Hadrian’s Cycleway NCN72 – An Ambitious Autumn Adventure

Watch me as I take on the challenge of Hadrian’s Cycleway having done no training, attempting to cycle 75 miles from Newcastle to Carlisle over the Pennines and the hills of Northumberland.

We take in Roman Forts, famous bike shops, the birthplace of a famous railway pioneer and a 19th century limekiln.

#AdventureCycling #CycleAdventure #BikeTouring #CyclingUK #NotBikepacking
#CycleTrip #CyclingLife #RoadCycling #GravelCycling #CyclingVlog #BianchiBikes

[Music] Morning. So, join me in Newcastle. It is 9:52 a.m. on Friday, the 17th of October, and I’m about to cycle the Hrien Cycle way down to Carlilele. I’ve got a 1648 train to catch. So, we best get a move on. However, as usual with me and my plans, uh things don’t always go to plan. My Wahoo system has not updated my route. So, I need to go and find some breakfast. Uh there’s a weather spoons down the town about half a mile. So, I’m going to go there. I’m trying to see if I can figure out what’s going on. So, come on. Let’s get going. See you shortly. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] For those of you who are fans of Nick the area and backyard bike shop, that’s it over there. The shipping containers. I did want to go check out the cafe there, but unfortunately it says that it’s closed until further notice cuz they’re doing a refurbishment. So, never mind. That’s gate head. We’re going that way. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Just got a quick web server in there. Good value. I finally figured out what was up with the uh commute sinking to Wahoo because I hadn’t paid the money to cover the northeast region. So, I just had to do that. Anyway, all sorted. Onwards [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Yeah. So, uh, first sort of 7 milesi in. Emma’s been, uh, a little bit sketchy so far. It’s, uh, we’re on the cycle way now. It’s like a disused railway line. So, as normal with uh, disused railway lines, the surface is very uneven. Uh, so it’s very, very, very bumpy start so far. [Music] Come on. [Music] [Music] One thing I wish I brought on this trip, that’s a bell to get people out of the way. I didn’t realize there’d be that many pedestrians on this route. But yeah, usual standard of uh dog walkers, dogs off leads and um really angry bloke from the northeast who uh thought I was cycling at speed towards his wife. I wasn’t. I was like well on the left and um his wife was just sort of amling towards the left as well without any uh hes you know without any sort of care at all and then um yeah he kind of justiciculated at me in a very uh aggressive manner. So comes to something when a cyclist can’t cycle on a cycle way isn’t it? Hey ho we crack on. So yeah, I’m on this uh disused railway line and don’t know how long I’ll be on this for, but it’s a nice route. Lots of nice autuminal colors and uh yeah, I don’t know how I’m feeling about this. I’m going have to time’s ticking down for when I need to catch that train in Carlile. So I need to press on. So, let’s not hang a boat. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] Thank you. [Music] This is uh George Stevenson’s birthplace. This is called Rift Farm. Stevenson obviously famous for uh bridge and St. Helens. Yeah. Still going that way. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] I’m going to go right over that then. Good job ever. Had to have been a an accident. Went off to A&E. All right. So, we’re going to the end here and doing a right. [Music] [Music] Bit of a grally section. in. So you are Lot of technical sections here for a road cyclist. [Music] Looks like we’re going over this bridge around the side. It continues over this bridge. Oh. So, that’s a close one now. You can see quite a few scuffs on the side. I think it should have been on that cycle path there. Oh, well. [Music] [Music] Go left. [Music] [Music] [Music] Okay. [Music] [Music] Yeah. I’m just on uh bit of a road section. Nice and smooth and uh nice and remote. So, it’s really quiet around here. But uh I’ll tell you what, I am struggling fitness wise. Nowhere near as best as it used to be. So, uh I probably should have done more training for this, but thought I’d give it the full send without doing any. So, never mind. See how we get on. I noticed as well I actually taken the cap off because it was uh putting undue pressure on my head and give me a headache which I could do without. So, uh let the uh the air gas out my head anyway. So, see you in a bit. