HCW Day 2 - Hexham to Carlisle

We made an earlish start, leaving the Travelodge at 8:30. Initially our progress from Hexham was slowed by the number of park runners on route. We passed Vindolanda, another Roman fort, although we decided not to stop - we are now experts on all things Roman. In fact, we have been invited back to Vindolanda as guest lecturers next summer.

A pretty route 

View of Vindolanda 

Way markers on route

Perfect cycling weather

We continued on to the Sill - the National Landscape Discovery Centre at Once Brewed (yep that is the name of the village) for a coffee. Tracy obviously had her criminal head on today, trying to walk out of the coffee shop without paying and doing the same thing 5 mins later in the gift shop.

Cake at last - Raspberry and lemon muffin

We took a walk up towards the wall with the intention of hiking to the now sycamore-less gap. Tracy was a little underwhelmed when we eventually reached Hadrian's Wall. In her head she had pictured something a bit closer to the great wall of China, not the foundations of a construction site. We walked along a bit, but decided to head back to the bikes instead. A hike along a fragmented low wall to see an empty gap had lost it's appeal.

A mile castle on the wall

The wall itself

The remains of the sycamore gap tree have been turned into an art installation inside the Sill. The amount of merchandise related to the tree is huge, if anything it has become a more famous tourist attraction after it was felled. Perhaps Northumberland should consider a radical campaign to increase visitor numbers, vandalise their own tourist attractions. Angry tourists will flock to the site that they couldn't be arsed to visit before.   

The sycamore gap installation 

A bit like a peeled banana?

We continued on to Haltwhistle - the self proclaimed centre of Britain. We stopped for lunch and a bit of a rest and got talking to Steve. He is a keen cyclist and was asking about LEJoG, as we were wearing our jerseys from last year. He had promised himself that he would do it before his 60th birthday, but as he only has two months left, he has put the deadline back! He was asking for advice and we shared our blog address.

The lesser know variety of local sheep - The Northumbrian long neck

Creative bollards

Creative marketing 

Centre on England marker - never let facts get in the way of self promotion.

The afternoon continued with sunshine, headwinds and a bit more wall. We cycled past Birdoswald, another Roman fort - the staff begged us to come in as visiting experts to lead some of the tours, but we needed to ride on.

Tracy sat next to the sign saying please don't climb on the wall. Naughty girl

More wall. Unless it's 4m high...

...complete with a Roman garrison, We're not bothered.

We stopped again for ice-cream at Moos in Brampton, a lovely treat, but the combination of Cherry icecream and Pepsi Max gave me cherryade flavoured burps.

Remains of a mile castle

After Brampton, we were worried about the approaching  hill - the toughest of the day. Turns out it was relatively straightforward - nothing but a pimple compared with the Pennines.

Lanacost Priory 

I think the signs wrong - 12% maybe?

I think Tracy expected the mile castles to be more like this modern folly

We eventually arrived in Carlisle, the cycle route bringing us into the heart of the city through the park.

Memorial in the park

We decided to go for Thai food this evening as we worked our way through our global cuisine to do list this week. And also there was a Thai restaurant on the same road as the Travelodge. It looked full when we arrived but they managed to squeeze us into a corner. Turns out everyone else in the restaurant was celebrating a Thai lady's 60th birthday who appeared to be related to the owners. The party was in full swing and there was much merriment, dancing and singing which kept us entertained and the food was amazing. They even gave us 2 pieces of the black forest gateaux birthday cake to make us feel included. 

We then had a discussion about whether gateaux was a dessert or a cake. I'm in the cake camp (it's a chocolate cake with cream, clearly) but Tracy is in the dessert camp. Feel free to contribute but you're not allowed to Google it. Google spoils the best debates. 

Gateaux - cake or dessert?

Distance covered: 53 miles 

Elevation: 3706ft

Average speed: 8.9 mph

Tracy whinge factor: 0/10

Cake of the day: Raspberry and Lemon muffin 6/10