3 Day ride on Tandem 27/05/07 by John Cave

Planning to ride any where else other than from home with a tandem often requires a lot of planning. In order to do this ride within a set period we had to have a way of returning with the bike from the end.  After trying various possibilities, we opted for taking; bike to Carlisle(leaving it there) – car to Newcastle – train to Carlisle and cycled to Bowness for the start on 28th.

28/05/07 A cold but blowy start on the flat section through to Carlisle. Here we avoided the riverside section and used the cycle lane that goes past the castle and to the River Eden Bridge, crossed the river and headed up towards Rickerby. On seeing the gates on the park we were pleased with our choice as the gates would entail lifting the tandem over. There is a short stretch of busy road (Brampton Road) before entering Rickerby Park. After that the route was clearly signed with quiet roads or cycle paths through to Brampton. Unfortunately, as it was a Bank Holiday, Brampton was shut! We only found one pub serving food in the evening.

29/05/07 Left Brampton about 9.45 in a slight drizzle – Out to Lanercost Priory – worth a stop, particularly before Banks. The left hand route is signed and a good choice. Along to Birdoswald and a welcome stop at their Café. The route to Gilsland and Greenhead was clearly signed and we were pleased to use the Sustrans path at Greenhead, walking up to appreciate its construction the more closely. The long run down to Haltwhistle was enjoyable and lunch was picked up at a sandwich bar on the route. The rise up to Smith Shield was convoluted but the best choice. We ate lunch at Vindolanda then went on to Crindle Dykes, the highest point. This was followed by a long fairly flat section until we started dropping down to Fourstones. We took the Cycle path towards Hexham along the side of rail track, one needs to take care both here and particularly on the crossings. Hexham Country Park was a pleasant change and followed by the busy Hexham Bridge, (better to cross on the south side), the road went past a rather large industrial estate which was busy but soon quietened as we left the town heading for Alnick our stop for the night.

30/05/07 Bright but cool start at 9.15 and a pleasant run into Corbridge. The following uphill stretch was not too busy and then we turned off and headed towards Bywell. An excellent and virtually traffic free section to Ovingham. We walked over the footbridge rather than the single track road bridge then we joined the off road path to Newcastle. We began seeing many more cyclists and walkers on the remainder of the route into Newcastle. After Newburn we followed the riverside route rather than the route via Lemington. Nice to see here that the cycle path is the first bit of the development to be built. Enjoyed the ride past the bridges and down to the Millennium Bridge and Newcastle Quayside. After that we encountered a range of traffic restrictions/bollards at junctions on the cycle path – but we only had to lift the tandem over one pair – and that was over a ‘horse step’.  Having previously ridden the C2C and Reivers Route we found the route along towards Tynemouth and the ferry to South Shields much improved and well signed. The traffic lights for roadworks near the ferry were fine going down and easy to walk on the pavement on our return uphill.