Coast to Coast, Day Three, 17th May (25 Miles)

Total Eclipse of the Heart.
Overcast, gun-metal skies greeted us on the third morning, but the clouds had a distant look about them and thankfully the rain held off for the duration of the day. On a less happy note, I woke up with quite a bad case of the tuppeny-bits, most likely picked up on Day One where various road-splashings picked up by my water bottles in the Lake District were more than likely not entirely mud derived. After some breakfast and the obligatory tea, I felt somewhat better when we climbed onto the bikes at about 9.30, a comparatively early start, but bearing in mind we wanted to be in Sunderland before midday for our completion deadline. Once more, the first few miles consisted of climbing as we hauled our aching limbs out of Shotley Bridge, but thankfully this was the last real climb of the whole trip. After a quick stop at a local garage to try and sort out Gary's gears with some WD40 (abject failure), we rejoined the official C2C route just outside Consett.Rather unfortunately, Day Three saw us cycling the last 25 miles completely offroad as a quick look at the map the previous evening had shown us that onroad routes from Consett to Sunderland would be of the particularly scary variety with no suitably direct minor road alternative. This was a shame for two reasons. Firstly, the quality of the offroad cycle paths varied tremendously, from smooth tarmac to loose shale to fist-sized boulders (yet somehow we managed a fairly speedy 14 mph for most of the way, not bad considering our fondness for anorexic tyres). And secondly, the majority of the final day was spent on an old, disused railway line, with accompanying high banks and sidings, so that very little of the surroundings could be seen. I doubt very much, given the industrial history of this area, that the view was particularly worth seeing, especially in comparison with the previous day, but it would have been nice to have seen a change in the scenery. The only upside of this rail-route, albeit a rather significant one, was that the last 25 miles were very, very flat indeed.From Consett, then, in our cocooned cycling world we passed Stanley, the Beamish Open Air Museum and Chester-le-Street. The monotony was broken only by the occasional appearance of a wizened cyclist, suicidal dog or industrial-themed sculpture (in particular the cows). From Chester-le-Street through Washington and into Sunderland, the route became more convoluted, and we lost our way a couple of times due to a combination of incompetence and missing or vandalised C2C signs. Eventually the route became unmissable as we followed the River Wear, a rather forlorn waterway, into the heart of Sunderland, past the impressive Stadium of Light, University of Sunderland and the National Glass Museum and on toward the sea. A sharp left turn and suddenly we were in the official finishing point of Sunderland Marina with its many yachts and pleasure boats. However, in spite of a slow puncture in my back tyre we continued on to Roker Pier, where, with the North Sea stretching out as far as the eye could see, we declared the C2C well and truly finished. And just in time too, as midday came and went soon after. All that remained was to take a few photos, perform a few Madness impressions, and head back to the Marina for a bite to eat in the company of a continuous loop of Bonnie Tyler's greatest hits.To return to our starting point in Workington, we took the train from Sunderland via Carlisle, essentially following the reverse of our route. At first I was slightly disappointed that it was only going to take us a couple of hours to travel the same distance that had taken us two days previously, but in looking at the scenery from the train window, in particular the hills of the north Pennines, I suddenly came over all smug. A change of train in Carlisle brought us down the coast directly into Workington, and a five minute cycle from the station to the disused light house once more. The car was still there (thank heaven) as was a large wind farm just across the harbour which had been invisible because of the low cloud and rain two days earlier. We changed into our civvies, disassembled the bikes and loaded them and the panniers into the back of the car, and headed off. A spot of expensive dinner (Little Chef…nice) later, followed by the obligatory queue on the M6, and we arrived back in Oxford close to midnight. A long bath and inactivity were the order of the weekend, followed by several months of declaring my cycle-touring days (all two of them) over, before a trip across Wales insinuated its way into our consciousnesses.