Thur 2nd July 2015 - Stanhope to Tynemouth

I woke up before 7.00 and got an immediate reminder of how dehydrated I must have been the day before. I'd consumed 1.5 litres of water, 1 litre of Coke, half a litre of Gatorade, another 750ml of water, 2 mugs of tea and 4 cups of coffee during the day. I had topped that up with a couple of pints in the evening. I hadn't been to the loo since Wednesday morning and now, after a good night's sleep, all I could manage was about 2 egg-cupfuls. And it was the colour of Tizer.

The full-English breakfasts that Dawn serves up at the Red Lodge are both plentiful and really top-notch quality. The only advice I would give is to leave it more than twenty minutes between finishing one and attempting to scale the aptly-named Crawleyside road between Stanhope and Parkhead Station. I know this because, 10 minutes after setting off, I was in trouble, hunched over the bike and gulping in huge lungfuls of air while trying to avoid throwing up.

I did the sensible/cowardly thing and got off and pushed for a bit until my stomach was slightly less liable to explode. Once the town had been left behind and the moors took over again, the gradient was slightly less steep and I was able to ride, gingerly, to the Parkhead Station cafe.

This quickly gives way to...

...this

The local council are just taking the piss here.

It had taken me 45 minutes to cover the three miles up to the station but I now had the happy knowledge that it was almost entirely either flat or downhill for the rest of the day.

The next nine miles were on the Waskerley Way, an old railway line (hence the Station cafe) that had been resurfaced and was ideal for a road bike. The only problem was the sheep. They seemed to enjoy laying on the path, possibly for the heat it was reflecting and, once there, they certainly didn't intend moving for anything as trivial as a bloke on a bike. Twice I had to steer off-path to get around the buggers.

Optical illusion - this was downhill all the way

As on previous descents the moorland was replaced by coniferous woodland...

 

 Which, in turn was replaced by deciduous trees and shrubs

 I rode over the Hownsgill Viaduct, some of its charm having been ruined by the anti-suicide railings.

And then I hit this junction. My planned route had been through Berry Edge, but I got the feeling that may not have been such a good idea.

I decided to play safe and take the Consett route, which would give me a chance to test out exactly how good the C2C signposting actually was.

As it turned out, it was very good indeed. Plus, by taking this route I got to see these weird sculptures.

By 11.00 am I was back on my original course and back on schedule to hit Tynemouth by early afternoon. The route for the next ten miles took me along fast woodland paths, with loads of cool shade. I'd seen an article on the morning TV news about Gateshead getting a massive hail storm the previous night and there was plenty of evidence of that here. The ground was littered with greenery that had been ripped out of the trees overnight.

Eventually the scenery started getting a bit more industrial and the lovely woodland path spat me out in the vicinity of the charming Intu MetroCentre in Gateshead.

I followed the cyclepaths along the south bank of the Tyne

Crossing over at the swing bridge

Passing the other famous Tyne bridge, which somehow seemed smaller than I'd imagined.

Looking back

And the newer Millenium bridge, which was bigger than I'd expected.

Looking back a bit further on

The last 10 miles weren't so photogenic and, to be honest my mind was now focused on the destination rather than the journey.

If there ever was a man ahead of his time

I remember passing several industrial parks and, bizarrely, a loose horse grazing on the grass verge. I rode over a path where the tarmac was melted and pock-marked. The only time I'd seen something like that before was when a car had been dumped by joy-riders and then burned out. In a 200-yard stretch of cycle-path there were about thirty such patches. Obviously a popular spot with the local youth.

I passed through North Shields where a cafe had a fully-dressed Christmas tree on the pavement and these giant buoys were painted with designated cycle routes.

And then I was rolling pat the Spanish Battery car park, the ruins of Tynemouth priory and castle, and came to a wheezing halt outside the Grand Hotel, overlooking the beach.

Tynemouth North Pier

So that was it - the Coast to Coast finished, and nothing left to do except ride the 10 miles back into Newcastle, stopping off for a couple of well-earned, and rather excellent beers in the Cycle Hub Cafe before getting the train back home again.

 

Cheers.

The Route: