Second City Divide

A cycle tour of 637.5 solo kilometres pedalled (and pushed) between Glasgow and Manchester!

The second city divide is a bikepacking route which meanders its way across the hilly bits between the second city of Scotland and (debatably) the second city of England. Over 9 days in June, I took in the delights of the gravel paths through Scottish wind farms, and the sketchiness of forestry track downhills in Northumbria. From the history of Hadrian’s wall to the canals which wind their way into Manchester – a little adventure, fuelled by a whole lot of chocolate milk.

Music: Thoughts on Weeks by Hawkin from Free Music Archive

what do you do when you got a few days of Freedom you know maybe get on your bike and cycle 400ish miles back home again you know that’s a possibility so we’re 5 days before and I am sewing some waterproof trousers and a stem bag and just you know generally getting to the point where I’m like do I really need all of this waterproof stuff and then I’m like I’m going to Scotland I need all of the waterproofs so i’ be vaguely following the Second City divide route which is a bike packing route but I ride on a touring bike with panas and carry quite a lot of stuff 4 days before starting we got up really really early to get C to the train got to the station they were like maybe maybe not you’ll be able to get there got de Preston and then no trains were headed north so in the end we got back on the train came back into Manchester and got in the car to drive up to Scotland we stayed a night with my granny which was absolutely lovely and ate lots and lots and lots we then went to Edinburgh um and met up with some friends ate some really good ice cream before making it to Glasgow to see more friends see the SES take some photos see some kittens in the [Music] window we also went to the cathedral which had a really really lovely Service I looked out for ghosts in the necropolis and then it was time to pack my bags and say bye to Dan He headed off in the car and I headed off to eat some ice cream and then wait a little while before I met my warm showers host for that evening day one so I started off at my warm shower host’s house and she was super super lovely I climbed out of Glasgow and headed out to the wind farms here you can see how big the wind turbines are compared to me and my bike um super lovely gravel paths spreed along them had to clamber over a gate but you know someone put a concrete ramp up one side so that was helpful um these cows very much wanted to join me for lunch but there was a castle grid between them and me which I was quite glad about some narrow country lanes but managed to get to the campsite do a little bit washing allowed to dry in the sunshine ate an awful lot of snacks um and cooked a good tea you what had a bit because that saves me 440 G of weight to not carry the day after you know best reason to help it right and then headed off to bed day two Dawn wet I got down to the tent put on my Poncho sorted breakfast got on my way tried to keep warm um some nice RADS to begin with some kind of gravel and then some mud and I pushed up a lot of Hills today I did about 7 65 km in total and um fueled on a lot of fruit and nuts a lot of shortbread and watched a lot of sheep as I went past I did end up getting turned back at the gates of a wind farm by security guard so I had to go all the way back to the road um and followed the psychopath um near the motorway for quite a long way but it was fine it was fast I saw another cycle tourist and that was quite nice then sun came out later in the day I planned to stop in my foot and ate a really good custard slice there but the campsites were teaming with camper van and Caravans and I didn’t think I would fit so I headed up the hill to look at another one but they were full so I ended up camping along the anandale trail I filtered my water found a spot without too many cows looking at me um and cooked my tea and read for a while before I popped up my t cuz it was light till really late such a beautiful evening day three I was headed for hike and some warm showers host who very kindly um agreed to have me I C approximately 80 km um starting with a 40-minute push up the hill and then a glorious cycle to T Reservoir um a big hill up with some stinging hail and then Mega Reservoir abs absolutely stunning made it to the Glen Cafe at St Mary’s lock and ate lots of soup and Cake accompanied by a whole host of motor bikers um we took the the hilly route across the tops on lots of gravel paths walking up and down a few um and then eventually made it into hke day four was my longest day it was 110 km originally i’ planned it to be two different dates but on the advice of my hosts I cut out quite a few of the Forest Trails around kelda because they’ve had other cyclists who’ve got desperately lost I saw a furry caterpillar had a look at Hermitage Castle which was built in around 1240 and has a legended that one of its owners was arrested and then boiled to death in M lead I crossed through into England having made it to ker I continued on through the forest heading for Hadrian’s Wall some pretty nice roads until the national cycle week that I was following