Pennine Cycleway - Day 1: to Hartington (the prologue) скачать в хорошем качестве

Pennine Cycleway - Day 1: to Hartington (the prologue)

This is the first of a series of videos I hope to produce about a ride on the Pennine Cycleway in October 2024. As the video implies, I would have liked to spend the time continuing my struggle along the Pennine BRIDLEWAY on which I had recently spent 2 very hard but satisfying days doing what definitely doesn't come naturally to me! But the next section was described in the book as wet and boggy and, as it had rained a lot in the intervening week, I decided that would be too challenging. Looking for another route, I started looking at the National Cycle Network for a route northwards as the forecast was for a southerly wind. Almost every route I looked at included a bit of Route 68. When I realised that Route 68 was called the Pennine Cycleway things started to fall into place. Accommodation would be a mix of hostels and campsites. Because of the amount of climbing, I decided to take my aluminium MTB instead of my heavy Thorn. I loaded my bike as lightly as I could for up to a week's camping. Then I checked the forecast - which predicted a fine day for tomorrow and 4 more to follow; I booked a train to Nottingham for the morning and the hostel for the first night and went to sleep just before midnight. In the morning I got up to rain and a forecast for rain all day. I nearly gave up then - but the following 4 days were still supposed to be fine so I decided to ride through the rain for Hartington, repeating a ride I have done several times now, as that would put me in a good position to start on riding through new territory the next day and make the best use of the good weather that was supposedly coming later. The only change I made was to buy an extra train ticket - from Nottingham to Derby - as I could see no point in riding any further than I had to in the rain. From there it is only a few miles to Etwall, where Route 68 branches off on its own - the start of the Pennine Cycleway, at least as far as I am concerned! Apart from the rain, the trip was uneventful. People at the hostel were very friendly indeed. I was able to dry everything and get ready to start out well fed and dry the next morning... To be continued...