From London to Lake District: Gravel Biking, Lake District Hikes & Water Sports

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Join me on an exhilarating week of adventure starting with the “North London Dirt,” a 70-mile gravel ride North of London. Then we head to the beautiful Lake District, staying at “Another Place, The Lake” on Ullswater. Experience hiking Sheffield Pike and Heron Pike, a 1-mile swim across Ullswater, stand-up paddleboarding, and a scenic off-road mountain bike ride with Arragon Cycle at Lowther Castle. Don’t miss out!

North London Dirt – https://www.instagram.com/northlondondirt
Another Place, the Lake – https://another.place/
Ullswater Swim Place – https://www.ullswaterswimplace.com/
Arragon Cycles – https://arragonscyclehire.com/

Music:
https://www.musicbed.com

in the background the sun it’s incredible yo and welcome back to dinos Scapes I hope you’re all doing very well in today’s episode we’re going to be going over my North London dirt bike ride that took part in and then also my trip to the Lakes where I got to experience some new things that I never thought I’d accomplish but before we get into that and if you’re new to this channel I am Dan and I like to escape on my bikes and do other Adventures if that’s something that interests you then please do hit that like button and subscribe to my channel as it helps a lot and I appreciate it so so much so coming on to North ler dirt that was a gravel event it is a 70m round trip starting in Stoke Newington which is kind of Northeast London then heading up into like har away close to stent Auburn and then back round through eping forest in Essex and then back into Stoke Newton I rode with my friends Sammy and Lauren and also Jenny um we mainly did the ride together it was super enjoyable obviously getting out of London it’s mainly roads and the good thing with this is they navigate you through the back streets so you’re not always on the main roads and then once you get out more into the country side it starts turning into gravel which in our case was actually mud even though the weather was glorious towards the end at the beginning it was very foggy and Misty and I thought is it going to be like this all day which would have been great because then I wouldn’t have got these horrendous Tan Lines which I’ve got from being sunburnt and unfortunately that is one thing you should do when you’re cycling is protect your skin so like I said it started off Misty and then as the day went on sun came out and because it had been Sunny recently I thought the trails or the gravel paths would all be dried up but unfortunately a lot of it was very muddy but yeah the route was super fun I did a lot of it there was parts of it which were quite similar to the rafid day and Hell video that I made so some of the roots that I did on that were Incorporated onto this ride but a lot of it still wasn’t and then also coming back through eping forest was super nice because to I actually haven’t ridden there before and it was nice riding all the gravel paths and also seeing some of the mountain bike trails there which looks super fun so hopefully I can take my mountain bike and try some of those out halfway around there was a pit stop where I could order a pizza Unfortunately they did not do vegan cheese so I just had to have tomato base and some vegetables on top which filled me up because admittedly on these long rides it’s nice to have some good food halfway round also they had a repair shop um run by Shimano so if you were having any Mechanicals you could get that fixed there which was quite nice and also fill up your water bottles with electrolytes from OT so when I bought tickets this was back at the beginning of the year they sold out super fast I want to say in like 10 minutes or something ridiculous like that and I know a lot of people that I was going to ride with did not get tickets unfortunately but you know it was still cool and there was a lot of people there and it was great to be on the gravel bike again cuz when I did the rafid day and Hill I did it on the amonda and it handled well but I really did miss riding this bike it’s super comfortable with those wide tires especially in the muds you know I was able to handle pretty well it was still sketching I was still sliding all over the place but I felt a lot more comfortable with this bike they did have free pizza at the end free beers as well I had a non-alcoholic beer and also you got a gift pack from Rafa and some other brands that partnered together so it was cool to get that so by the time I rode to Stone Newton and rode back I think I clocked up around 90 odd miles Al together which you know it’s pretty head goinging especially as I’ve got ride London coming up this week and you know I’ve never rode 100 miles four and I’m going to see how I get on I’m not going to put too much pressure on it I’m just going to keep riding and if I get tired stop if I don’t just keep going but then I headed off to Lake District and it was a nice little getaway I didn’t plan to do too much on this trip it was pretty much you know just to relax with my partner and I you know we were just going to take it chill but upon arriving there we found out they did Open Water swimming and also paddle boarding obviously being in the Lakes you want to go hike all in them the great Fells instead of being a relaxed holiday ended up doing quite a a bit more firstly we did a short hike up into the hills and that was nice just getting away um there was a few Hills on ‘s water so that’s where we were staying one was called sheffi Pike and then there was another one called Heron Pike I think I want to call it that and that had amazing views of w water down below so it was only about 500 600 M of ascending and then coming back down so all in all really fun hike to do you know nice and easy one not one of the big days out next day thought it’d be fun to book on to a swim across oldw waterer which was a mile long which is 1.6 km so 1,600 M so starting from the hotel which was another place the Lakes you swim across the lake to some wooded area and then swim back so it’s like 800 M there and then 800 m back it took me a while to get used to it at first this was pretty much my first Open Water Swim I know in the swimming pools I can swim like 2,000 meters and you know I can bang it out pretty easily but this