Day 15 – Blown away
I’ve been to Silloth before. In 1995 the National Trust celebrated its centenary with a 100 mile bike ride starting from Druridge Bay in Northumberland and ending in Silloth. My then 14 year old son Rob and I joined Patrick Watson, in whose memory I’m doing this current ride, and his son James and we successfully completed the one day challenge. I also think I may have stayed in the Golf Hotel previously: since leaving the Royal Agricultural College Cirencester in 1971 several of us have met up annually to reminisce and play a gambling game called Continental billiards. Whilst I was putting my bike away last night, I stumbled upon a snooker table in the basement and, as these are becoming rare as hen’s teeth in hotels I Wapped the “boys” to ask if we’d been to Silloth and the answer was affirmative. So there.
The Golf Hotel is a bit tired. It was once quite grand, but it needs a facelift and, with the current economic climate it’s unlikely to get one. My room was on the second floor and was perfectly acceptable. A single comfortable bed and enough room around it, windows that opened and allowed the washing to dry and a slightly temperamental shower.
I ate in the restaurant with very few others: excellent fritto misto with mayonnaise and a badly overcooked steak pie that I should have sent back but ate anyway and chips and peas. A couple of pints of John Smiths helped it down. The staff are stretched, manning both the hotel and the restaurant but the service was OK
I slept quite well after putting the blog to bed with a bottle of SB which I bought in the Spar round the corner. There was quite a lot of life in the pubs as I walked off supper but if they’re not doing business on a weekend in June, they might as well surrender.
FC(umbrian)B was well cooked and produced promptly so all in all it wasn’t a bad experience and cheap at £67.50 for B&B.
The weather forecast was daunting: 25-30mph winds from the south west which was the direction I was heading. There was also a high chance of rain at some point. I dressed accordingly and was wearing 5 layers and overshoes.
The first 7 miles were gruelling, and I had to run the motor just to keep going. During that time, I used 15% of the battery which was unsustainable on a 64 mile journey.
I was beginning to wonder if I would be best to call it a day and catch a train. Fortunately, the west Cumbria railway runs all along the coast and down to Millom, my final destination.
I thought I’d keep going and, if and when the battery died, I’d hop on a train which are quite frequent even on a Sunday.
The conditions improved and I was now on dedicated cycle paths that were more sheltered. Through Workington I was entirely off road and cycling was enjoyable. The other side of town I had a climb into the country and back down to sea level to follow the coast below the cliffs at Parton
Round the corner was Whitehaven, little industry now but the harbour has been developed to provide for the small fishing fleet and a yacht marina
I paused at the top of the climb out of town towards St Bees, to have a walk and eat the rest of a bar of fruit and nut that I started in Workington. The country was rolling with rain shrouded fells in the distance. The barley was just starting to turn colour and the wheat was growing strongly
St Bees lies in a fold of the hills, on the railway line, and has a famous school in the centre
Beyond St Bees the route stayed on top of cliffs above the stormy sea until, at Braystones, it jinked inland to avoid part of the Egremont Estate. This was a pleasant interlude because it took the wind lout of my face. In the distance I could see the towers and buildings of Sellafield, Europe’s largest Nuclear Power site. Originally known as Windscale, in 1950 the two nuclear reactors were built to produce weapons grade plutonium but were shut down in 1957: they have still not been fully decommissioned, demonstrating the complexity of nuclear fuels. Also on the site are the Calder Hall power station, the first to export energy to the Grid in 1956, and now decommissioned, and a plant for reprocessing fuel. Its main purpose is now to store spent fuel from other nuclear reactors. Nuclear power seems a wonderful carbon free way of generating “free” electricity but the costs of cleaning up and decommissioning are huge, as much as £120 billion for Sellafield alone.
I probably could have stayed inland but there appeared to be a coastal path between Sellafield and the sea, and I decided to take it: not a good experience, though it had a solid base sand had blown over it and I had to GOAP on a couple of occasions
The path came back onto hard top at Seascale village about 42 miles into the journey and I’d managed to save sufficient battery power not to have to worry about using it as the road rollercoasted along to Ravenglass
where I crossed the Mite estuary on an iron railway bridge and turned inland passing the station which serves both the main line railway that I had been following, and the Ravenglass and Eskdale steam railway, originally built to transport iron ore but now a popular visitor attraction.
Just around the corner is Muncaster Castle, another visitor attraction and, as I was passing, a steam engine was being strapped down onto a low loader. This later passed me about 10 miles further on with a long queue of traffic behind it.
On wards and upwards with views down across the Esk valley
The last ten miles of the journey were a real roller-coaster but I had sufficient battery power to be able to use the motor freely and arrived at Millom at about 1800hrs.
It’s been a hard day but satisfying to have been able to complete what looked as if it was going to be defeat at the start. And to top it all NO RAIN.
