Over The Pennines And Far Away!

Thanks once again to Steve_h80 for organising a wonderful Ride over the hills and far away on Bank Holiday Monday! This time we scaled the dizzy heights of the Northern Pennines, taking in lovely towns and villages and making good progress in spite of the inevitable heavier holiday traffic.
Steve, Chris and I met at the usual starting-place, Hardwick Park, which is near Sedgefield Race-Course for them as don’t know the area, and set off a little later than the 11.00. time we usually follow.
I haven’t a clue which direction we took, except that Steve mentioned we’d head North to avoid some of the tourist hotspots down Yorkshire way but, suffice it to say, we followed mostly very pleasant roads – some very minor, some quite major – with great views of beautiful countryside. The weather was perfect for riding: it’s always difficult to get the balance between being cool in hot sunshine and warm when travelling at speed (wind-chill is a factor even in all but the hottest weather). I risked single-layer jacket, sports shirt and sleeveless pullover on top but still had the thermals under my trousers. It proved just right although in the wind and lower temperatures on the tops of the hills it was only just enough. We could see the mist - low cloud, even – in the far distance.
I really can’t remember all the places we passed: Derwent Water, Stanhope, Crawleyside are just three names that I do remember.
We stopped for lunch in Blanchland. The café was perfect and we had only to queue for ten minutes or so before we were seated. After a leisurely lunch we visited Blanchland Abbey, the most beautiful church, part of the greater abbey and on the grounds of which were built the village. The abbey, like so many, was closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the time of Henry VIII. It’s one of those places which retains tranquillity even when there are lots of people and traffic about. I know Steve had it in mind to visit there as he knows of my interest in churches.
After that stop we rode on, again topping the Pennines, with a view to stopping again for tea. Of course, everywhere was busy so we rode on, very much up hill and down dale – I think I did more steep hairpin bends then than I have done previously in all my Rides put together! – and arrived at what I thought was a very out-of-the-way quiet café which proved to be Steve’s house! Chris and I were entertained right royally to tea and real cake, sitting out on the terrace in the sunshine, putting the world to rights.
After quite some time, Steve kindly mounted up and led us to Bishop Auckland, a 30-minute ride away, so that Chris and I could head home up the A1(M) and branch off when the signs were right.

I was totally creamed, having been out for nearly nine hours and covered 140 miles of pleasant but, in places, challenging riding.
Many thanks again to Steve as well as to Chris who is a great riding companion and now friend.
I look forward eagerly to the next one.

Google 'Blanchland' for more information; I shall go there again.

Wow, what a great ride report. Thank you so much for sharing, Mike.

Thank you, Tim; that's very kind.
Words don't really do justice to an excellent day out but I suspect most of us know what the reality is.

Incidentally, I wrote this for posting elsewhere, too, so that the bit about riding gear is stating the obvious on a scooter forum but not for Friends on Facebook.

I know, too, that many riders prefer to ride alone, as I do on occasions, but Steve sets a very good pace, Chris is on a less-powerful scooter and I bring up the rear so it's all very comfortable for just the three of us.

Glad you enjoyed it Mike, next stop Lindisfarne / Holy Island.
If there anyone else on this here forum that wished to join us just let Mike or me know. We tend to usually do weekdays because we're freeloading parasites (pensioners) and there is less traffic about.

Nice report MikeO, that has tempted me to have another look at an area that tends to be off my radar. Did some trail riding from near Hexham for 2 days a few years back and was blown away, and quieter than the NP areas like the Lakes aor Dales. I camped for a few night and explored out from the Forest of Bowland last year, and found teh same.... Cross into the Dales and BOOM! People!

