C2C also known as "Coast to Coast"

7th of July. 

Early morning. 

24h before the ride. 

Me and my mate finally have got the days off. Bikes are fixed. Some equipment is added and some is taken away due to Leeds - Liverpool experiences. 

Overall we feel confident that we are ready to tackle the new challenge. Both of us are excited and at the same time clueless of what we both have done by signing up for the famous C2C bike route. 

It's a 140 mile long journey from Whitehaven to Sunderland. All the way across UK, trough and over Pennines with highest peak at Hartside which is 1903 ft.

We took the train from Leeds to Whitehaven and stayed at the nicest hotel I have been in my life. Lismore Guest House ( I haven't been paid to say that) 

It was pretty good day and we arrived around dinner time so we wondered around. Walked up and down the place. Lots of history around it. And we met an old man that was happy to talk Whitehaven for days. So we listened for a bit.

We had few uncomfortable pints in local place due to mask mandates so we grabbed few bottles and headed out to beach on rocks. 

Best decision I made that day. The noise of sea and fresh air with sun beaming down. Bliss.. 

DAY 1.

Next morning we woke up fairly fresh due to the fresh air and the kebabs we had before bed. 

Breakfast is served in a conservatory with a 180 degree views of the seaside. It's early morning so it's all calm and the town is just waking up. 

Tall pleasant man is rushing around the hotel to serve us our breakfast. 

We had our coffees and food. 

The man waved us off and wished good luck. 

And that was it.. we were rolling down to the seafront to dip the wheels in the water. As tradition requires. You must dip your back wheel in the water on this side of the country and front wheel will go in the brine when you are in Sunderland. 

It's a bit overcast but it's fine. Not too cold or hot. Just right. We join the route and start the insanity without knowing it. 

It's nice that the route takes us down the old rail road. It's straight and not too steep right away. 

When we change the roads we start to feel it. We encounter the first climb not too long in to the ride and it's a bit discouraging. 

This is barely the "peak" we will have to deal with in this. 

We coast down the hill and stop not too far from Loweswater lake. We have a protein bar .. as if it helps and I am pretending that everything is fine and I am not scared that this endeavour could actually kill us. 

We jump back on and head up and down some more hills. It's quiet public roads. We see other cyclists time to time. It starts to drizzle and my mate is starting to get tired. He is lagging behind. And we are approximately an hour behind the schedule as it is. Due to the rain and relentless uphills it does actually make you feel like it's the dumbest thing you could be doing right now. 

We have invented cars.. why are you doing this??.

Our route takes sharp right turn right in the heart of a forest. No cars, no people, just a gravel road and forest on both sides. The air is so fresh that you start feeling pleasantly dizzy or in other words "bro you are high.." 

We get of our bikes to walk a bit. Our legs are pretty tired already and the clothes are wet too.. it's not nice if I have to say it. 

We come through forest and it's a nice downhill on a mountain side. The air got much warmer and I can feel my trousers drying 

We aren't that far away from Keswick. 

That's where we will stop and eat and drink coffee. 

It's pretty nice here. The air is warm and fresh. The road also seems pretty leveled. 

I am so jealous of people living here. It's so pretty. Beyond postcard beautiful.

We roll in Keswick. We ordered coffee and the most sugar infused dessert we could find on the menu. 

While eating it we noticed that there is a pencil museum just across the street .. which was fairly strange. 

After our break we jump back on our bikes and look for the old train station to join another ex train tracks turned in to walk/cycle path. 

And again it surprises us how beautiful it is there. 

While Keswick sugar was working we got to Penrith. 

Now we are pretty exhausted and I can tell that my mate is getting tired too. We need food and I had to forget about climbing Hartside tonight. 

After we ate we got back on bikes but with less enthusiasm. I can see the wall from 15-20 miles away and it's 8pm.. there is no way at this pace that we will make it across and find where to pitch the tent. 

My mate is loosing it because the flies are bothering him. They are all over us because we are sweating profusely. 

We decide to pitch the tent now. Leave the climb for tomorrow morning.

We throw our bikes over a farm field fence and quickly find a corner where nobody could see us over night staying there. 

We pitch the tent. Eat some food and pass out till next morning. 

DAY 2.

