Wednesday 29th OctoberSo much for the Weatherman. It rained today and we hardly saw the sun, in spite of the promise of two or three days' unbroken sunshine. However, there was snow on the higher hills and this added a certain frisson to the adventure. Trust me to organise a week away when London had its first October snowfall since 1934.
It was in conditions not dissimilar to these in which Oates famously went outside for some time. In his honour we all had porridge for breakfast, followed by some typical Cumbrian protein. The riding was very good - on the very first descent Jan & I hit 40 mph, and shortly after we chose NCN 71 as the best option for reaching the Lake District. The surface was good, and being an old railway, there were no proper hills. In time-honoured tradition, Sustrans carefully considered heavily-laden touring tandemists when designing their obstacle course. This one is close to Rowrah.
Jeff has done a good deal of walking in the Lakes and was aware of a fine hostelry near Loweswater, the Kirkstile Inn, and we went there for coffee. I'm all in favour of pubs serving hot drinks, but very few of them seem to have a good selection of cakes to assuage the cyclist's hunger. I therefore invested in a couple of dishes full of potato wedges which we shared, and thus fortified we prepared to tackle the first chevron of the ride, Scale Hill. There were magnificent views of the snow-covered peaks around Ennerdale.
Shortly we were on Whinlatter Pass, which to be honest is a bit of a pussycat as passes go - not for us the hard-nosed alternative of Hardknott and Wrynose. We hurtled down towards Braithwaite and then waited for a few minutes at the bottom of the hill for the soloists to catch up, and then dived into Keswick for lunch. It rained.
We rejoined the disused railway and crossed and re-crossed the River Greta as we climbed towards Threlkeld. Somewhere above us to the left, lost in the clouds, was Blencathra, one of the Lake District's most treacherous peaks. Shortly we were forced onto the A66, having to negotiate a nasty right turn towards Wallthwaite and Troutbeck. The sun had set and Jeff's advice was to stay on the A road towards the south end of Ullswater rather than tackle steep descents on lanes in the dark. This we did, adding about 2½ miles to the day, but thankful of the better surfaces. Having said that, we had one moment of drama when Mick hit a pot-hole at speed and lost a pannier. He didn't realise, but fortunately a passing motorist told him and no-one had run it over by the time he retrieved it.
We arrived at Ullswater House, our B & B for the night, at around 6.40, giving us time for a shower before adjourning to the Sun Inn, almost next door, for a splendid meal.