile ride, with a 40 mile cool-down all the way to the sea. You can see the finishing post when you get to the top of the climb above Rookhope and there’s nothing to worry about once you’re there.

So, Nenthead is good but don’t stop later – there’s no point.

Rachel