We wake up around 7 am. We are groggy, puffy, hungry, tired and desperate for a cup of coffee. 

We can hear some farm equipment being pushed about so we decide to split from our campsite. We don't need no trouble. 

In 20 minutes we are all packed with bikes and our stuff on the right side of the fence. 

And then we see what the noise was. It appears that we have been sleeping next to farmers air field/landing strip. 

There it is. It's a Hang glider with a propeller at the back following us down the road. Unfortunately we didn't take pictures because we were convinced that it's an air raid .. 

4 hours and 5 miles later we are at the top of Hartside. 

That was something else. We basically pushed the bikes up most of the way. It's too crazy.. and can't be done without morning coffee. Which has turned in to brunch coffee now. But we are here. 

We ate bacon and egg sandwiches and had coffees in the Caffe they have it up there. It was like a reward for getting there. 

We sat down and were positively charged because we lied to our selves that this is it ..it's just down hill from here.. 

Not even close ... Not even close.

We jumped back on the bikes. For fair 2-3 miles we actually were going down hill. And it was nice. There was a drizzle that soon stopped and dried off. 

After few small climbs and downhills we hit the wall of Garrigill. 

It was brutal. It's about a mile and a bit but it took us about hour or so to get up there just pushing the bikes. 

It's where you start questioning your life choices. 

Luckily what goes up must come down. So after a short rest we enjoyed fast downhill in to Nenthead. 

https://youtu.be/_KT1bltsae0

Here is a 2 min long video of that. 

We stopped at Nenthead to refill our waters and have some coffee. Then more drizzle came and fairly difficult climb up again. 

I am starting to run out of encouraging words for my mate because I am loosing it my self. There is no fix.. there is just two ways how we will get to Sunderland. 1.On our bikes, 2.In an ambulance. 

I don't want the number 2. 

Somehow we regain the energy and the will to get on with it. Cycling trough some amazing places just takes you away and let's you dream of a day you could be living in such places. Away from the noise the anxiety of big cities. 

Some towns seemed like they have intentionally stopped in time. "No further we say.. that's enough" places where people don't lock their doors so your neighbors could come round without knocking. Very free people live in them towns. 

As you can see I am very thrilled to be in Northumberland. 

At this point we are about 50 miles from Sunderland hotel. It's exactly 5pm. We have done 40 miles since 8am. 

You do the math on the optimism we have that we will make it to the hotel by 10pm to check in. 

We called and told them to not lock the door. We are coming!
In few hours we reach Crawleyside. We are literally 30 miles from hotel and finally we join the last stretch of the road. It's another old rail line.. and it's basically all down hill all the way to Sunderland. 

From here on everything more or less is a blurr. 

We speed down as fast as we can. We are mentally and physically running on empty. Even tho it's downhill we still have to pedal and are making some good progress. I know we aren't going to make it on time but I can see us not arriving in ambulance. 

10pm. 11 miles away from hotel. 

My mate caught fatigue. He can't pedal any more. I pulled out the rope and I am towing him to Sunderland. It's dark .. we can't see anything in front of us. 

I make left turn he makes right. The rope disagreed and we have an accident with majorly buckled front wheel. 

I loose my shit because I can't believe how close yet so far we are .. 

We regain control over emotions and straighten the wheel just enough to be towed again. 

We coast slowly and suddenly the rope gets caught up in my gears. 

This time we lose another 15 minutes and I throw the rope away blaming the rope and not the genius me for trying to make it work. 

We jump back and keep pushing. We can't see anything further than you can stretch your arm out. 

Suddenly there is this rustle in the bushes to my left .. something black ..dog sized.. growls and snarls at me.. while running across the path and jumps in the water. Till this day I have no idea what it was. 

That gave me a really good adrenaline rush which made me shake till the hotel. 

It was 12ish when we arrived. The guy at the reception had some fructose gel for my mate to help with the fatigue and we ordered pizza. 

WE MADE IT! 

It was insane. It's an understatement. 

Leeds to Liverpool is a cake walk compared to C2C. 

And that's why you should do it. 

Here is a link that we found to be very helpful trough out the ride.

https://cycle.travel/route/c2c/guide

Good luck and I hope you have it as awesome as we did. 

Thanks for reading.