By tackling day 1 of the route to Keswick as a return loop we hoped to go through sections with reputedly some of the best scenery on a bike in the UK.
We started off in warmish but over cast conditions aware of the forecast for late afternoon showers. Early climbing soon had us in photographic nirvana with great views to the Irish sea on one side and absolutely stunning views of lakes and fells on the other.
The ride took us right along side Loweswater lake glistening in the morning sun, before again climbing back across valleys with a predictable tough 2 km tough climb up to Winlatter forest judging by trails a mecca for mountain bike riders !
At this point all was going famously with Kev not showing too many affects of his illness from the day before.
All of that quickly came undone though when Kev taking a downhill corner at speed losing control and biting the bitumen scarring his Mr Universe body (he told me to write that !)
A full story of the incident is posted on the blog.
Having scraped H's skin off the bitumen and taken the mandatory post incident crime photos we worked our easy into lovely Keswick for a late lunch just in time for the onset of the predicted rain.
This was to be H"s ultimate challenge with so many nightmares of his 2011 trip based around the fickle UK weather !
The journey back (40+ kms) took us on a slightly different route with both of us keen to avoid the steep road that caused Henleys demise. Instead the C 2 C route took us on a length of off road forest trail up steep gradients to the Winlatter pass with rain now becoming pretty steady and H starting to feel cold
Heading back down to the lakes we came across a friendly European couple on their Brompton bikes (foldable 6 gear small wheeled) having just attended a Brompton convention in the UK !
H was now descending at about 5 km /hr after his earlier spectacular dismount giving him more time to feel the effects of the rain and it wasn't long before he stared to complain about freezing toes and fingers even though some locals wed bumped into commented on the warmish nature of the rain !
The scenery was totally different from the morning with the hills and lakes now covered with mist and cloud providing for an eerrily beautiful landscape !
Not far from Cleator we jumped on to a well sealed rail trail a byproduct of extensive iron ore mining in the area and the cause of local subsidence in some parts.
The mining and railways also brought in many Irish workers resulting in much conflict between local protestants and catholics !
By the time we had jumped off the rail trail we were well and truly soaked with H now adding a frozen nose to his growing list of non functioning body parts !
We arrived back at 7.00p.m after an eventful and tiring day but pleased at having been exposed to so much wonderful scenery.
A hot shower and a good dinner with obligatory soup brought H back to life although it was now clear that he was going to have one more nightmare to add to his UK list !
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