Kirkby Stephen to Fremmington

A rainy day and a big hill to climb; was not looking forward to it but in the end it turned out to be the most enjoyable day so far!

At breakfast some of the coast to coast walkers were debating whether to take the 'red route' (risk of waist-deep mud) or to go for the 'green route' (no risk of aforementioned) for the next stage to Keld. Surely a no-brainer on a day like this?

As for me I set off in the light rain for the Tan Hill Inn; after a few miles of gentle undulations the climbing began. I was totally put to shame by the 60-something Norwegian couple I met who whizzed ahead up the hill while I struggled and sweated and comforted myself with the thought that Norway is hellishly hilly while London is very flat.

A welcome fire at the Tan Hill Inn

They were travelling with a couple of friends who were less fit and who brought up the rear as we made our way painfully upwards. The pub is just over the border in Yorkshire and a very hospitable place to find in such a barren location. I stayed for a couple of hours while I dried out, as the place got increasingly busier, then eventually headed off once more towards Reeth.

Crossing into God's own country

The road wound its way over the moors for quite some time, and was practically deserted except for me, the sheep and the wildlife. Lapwings flitted up out of the grass to dip and swerve overhead, giving out their mournful cries, and several times I spotted one or two tiny dappled chicks hunkering down in the grass where the bird had emerged from. Curlews soared overhead, plaintively calling, while the whole scene was played out with skylarks chattering as a backdrop. At one point I passed a pair of grouse in the grass verge, just gazing up at me. I don't know which of us was more surprised! And another place I spotted a bird with a long straight bill sitting stock still on top of a wall; a snipe I think!

Such delights made the climb worthwhile, and there was a number of long, exhilarating downhill stretches to add to this.

To cap the day off, Swaledale and its villages - Reeth, Fremmington and Grinton - turned out to be friendly and delightful, with fine food and ales, great potential river swimming (next time! ) and people playing quoits by the side of the road. What's more the sun did come out eventually!

Traditional quoits (with iron rings not horseshoes)

The Dales Bike Centre, very comfy room for the night

Wythmoor Farm to Kirkby Stephen

Much shorter distance today but it felt longer at times, even with the glorious weather this morning. I passed some wonderful bridges and swimming spots that might have been tempting in warmer weather.

Swimming spot in the River Lune

Many hills were climbed and descended as the route wound its way between the mountains cheek by jowl with the M6 and the west coast main line railway, before eventually swooping off west to Orton for lunch (see the pud pic!) and eventually to Kirkby Stephen.

Jam roly poly with cream. Didn't touch the sides

The hostel here is most comfortable; a former YHA place now run privately but on similar lines. Very clean and tidy, and lovely common room/communal areas in the former chapel. Upper balcony still in place with comfy chairs and bookshelves; nice!

Through the Lune valley

So tomorrow it's the big hill, which thankfully has a pub at its summit as I'm going to need some motivation. Shortly after the pub I'll be leaving the W2W to take another route towards Richmond. Hopefully downhill :-)

Barrow to Wythmoor Farm camping barn

So I made it. About 50 miles all told; not my record for one day (that was 60 miles but I was 23 years younger!) but good going for a semi-decrepit 40-something. All except the last few miles were fun, even the hills; after all what goes up must come down and there were some thrilling downhills to pay back for the uphill struggles!

Furness Abbey

Views to the mountains of the Lake District one way and the waters of Morecambe Bay the other (even Blackpool tower in the distance) were stunning and made the climbs doubly worthwhile.

Over the River Leven

There were moorlands and farmlands, woods and estuaries, towns and villages and dozens of places selling free range eggs off the doorstep.

A cafe in Grange-over-sands provided lunch including the sticky toffee pudding in the photo, and the pic of the cowslips reminds me that all the verges were awash with stitchwort, garlic, bluebells, cowslips, milkmaid, field mustard, yellow poppies and violets and pink campion and so many other spring flowers.

Cowslips aplenty

Cartmel sticky toffee pudding

I'm off to bed shortly as the barn is freezing and has no blinds on the windows so I'll most likely be awake at 6am or whenever the sun comes up.

