Day Three – Saturday 19th May – Walton, High Rigg to Alston

There were some tired legs and sore bums at the start of day three. Although the mileage hadn’t been high the hills and wind had taken their toll on our enthusiasm to do the planned 55 mile ride and big hills so an alternative shorter easier ride to Alston was devised.

As we all ate breakfast Mrs. Mounsey our landlady emerged as the character of the Tour with her open and friendly chat about her family and the unfair farming regulations that meant that a 3 metre wildlife sanctuary had to be left uncultivated around every field regardless of its size (unfair on farmers with small fields), how Irish farmers were able to sell their farms at £27,000 an acre and buy up English farms at £8,000 an acre and how all the milk in the area goes into the same tanker regardless of quality and even if it’s been organically farmed.

Instead of heading off in a south westerly direction to Carlisle and beyond we headed east the way we had finally with the benefit of the prevailing and strong westerly wind. Just past Lanercost Priory we crossed the River Irthing to take an alternative route to the one we had ridden on at the expense of having to ride up one of the steepest hills I’ve ever seen. Back through Gilsand and Greenhead and on the busy A69 to Haltwhistle. At Haltwhistle naturally we had a cup of coffee and we decided to stock up on sandwiches as the trip to Alston looked as though it would short on possible lunching venues.

Out of Haltwhistle to the south we took NCN68 along a disused railway which ran along the River South Tyne and was never too far away from the water. Homemade signs had been posted along the route asking people to report sightings of grey squirrels to a particular phone number. The sign said that grey squirrels carried sheep pox and that their increasing numbers were threatening the existence of the native red squirrel. Disturbingly we didn’t see any grey squirrels, at least not any live ones, the path was littered with the corpses of the recently deceased. I’m not quite sure how they’d been killed but it didn’t look humane.

With no places of historical interest to visit today we just had to be content with admiring the beautiful landscape in this pretty valley. When we reached Coanwood we had to detour onto the roads around Lambley Viaduct for two miles as that section of the path is not passable by cycle. The detour is signed.

A couple of punctures slowed down our progress as we found the holes and their cause difficult to find. A couple of tubes had to be patched, time was lost and with it went Ray’s plan to a ride up one of the big hills and get pie after we’d dumped our luggage at the hostel in Alston. It was just as well we’d settled on a shorter easier day.
The ride through the valley into Alston was simply breathtaking with the lush hills around us and the rushing river flowing away to the north. 

We arrived at Alston YHA in the late afternoon and we had plenty of time to clean up, shop, get acquainted with some guys who run a cycle project in Sunderland and were shepherding a group of about ten or so young lads through the hills on a C2C. It was nice of these guys to give Ray a set of brake pads which they said only cost £1.49 from Asda. Take note that we didn’t find any bicycle shops in these small villages so if you’re going to undertake a trip like this you’re going to have to carry basic spares and make sure your bike is in good shape before you leave.

Ray and Anthony cooked a really good pasta and meatball dinner, probably the best meal we had on the trip, Stephen and I washed up, Teri had the YHA evening meal and Niki organised charades. It was a very enjoyable evening before the promised hard day with the high pass over the Pennines.

31 miles
2906ft of climbing