was great because you had Colin who was our expert swimmer he’s done a lot for swimming in the UK done run multiple events also commentated in the Olympics and was part of all that he was super experienced and he followed Along on his boat next to me and he was giving me such great feedback and giving me tips on my stroke he was saying on my left side I was very poor had like a claw hand that I wasn’t really scooping the water properly also I wasn’t rotating enough on my left side so you know it was great to get that one-on-one feedback from him we did have someone else on the boat but they were super experienced they were kind of doing laps around me while I was just swimming really slowly so I think it was like 50 minutes to do 1,600 M and at the start it took me a while to get my face in the water I was really struggling because the cold I wasn’t used to it and also being underneath and not being able to see anything below you you know took a while getting used to I’ve done it before when I’ve done free diving but I guess CU you’re swimming and then trying to focus on that it really took me a while to get used to it but once I got into the flow of things it was all right I was going at a very slow pace but I made it I did 1,600 m and at the end I felt super dizzy I don’t know if that was cuz the cold or I don’t know but usually after I done a swim I don’t really feel that dizzy but then moving on from that in the afternoon we decided to do paddle boarding uh part of our package when we booked the hotel it came with a free paddle board hire um luckily it was just high and we weren’t going out with a guide because that was nice that we got to go off on our own and just explore ‘s water lake conditions were perfect there was zero to no wind and the waves were very calm so it was very chill on the water and then halfway up the lake you know the sun peered and it was just beaming down I just you know it was such a chill day and it made me think I really want a paddle board this is so fun being out on the lake and just being able to explore and if you had your own just not having any time limit so definitely something I want to look at in the future getting a paddle board and especially as I was on the North London dirt ride we were riding alongside a canal and I saw loads of people paddle boarding especially in the Sun or kayaking so it looks super fun that reminded me I still have my Little’s kayak upstairs in my loft which I still need to take out on the water and make a video about for you guys so look out for that one and hopefully it get to make that soon if you haven’t seen my original review of that then click up somewhere in top because that was quite funny I set up the kayak in my living room during the pandemic cuz I had nowhere else to go and nothing else to film the next day we decided to hire bikes you know we didn’t plan on going bike riding I know you know we wanted to keep it chill so we decided to pick up some hardtail mountain bikes from aragan cycle hires which was situated in lther Castle I don’t know if I’m pronouncing that right so it’s kind of a great place for families and nice walks around that area but you can hire bikes and do a long Loop so we followed one of the trails around that way so we decided to do the Asin Fel Loop which took you to the top of Asen fell where you get a nice view of zwater and it was great we could see our accommodation right across the lake from where we were sitting uh it was a nice Punchy climb just to get to the top and then we also joined that onto py bridge where you went down into the town there was a nice little book shop there where they had a cafe inside and then cycled back up to the top of as canfell and then back and did a loop round so it’s was nice to do some off-road gravel routes um some single track there as well and especially doing some of the hilly descents that super fun just to let the brakes free and also it was super refreshing being on an entry level hard tail bike I’m so used to being on top end bikes with electronic gears full carbon everything especially like with my gravel bike and and it was just super nice just to go to back to something Basics I think the one thing I did miss was some bib shorts cuz I didn’t bring anything with with me didn’t plan on going cycling and also my head unit so a head GPS cuz we’re constantly having to stop to look at the map and then check this paper map that they gave us against my GPS to make sure we’re on the right course it shows you that you know to go on these nice Cycles you don’t need to have the best bike obviously you have to get the bike for your terrain so I wouldn’t be taking a road bike up there and equally I wouldn’t be taking a heavy cross country bike on a road ride but it was nice knowing that you know I could do all these gravel rides on a aluminium everything entry level gravel bike and it works super well got up the climbs easily and you know I really enjoyed it so you know you don’t actually need to buy high-end bikes and I’d recommend checking out that part of the Lake District olw waterer it’s such a beautiful part the hikes are really good obviously if you can get out on the lake even better and then ride around that area super fun there’s nice like off-road trails so yeah I just don’t know why I live in London and why I don’t live up there that was my day at North London dirt exploring the Lakes as well let me know in the comments Below have you ever been to lakes or ‘s water and have you also swam across it and I know I’m preparing for a triathon which I got in a couple of weeks so it was good to get that open water swim out the way and just get me comfortable in the water so that me when I do that Triathlon I’m going to be super chill in the water but I’ll get into another video about Triathlon prep and what I’ve bought Etc and then also I’m going to take you along on my ride London and see how that goes on how I get on and how I’m fueling for that what preps I did to my bike just to make sure everything was safe and what equipment I brought along with me that’s it for today’s episode if you enjoyed it please do give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel as it helps a lot and I appreciate it so so much hope you’re staying safe staying positive having fun and I shall see you in the next one I haven’t unlocked the suspension so this is we fun