Let us know when you're up here next on the bike and we'll show you round some of the lesser known bits, were police are rare and sheep are nervous
We ain't going trail riding though, Scootie don't like it and the Tenere is too fat for pulling out of a bog

steve_h80 wrote:

Let us know when you're up here next on the bike and we'll show you round some of the lesser known bits, were police are rare and sheep are nervous
We ain't going trail riding though, Scootie don't like it and the Tenere is too fat for pulling out of a bog

Thank you kindly... :-) My long planned trip to Portugal looks like a non-starter this year... again, so I will do a bit of touring come September.

The Vara is as equally lardy as a Ten... much like the pilot these days, I am afraid to say...! I have off roaded it in the past in Scotland and in N Spain, but all hard pack roads.

The novelty of tugging 300kg of bike out mud doesn't fill me with much joy either

I had a ride East to West ride along the A66 over the Pennines from Scotch Corner, North Yorkshire to Penrith, Cumbria today, simply because I hadn’t done the route before on my Forza 300 and wanted to see how it compared with previous maxi scooters and MZ's of similar capacity. It's about 60 miles of single and dual carriageway, long hills and descents, and the high sections are often closed in winter.

The Forza did the job as effortlessly as a scooter twice the size, didn't run out of steam on the hills like my Helix used to, wasn't effected by headwinds and crosswinds like the Helix, and any overtaking was a doddle.

What I didn't expect was the volume of traffic on some sections heading into Cumbria for the Lake District and staycation holidays.

Another reason for my ride was to stock up on traditional Cumberland Sausage and some other specialist sausages from Cranstons Food Hall in Penrith. A spot of luncheon in their café and I was ready for the return West to East ride back to Scotch Corner, and back home again to York.

As it's a nice evening I'm now going out on my regular daily push bike ride, which for someone who's never been remotely sporty or fitness orientated is now part of my daily routine.

Sounds like a great ride in some glorious weather mate.

Had some sausages a few years back with black pudding in absolutely delicious

JamieB wrote:

Sounds like a great ride in some glorious weather mate.

Had some sausages a few years back with black pudding in absolutely delicious

The weather was was dull and blustery on the outward ride which I don't mind. It's only when I got back into North Yorkshire it brightened up.

When I added up the weight of all my sausage back home, I'd bought eight varieties and over 11lbs in total including Cumberland Sausage with Black Pudding. As you say it's delicious, although it still surprises me that some people still won't touch it.

Including one of the York Forza guys who didn’t want the Bury black pudding on his Full English when we met up for brunch and cocktails at a Leeds roof bar last Sunday morning. Silly boy, I ate it for him.

The speciality sausage I'm looking forward to is their Cumberland Sausage with Mr Vikkis Mango Chutney. Mr Vikkis are another local producer and I regularly used to ride to Keswick and have a curry and buy their chutneys and pickles when Keswick Market was on.

I was born and brought up in Bury Meldrew. Black puddings ( the original ones were made by Chadwick's) who had a shop in Bury , and a market stall on Bury market, the market stall is still there but the shop has long gone. Some company set up as the Bury Black pudding Company, but they are not the original.

Hello mate, it's nice to know you're still occasionally looking and posting on here. You'll be clocking up the miles more on your Cruisym 300 than the Silver Wing these days. Downsizing and losing that 50 plus kilos of weight makes all the difference. It's the same with push bikes, Mrs M's gravel bike weighs 10kg and the big Dutch plodder I ride weighs over 25kg.

I had the Bury Market black pudding years ago hot in a bun and slathered in English mustard. Apart from the traditional fat sausage link, I've had the type cooked in trays and sold in squares. Here in Yorkshire, Doreen's Black Pudding is very popular, it's triangular like a Toblerone.

Just done the 35,000km service on the Cruisym300i. Had it for three years last month. Apart from the weight, and accelleration, it handles exactly like the Silverwing. i still ride the Silverwing every week, with 44,500 miles on it i don't think it will sell. I look in on this website regularly, but most of the things they discuss we already talked about in the ten years we were on the site, if i cannot add anything i don't comment. Glad to see you are keeping well and still riding, and eating well. Stay safe mate.