If anyone tells you the C2C is the best cycle route in England, they should be taken immediately to Appleby-in-Westmoreland, left outside the Settle-Carlisle line station and told to start pedalling. Here on the edge of the North Pennines lies the start of the Pennine Cycle Way North. Newly opened to cyclists, it is 150 miles of old railway tracks, timewarp towns, mighty viaducts, little rushing rivers, snooker-table-green hills and lanes no wider than a double bed. It's just brilliant.
Like the C2C, it is a challenging route and one that can be ridden in three days if you're prepared to get a move on. But there is so much to see that you would be mad (or Lance Armstrong) to try and pack it all into a long weekend. You go past road signs that say "Slow down for squirrels", through avenues of rhododendrons, along holloways like the old London-Newcastle-Edinburgh Road (the A1 of carriage driving days). The skies are vast and shared by nothing but the occasional heron and fighter jet. For moving wallpaper, you can choose between red cows, gold cows, pheasant, deer, the occasional road block of sheep and the odd crusted-looking farmer driving his 4WD on the wrong side of the road.
What else? Hadrian's Wall and the Cheviots, of course, plus more castles and fortified farmhouses than you can shake a stick at (this is, after all, border country where hairy, bearded people used to come in while farmers were asleep and nick all their cattle). There are terraced hillsides, evidence of prehistoric villages and farming, and a giant rabbit warren, which looks more like a rabbit condominium. The off-road sections are massive fun. And, it goes without saying, there are plenty of lovely pubs.
The boozer quotient - that's the key. Ever since the C2C was put together in 1987, Sustrans, the organisation behind the National Cycle Network, has been looking for its equal, an exhilarating long distance pubs 'n' scenery challenge ride that could be the holidaying cyclists' Tour de France. The Pennine Cycle Way looks like being the one. If you have not yet heard of it, that is because it was opened only in a very low-profile way last summer, thanks to the residual effects of foot and mouth. Even now, there are bits that are not quite finished, places where signs point the wrong way or merely don't exist, so if you are less than vigilant you can find yourself heading for the Scottish Highlands. By spring, though, all will be in place and eventually the complementary Pennine Cycle Way South will open, when it will be possible to bike from Derby to Berwick, right up the spine of England.
It was my first taste of this part of the world and I was in august company. John Grimshaw (head of Sustrans), David Gray (who put the C2C together) and Ted Liddle, the designer of the new route, were cycling it in three bacon-butty-packed days to put in the finishing touches and see if everything worked.
There are two options for starting the ride, Appleby or Penrith. Start at Penrith and you are immediately on that bit of the C2C which features the epic hill climb to Hartside Top during which you pedal furiously for a quarter of an hour to find you have only travelled another 200m. The Appleby start takes you along 40km of slumberous country roads through the Eden Valley, which in days gone by had trains threading through with consignments of iron ore for Consett but which these days is a peaceful unpolluted balcony with views of the distant Lake District hills. You still have to tackle Hartside if you go from Appleby but, by the time you link in with the C2C just after Renwick, you are more than halfway up.
You also have to brave heavy traffic on the A686 on the short stretch into Alston, but there the two routes part company. Instead of labouring up the zig-zagging cobbles that lead to Britain's highest market town, we sailed on with the South Tyne on our left and the Roman road to Corbridge on our right, past Kirkhaugh, where you can see the prettiest, narrowest, steepliest steeple in Northumberland. It was a knockout part of the route, crossing the river just before Slaggyford and passing the magnificent Lambley viaduct, all 16 arches of it, before a slightly alarming crossing of the A69 brought us to a twilit and rain-soaked Haltwhistle. (Negotiations are ongoing with a local landowner to make it possible to pass under the A road).
Haltwhistle's USP is that it is the centre of Britain - true if you lop off a few inconvenient protuberances like Anglesey and the Scilly Isles. We had a lovely overnight stop at the Centre of Britain Hotel and headed off next morning, fuelled by copious helpings of black pudding and local sausages, to stop and marvel at Hadrian's Wall in a cold, sunlit landscape under hundreds of acres of sky. Heading north, we were able to get some speed up on an old unclassified road repaired for cyclists after damage by forestry traffic; it passes through a corner of Wark Forest and a wedge of Northumberland National Park.
A word of warning, by the way. Between Once Brewed (last coffee machine before Hadrian's Wall) and Bellingham, where we were heading, is 20 miles of almost nothing except trees and hills and sheep - it's one of the most sparsely populated parts of England. Great vistas, no tea shops, so take plenty of provisions and fill up your water bottle before you go.
We reached Bellingham, sleepy and unsung, via a link with the Reivers Cycle Route, and enjoyed cheese toasties and hot chocolate at the Heritage Centre, which doubles as tourist information office, library and caff. But the award for watering hole of the Pennine Cycle Way definitely went to the splendidly wacky Impromptu Café at Elsdon, some 18km further on. It was a slight detour from the route across the village green but impossible to miss because of all the bikes parked up outside it. Inside are walls decked with cycling memorabilia and tables full of cyclists. Fortified with fruit cake and hot chocolate, we embarked on the long haul out of Elsdon that took us over Billsmoor to an overnight stop in Rothbury, the kind of town you thought only existed on Victorian Christmas cards.
Day three brought the Coquet valley and an off-road section between Harbottle and Alwinton then onwards towards Wooler, through beautiful villages on mildly undulating lanes, over a ford under which rushed water stained brown with disturbed peat and iron, along an avenue of newly planted trees that offered a suddenly elegant contrast to the wildness; even the sheep seemed to have been spruced up and placed on carefully by hand. Wooler's little shops looked busy and tempting in the late afternoon light, but Berwick was beckoning.
The last 30km passed in a blur of beautiful sights: the magnificent castle at Ford (you can stay in it), the picture book village behind it with its old smithy door in the shape of a horseshoe and its village hall decorated with biblical murals by the 18th-century artist Lady Waterford, who used local faces as models. A few miles beyond was Etal (thatched roofs, pub, shop, tea room, obligatory castle) and then Norham, a good place for a final rest and recovery before the big pedal into Berwick.
It was a spectacular end to the journey, crossing the Tweed via a gently undulating Union Chain Bridge, hooked on to the rocky banks like a giant kitchen utensil. And so, after a slightly hairy crossing of the A1/68 into Berwick and the mainline station, that was Journey's End.
The verdict? It's a marvellous route from beginning to end, with so many highlights you'd need a phone directory to list them all. It's something that can be attempted by everyone, not just bike buffs and tough guys, but though its hills do not register as high as the C2C on the stonkingness scale, it is a challenge route. As a summer cycling holiday, the Pennine Cycle Way would be perfect but even in winter a lot of it is eminently rideable and if conditions are mild you can do the lot. Just make sure you research the route well beforehand, ensure your bicycle is serviced, take extra food and a hot flask and wrap up as if you're heading for Snowdon or Scafell Pike. I'm filling the Thermos up right now.
Way to go
Getting there: From May-September 2003, Holiday Lakeland (Dale View, Ireby, Wigton, Cumbria CA7 1EA, tel: 016973 71871) will be offering 4 night/5 day Pennine Cycle Way North holidays from £375pp with half-board hotel accommodation, support, luggage transfer and transport back to the start.
Further information: Route maps for the Pennine Cycle Way North cost £5.99 from Sustrans, PO Box 21, Bristol BS99 2HA (0117 9290888).
