Wednesday June 25, 2014

Although we had a late night last night, (chatting to our warmshowers host) we were up early this morning and after a lovely breakfast we were on the road by 8:15 am.

We arrived in Cumbria today, the Lake District, in England.  We are brushing the edge of it not actually cycling through it.  The Lake District is a beautiful area for a holiday if you enjoy walking.

Kendal is a lovely town that borders the Lake District, we had a little wander through it and then carried on our journey.

The weather was grey and overcast all day, but it didn’t rain.  We cycled through Kendal and could not find a shop that sold Kendal Mint Cake.  Kendal Mint cake is the original power bar – it is pure sugar, but very good.  Apparently Sir Edmund Hilary ate it when he conquered Everest.

The earliest part of this church was built in the early 13th Century, most of the church was built between 1400 and 1600 when the Town\’s cloth trade was at its peak.  This church was clearly visible from the main street.

However, this Zion Chapel was \’hidden\’ down an alley way.  We peered down a little alley and noticed the structure, we walked through the alley and this is what appears in front of you.

Market Place Chapel opened in 1720 and became Unitarian in 1756.  The first Zion Chapel opening in New Inn Yard in 1844.

The scenery in Cumbria is lovely.

We knew we had a climb today up to Shap Fell.  The hill started almost as we left Kendal and carried undulating upwards for 16 kilometres to a height of 394 metres, we had started at 70 metres.  It wasn’t particularly steep (8% at one point), but it was long.  At the top is the bleak Shap Fell and a monument to the transports who had to use this road before the M6 was built.

\”This memorial pays tribute to the drivers and crews of vehicles that made possible the social and commercial links between north and south on this old and difficult route over Shap Fell before the opening of the M6 Motorway.  Remembered too are those who built and maintained the road and the generations of local people who gave freely of food and shelter to stranded travellers in bad weather.\”

We saw four other touring cyclists, two going up the same way as Ralf and I.  They were taking a break about one quarter the way up the climb, and two coming from the other side.  One was walking his bike the last 100 metres or so and the other had just started the climb from Shap Village.  We had big grins on our faces as we were hurtling down the other side after conquering the Shap climb.

The run down into Shap Village was awesome.  We stopped in the Village for lunch and then carried on towards Penrith.  We had the option of 2 campsites tonight – one 6ks before Penrith and one 6 ks after and a Backpackers hostel in Penrith.  We passed the first campsite and decided against it – the photo explains why it would have been our most expensive site to date.

We had a little wander around Penrith and I popped into the Tourist Information Centre.  The TICs are few and far between in the UK.  Often they are unmanned and only have leaflets.  Fortunately this one was manned by some really helpful staff who told us about a campsite just outside of Town (not even 2ks).  We called the site and she had spots for tents.  It is a nice site, but noisy due to the M6 running close to Penrith.