Calm before the storm

Rainbow seen from the camping barn

London to Barrow-in-Furness

Not all of it on the bike, obviously! It began raining as I set off at about 11am and so I immediately decided to take advantage of the new lifts at Deptford Station to get my laden bike up to the platform and go part of the route to Euston by train.

The journey to Lancaster was quick and quite painless on the train- first stop Warrington! I came across another two solo cyclists heading in the same general direction, one doing the Hadrian's wall west to east route, the other heading to Whitehaven for the C2C.

Grim weather seen from the train

Most of the journey north the weather had been fine but it closed in as we left on the two-coach train bound for Carlisle, along the north side of Morecombe Bay. As we left Ulverston an almighty cloudburst hit but luckily it had passed over by the time we got to Barrow.

After checking into my B&B (the hotel inspector would have something to say about the rather dusty edges of this place) I decided to do the west end of the W2W route that I'm following. Tomorrow I'll be heading east from the B&B and won't go down the hill again, and I wanted to see the town centre and Walney island.

Sadly it doesn't have much to offer, apart from a few fine municipal buildings and the brooding presence of the BAE Systems sheds where nuclear submarines are still built, seemingly one of the main sources of employment here.

BAE sheds dominate the waterfront, right next to a massive retail park

The town centre is pretty much strangled by an enormous Tesco Extra, a Morrisons and a Kwik Save, part of a huge retail park belt around the town. Luckily I found a small chipper after some searching, where I had a tasty fish supper; I did not have to submit to MacDonalds, KFC or Pizza Hut on the retail park.

Fish was not up to much, but the chips and peas were bloody lovely.

Holiday preparation

This afternoon I spent a couple of hours cleaning and prepping my bike for a week's holiday starting tomorrow. It's now got new tyres (although the old ones still had plenty of wear, they also had a myriad of small cuts from the daily London commute, not great for touring!) and new brake blocks and is rather cleaner.

I've also set up my phone so that I can blog on the move! I hope to keep you up to date with the highs and the lows of my trip!

Mango, preserved lemon and coriander chutney

A couple of months ago during a winter walk by the Thames in south west London, I visited the farmers market next to Richmond Bridge. One of the stallholders was selling some very interesting chutneys which had North African influences.

My favourite contained a lot of fresh coriander and preserved lemons. Foolishly I did not buy a jar - the logic being that I would have to carry it all day - but since that day, the taste has haunted me and I always knew I would try and replicate it.

Despite trawling the internet I failed to find a recipe for anything similar, so have made my own up. Initial tasting suggests it's a good one; the preserved lemons make it saltier than I would like, but I'm quite sensitive to salt levels and I still like it.

I made the preserved lemons a couple of months ago too, following the recipe in Pam Corbin's preserves book. Very easy to do and the lemons are great to add to stews or chop up into salads.

There were plenty of cheap mangos around in Deptford this morning, so I decided to pair them with the lemons, to add some sweetness and texture.

Today's recipe used up the rest of the preserved lemons, so it will probably be time to do some more in the next couple of weeks. I'll try and remember to share it with you when I do.

Mango, preserved lemon and coriander chutney

half a tsp ground allspice plus 5 whole ones
8 cardamom pods, seeds removed and crushed in a pestle & mortar
2 dried chillies, crushed
1tsp coriander seeds
1 onion, chopped into small pieces
2 large mangos, 3 small ('sweet') mangos
6 preserved lemons
a thumb of root ginger
125ml cider vinegar
100g sugar
large bunch of fresh coriander

Put the spices, chopped onion, mango (flesh removed and chopped), preserved lemon (discard the flesh and chop the skin into small pieces) and vinegar into a large pan and cook for about 20 mins over a low heat until onion is soft. Add the sugar and the coriander and cook for another ten minutes or so until the chutney has thickened.

Put into sterilised jars, label and leave for a few weeks to mature.

Still knitting!

Just thought I'd show you the socks that are currently on the needles: yarn was donated by my friend Caterina, she got it in a yarn swap but doesn't really knit socks so she passed it on to me. It's a basic toe-up pattern, the stripy yarn does all the work.

For some reason the colours remind me of chocolate limes, or some minty toffees or something. Some kind of hardboiled sweet, anyhow. Makes my mouth water when I'm knitting!