Dales and Lakes Bicycle Tour 2020: Day 1

On the way to Barbon

 "Where are you off to?" said my neighbour. "A few days cycling around the Yorkshire Dales" I replied as I manoeuvred my loaded bike out of the garage. The mid-September sky was blue and the weather set fair so it was the ideal time for my first ever multi-day cycle camping tour. It was just gone noon and I planned to reach Cowgill in Dentdale by late afternoon or early evening , a comfortable distance of around 40km.

 I followed the cycle track out of Lancaster from Halton through to Bull Beck where I joined the A-road to Kirkby Lonsdale. Here, next to Devil's Bridge, the Yorkshire Dales National Park officially begins and I followed the Sedbergh road parallel to the River Lune until peeling off at Casterton with a view to a stop at Barbon. These are lovely lanes, some forming part of the Lakes and Dales Loop, a 196 mile circular route around the best of Cumbria. In fact the website modestly declares it the best bike ride in Britain. Having stopped at a crossroads a passing cycling couple greeted me and asked if I was following the Lakes and Dales Loop. I told them that I was doing my own tour this time to which they replied "Good for you".

www.lakesdalesloop.co.uk

  Barbon is special; the short and dead straight ride along the terrace above the village being one of the highlights of the whole trip, the dramatic fell-side to the East and majestic views across to the North Lancashire coast on the western flank. I never tire of it and seldom miss an opportunity to ride there.

Above Barbon. I wonder who built this road first?
You guessed it: Barney Rubble

 At the end of the high terrace a sort of T-junction is reached (a T-junction with a triangular bit...would that be a delta junction then?) giving the option to take the moorland route to Dent over Gawthorp. This was used (in the opposite direction) for the Queen stage of the Tour of Britain cycle race in 2019, a stage I (almost) saw won by Matthew van der Poel at the Kendal finish (see below). He went on to win the race overall too.

MVP launches his final attack (on Matteo Trentin) to win the Queen Stage in Kendal at the 2019 Tour of Britain  
Sadly, I was out of view of the finish line (just around the corner and up the hill).
 I didn't realise it at the time, but am chuffed to have caught the exact moment of attack!

 As it was the first day of my tour I had already decided to take the longer but less hilly route via Sedbergh, so I turned left and dropped down to the village of Barbon itself. I had intended to take a coffee stop at the excellent little cafe "The Church Mouse"  but had forgotten it is closed Mondays. I should have realised as it had been mentioned on a group ride I was on only eight days previously!

 Pressing on I then missed a right turn that would have kept me on the little rugged lanes a bit longer so I ended up back on the main road and  I stayed on it heading North. The A-road from Devil's Bridge to Sedbergh is handy for cycling as the traffic has never been too bad at all whenever I've ridden it and the same was so this day. It is popular with motorcyclists that like to ride very fast however! One flashed by and then a little later I passed the same guy stopped at the side as he was exchanging particulars with a couple in a small hatch-back. I didn't see the incident nor any serious damage done. Lucky...that time.

 Having picked my way through a couple of junctions in the town (Sedbergh) I easily followed the signs to Dentdale. This is an incredible road. Up with the very best anywhere on the planet. Really, I'm not even exaggerating. Constantly rolling but with no severe steeps and of course the dramatic and surprisingly rugged surrounding hills forming the channel for the quaint River Dee to flow. You really get transported to another world here. Literally in the case of the cycle tourists that I saw being picked up by their host in his van as I was approaching Dent itself. 

"It's so good here people are prepared to pay to come and ride their bikes around the lanes, so how lucky am I to be able to do it from my back door?" I thought.

 "Very" I replied to myself.

At Dent I stopped at the museum for a feed. It has another excellent little cafe which I can highly recommend. Even better, it was open. Four  o'clock had just gone by and they had stopped serving hot meals so I was forced to eat some of their delicious apple pie and ice cream instead! There is a large and neatly organised camp ground opposite the museum but I was heading for something much less formalised further up the valley.

The museum at Dent

 I rattled my way through Dent along the narrow, enclosed, cobblestoned village road and then made decent time covering the remaining kilometres to Ewegale's Farm at Cowgill. This is situated close to the foot of the very (very, very, very) steep climb up toward Dent station, where I was headed the next day.

Ewegale's camp ground, Cowgill, Dentdale

 The camp ground was empty when I arrived. A signpost clearly identified it as such and the rusty old Land Rovers parked near the entrance gave it a certain character - a juxtaposition to the sunny open pastureland, sprawling fellside and heavily wooded River Dee that defined the boundaries. This idyllic spot is on the Dales Way hiking route I later learned. 

Arrived.



Some old nags put out to pasture.

Dales Way Association

The picturesque River Dee at Cowgill

I followed the track up to the nearby farm (right of the entrance, not the track up the hill in the picture above) and saw an older gentleman sat in the garden raised up above the road and just in front of the house. He basked in the glorious late summer sunshine looking like he was to that very manor born. I ventured round the back and was informed by a younger guy that it was the old man that I needed to see about the camping. I asked if it was okay for me to walk directly through a gate to the front garden from the back yard and he said that it would be fine. Very hospitable indeed.

"Glorious evening" I said approaching the nuggetty farmer. 

"Aye smashin' " he said. 

He told me it was £7 for one person with one tent for one night. I gave him £10 and told him to keep it.

"Buy yourself a pint" I said, " Well maybe a half these days!" we both grinned with a certain regret.

A couple of months later I saw the same guy being interviewed on a BBC  TV travelogue show where the presenter was walking through Dentdale chatting to locals, reciting poetry and espousing the awe inspiring wonders that surround. The show was filmed the previous spring just before all the virus rubbish. The guy told him he had lived there all his life having been born there seventy eight years before. I believed him.

I know, I know, a very fishy deep dark pool!

 I returned to the field and pitched my tent a few hundred metres along the thickly wooded riverbank, close to a signpost that identified the nearby riverside path as being on the Dales Way. I made sure I was well away from the boggy ground around the breakers yard near the entrance and I had even walked my bike a long route right around the field to keep to the dry areas, as well as to assess a suitable pitch. By the time the tent was up and I'd sorted a brew for some green tea and noodle soup the light was fading fast as the sun dropped behind the high hills to the West. 

Pitched. Soon have a brew on.
And a messy camp!

  The camp site had a few more human residents by the time I had settled: three guys on foot carrying backpacks were spread out near the entrance on the other side of the Land Rover farm; another had arrived at dusk by car, helpfully (for me too) using his headlights to set up his camp in the open ground beneath the fellside, opposite but further down from me.

 After a long and tiring day packing, navigating, cycling and eating apple pie with ice cream I was ready to retire to my sleeping bag. The sound of the babbling water was having a soporific effect and I sensed a hefty sea trout lurking in the deep dark pool beside me...the same one that was taking the mickey out of me as I spent all night failing to catch him lower down the river system a few weeks before... undoubtedly! I fell asleep planning how to fix some fishing tackle to my bike next time...anything to avoid  thinking about Dent Station.

Day 1 Route

Day 2