30/06/2026
Hadrian's cycleway C2C Day 2
Port Carlisle to Once Brewed (or Twice Brewed, depends on which way you enter it!)
The day in general has been a lot better than yesterday. An early start at 8am through some very quite and ondulated roads until I reached Carlisle, the first big stop. Cycling through Carlisle was a bit of a nightmare with so much traffic so I did a bit of my famous bike hiking on the footpath (which included a stop in Sainsbury's for p*e and pizza). Thankfully when I reached the castle a nice cycle path through the park started and kept going for a good while until I reached the next quiet road and the hills really started!
Big climb to reach How followed by another one going through Hayton. The third one started so soon after that I decided to rest the legs and walk it and then kept going to Brampton where I stopped for lunch.
The hilly route kept going through some quiet roads until I reached one of the two Cat 4 hills of the day: the hill to Banks which reached 14% at one point. Nearly at the end of the hill, I did a brief stop to look at the ruins of Turret 52 and then kept going to stop again and visit the Birdoswald Fort where I made two new friends in the shape of Roman sheep ππ
The hilly (seriously, I'm talking 5-6% hills...) route continued until Greenhead where the second Cat 4 hill appeared with a great 18%. Again I didn't even tried it, I walked all of it (thankfully this one had a cyclepath to walk it) until I reached the Roman Army Museum which I also stopped to visit.
After the museum, I entered some sheep fields and lots of cattle grids (I hate them...). A bit tricky to ride on the road bike but all good until I reached the proper gravel path and I started walking while missing the MTB a lot π
a bit of a scary moment when cows where in the middle of the road looking at me! And I was like please...Can you move?
I got back on the main road that thankfully was really quiet and started getting lots of 6% climbs one after the other one. There was a moment that I saw the next big one and I thought I'm sick of this, I'm going to walk this one! And just at the top of the hill there it was! Finally the campsite!! π₯³
Last day tomorrow!