Bank holiday Monday was our C2C Day 3. It was always going to be a tough day as there were three big hills to be climbed. As we left Highfield’s B&B in Alston, it was already warm and sunny.

We followed the NCN route 68 back to Leadgate where we picked up route 7 again.

Then climbed for a while before dropping down into Garrigill.

As we left Garrigill, there was a short but very steep climb – which I had to walk up as my gears didn’t go down far enough! However I also struggled to push my bike up to a section where it levelled off a bit, so that I could get back on it again!

The route took us through Dowgang Hush and then down a steep hill into Nenthead.

From Nenthead the climbing started again up past Black Hill (which is the highest point on the National Cycle Network), then down a little. We then climbed up to the along Harley Moor before dropping into the village of Allenheads.

We stumbled across a great little cafe there where we stopped for some refreshments.

The route then climbed up over Allenheads before dropping into Rookhope where we stopped to eat our lunch.

After lunch we followed the road route into Stanhope.

This marked the start of a really steep hill up to Parkhead.

There just happened to be a cafe there, so we had to stop for a cuppa!

Feeling a little more refreshed,  we then joined the Waskerley Way.

This is a track which took us through the North Pennines, past the Waskerley reservoir and on to Rowley before we picked up the Hownsgill Viaduct which took us into Consett.

Our first stop was at Morrisons for some supplies before heading back towards the Hownsgill Viaduct as we were staying at the Hownsgill Bunkhouse.

We had cycled about 40 miles and had climbed just over 4000 feet.

You can view our C2C Day 3 route below:

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