A few spots of rain as I packed everything away and I took advantage of the hot shower facility then waited 20 mins to retrieve my bike from the locked laundry room. Open at 8.30am my arse!
Still, on the go fairly early but soon noticed the headwind as I made my way back to Sunderland. Followed NCN route 1 out of the place, grabbing a sarnie and a cake for brekkie on the way. The first part also constitutes route 7 (C2C route) so at least I can say I cycled the WHOLE of that route.
To be fair I was NOT sad to be leaving Sunderland. In my opinion it's dire (sorry any Wearsiders reading this). Can't think of ONE redeeming feature. And the route out to the South is crap. Convoluted, not that well signed and mostly strewn with broken glass or parked cars.
The route south took in Seaham, Easington (where they filmed Billy Elliot I think) and I can't remember much more. It was all a bit drab and depressing. Especially after the scenery of the Pennines.
I didn't trust myself to find my way through Hartlepool, Stockton and Middlesbrough so opted for the train from Hartlepool to Redcar. A good move I think. The guard was a bit of a miserable bugger but I'll give him his due - he managed to get 6 (yes SIX) bikes on a busy 2 carriage train. Well done that man.
At Redcar it started to rain and it just got heavier and heavier as the journey went on. You'll note that there are very few photos of today. This reflects the fact that there was bugger all worth photographing for the 1st half and too wet to get the camera out for the 2nd half!
The hills started from Saltburn. First a steep drag up to Brotton followed by a little descent into a tiny coastal village called Skinninggrove. The climb out of here on a minor road towards Staithes was a git! Very steep. In fact the steepest road so far on my trip. first part was half a mile or so of about 25% Ouch!! From Staithes to Whitby was up and down and quite depressing on the main A174 but it did include a 25% descent at Lythe Bank. Unfortunately I couldn't get too gung ho on it as it was very wet and there were lots of manhole covers that could have resulted in a nasty crash. Was getting really hungry now and didn'y fancy another 12 hilly miles to my planned stop so decided to go for the excellent Youth Hostel at Whitby Abbey and enjoy a dry night (at least in one sense of the word!). Ate fish and chips in a skanky Whitby bus shelter to avoid the torential rain. Blimey they were good fish and chips.
Later on the rain stopped and I wandered into Whitby for 3 pints at the Black Horse (very nice real ale pub) before collapsing in bed.
The STEEP hill back up top Whitby Abbey. Glad you are not allowed to cycle up here. I couldn't
Todays stats:
Mileage: 63.9
Max speed: 37.6 mph
Av speed: 11.0 mph (bloody headwind)
Pints: 3
Soakings: 1 very long one
Mechanicals: 0
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