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] [Laughter] Okay. [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] tell you are some brutal hills around here. Um I’ll say brutal. I’ve actually done worse, but I’m just so unfit. And um I mean, as you can see, lovely, lovely scenery, but just brutal. Um, I almost ran out of water as well, so I don’t know what I’m going to do, but uh, I’ve got a bit more hills to go. Um, and hopefully should be over the top of the penines. But yeah, I’m also running massively behind schedule as well, so I should be approaching Halt Whistle soon, but I’m still about five or six miles off that. So yeah, I’m not uh doing as well as I’d hoped. I haven’t seen any Roman scenery. No walls, no forts, nothing like that. So I’ve just failed this whole vlog really. But I’ll keep going. Uh cuz that’s the name of it. That’s the aim of it, isn’t it? Keep going and we’ll uh see how we see how we get on. But yeah, not doing too well so far. Camera probably doesn’t uh give you any idea how steep these roads are. [Music] I haven’t on hills for a long long time. Well out of practice. [Music] That’s the bike. By the way, I make that noise on the hips. Although my pain, it feels like hips. [Music] Nice old beetle. [Music] Little rest from the climbing, but still going up. [Music] [Music] Still no sign of this road stopping, I’m afraid. It’s brutal. Fortunately, there’s no wind. Otherwise, I’ve been a world of pain. [Music] I still got to get over that. [Music] Yeah, I can see it kicks up a little bit further on [Music] telling you. And somewhere here is North Umbrea National Park was the Second More Gap, I think. Obviously, it’s no longer a sycamore gap anymore. Just sometimes thugs decided to belly. [Music] Unbelievable. [Music] That’s the Hrien’s wall in the distance. I’m sure that there is the sycamore gap or where the sycamore gap used to be. Yeah, that’s definitely it where it was the Sycamore gap. I made up those got jailed. Absolutely mindless thugy. Why would you do that? Such a incredible area of like natural beauty. You’re going to spoil it. [Music] [Music] I was going to say I was hoping that was the last of the hills, but looking at that, as epic as it is, I don’t think the hills do end, if we carry on. Right, let’s have a quick ganzer at this uh this lime kill. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] That down there’s uh Vinderlander Roman fort over 2,000 years old but just come down a nice little descent. It’s better view of Vindelander. Look at that. It’s not every day you see one of them. So yeah, I just stopped the uh place called Witch. And uh house there has got a couple of turrets on it like Hogwarts. How cool is that? Yeah, this has not been easy. This Yeah. So, it’s not turned out how we planned. I just haven’t got the pace to be able to get to Carl Island in time for my train and I don’t want to risk missing my train. So, I’m at Halt Whistle Station. I’m uh going to have to unfortunately call it a day. So, yeah. Uh disappointed, but I could always come back and finish the ride off. Maybe even go to Raven Glass. Um who knows? Two to the right. To the left. If you need to do A little longer than a few minutes later. Yeah. So, I’m just uh halfway through riding back from Msk station. So, I’ve done four trains today. Um just to summarize this ride. Yeah, lessons learned, I think. Don’t try and take on an ambitious challenge when you haven’t done the training. And uh but let’s focus on the positives that went right on this ride. So, I got to have a pint at the Sento Britain. So, that’s a thumbs up. Um, we got to see a 2,000-y old Roman forth. Got to see an 18th century, sorry, 19th century lime kiln. We got to see the lovely Newcastle Keyside. We got to see from the distance Nick Vier’s backyard bike shop, which is uh well famous among uh cycling YouTube. And yeah, um we did quite a lot of hills, so there’s a fitness gain to be made from today. And we got to go on a few varied trains. So, it’s all good. I’m just going to uh ride back the remaining four miles, and then get uh a nice shower, have me tea, and then go to bed because I’m absolutely shattered. So, on that note, thanks for watching, and I’ll see you on the next one. Ciao for now. [Music]