spat me out onto some gravel there’s a lot of Forestry commission logging around and so a lot of the roads have been kind of upgraded so that the lorries can get along at what point when I moved over to the side I thought the grass Verge was solid but it really wasn’t and so me and my bike went Head Over Heels down into the grass it was quite soft though it was all right made it to a super lovely cyclist and Walker’s campsite and met lots of people walking the hran wall in either direction day five was a slightly shorter day after the mammoth day the day before um it was only about 45 km but I stopped off to begin with at vinder Lander extremely impressive Roman ruins and reconstructions and I’ve really enjoyed their collection of shoes once I got going I was on quite a few bike paths and had some cuper suit for lunch to warm me up from the damp weather the Poncho wasn’t so good cuz it was so blustery ended up going across the viaduct and then realizing there were stairs and having to navigate all the way down and all the way back up and slid down on my bum at some point in the mud went to get some food in Austin and a Dutch lady on a quad bike did a big about turn in the middle of the road to come back and check that I definitely had somewhere to stay tonight because she’d done touring the pass I did though I camped behind Gago Village Hall in their campsite a slow po up to a 75 km day for day six decided not to continue up the Second City divide route because it was on the penine way and it was just too Rocky but I ended up going up a hill and then back down all the way to the pen way because I dropped my purse met lots of cyclists doing a sport Eve and once I had fixed the fact that a screw had come leas just over the border to Durham I um chatted to a German chap as we did a beautiful descent towards High Force [Music] waterfall I did a bit of a zigzag so the wind was with me for about a third wind was against me as I went across the mes for about a third and then the wind was with me as I climbed up towards tan Hill in absolutely stunning Golden Light but quite a cool breeze as I got there [Music] [Music] that started off my tea with the hot chocolate and then had a glorious pie with a whole gallon of gravy there was a band inside but it was so beautiful outside that I stayed out and watched the sunet clear sky is me for a chilly night though so I was glad of my metal water bottle that I filled with hot water which kept my toes toasty had the morning accompaniment of lots of sheep B outside of the temp all morning I think they were calling to each other but I don’t know how they lost their lambs overnight decied rather than following a rocky route that I would follow the road instead some absolutely gorgeous views Over The [Music] Dales ate a really tasty breakfast o and then a humongous chunk of carrot cake I was shouted up by a pewit many many times because I was evidently cycling near to their ground nests ended up on a pretty Rocky path which I could manage for like 3 km until I could come off but not the 60 km that I planned as a rout but dropping down meant that I ended up at the wednesy Dale crey and I wanded around that cheese shop trying all the different types of cheese also rescued a lamb who ended up on the road and I managed to scare it enough that it found the hole that it did squeeze through and squeezed back through to find its mom the campsite had a barn which was really good cuz it was very wet but it was also in the shadow of some of the Yorkshire Three Peaks had a bit of a tough morning in day eight it had been quite soggy overnight and I wake up really late there’s also a worm in my cup so I washed it thoroughly before I made breakfast I reckon I’d under fueled the last day um and really needed some more chocolate milk probably some fighter jets flew overhead during breakfast which was very exciting I then crossed into a bit of the forest of band and cycled some gorgeous Rolling Hills and between the forest of berland and the Yorkshire Dales H stopping at a village hall to eat a very large very very tasty sandwich for lunch saw lots of old men on old bikes with old [Music] Piers I was the only one at the campsite that evening um and it had four showers so I could have had four showers and four different showers I didn’t I only had one um but the showers were in very cool converted horse boxes final day and final pack up of the tent um was quite exciting I semi-f followed the route I ended up um cycling kind of Roads parallel to the penine briway which I think is probably appropriate for like bike packing bags and on a mountain bike but not really for my heavenly Laden tour a really steep descent and then a really Steep Hill um and some gorgeous views above the reservoirs before going down some exceedingly sketchy cobbles through hepton stall into hepton bridge I Then followed Rochdale Canal all the way into Rochdale and then out of frale back into Manchester [Music] one last Titan of the screw that comes loose and was rattling having gone over lots and lots of cobbles a trip over the mount Motorway bridge and some nosy cows and then back into Manchester through clayon Veil they’re not far from home so that was that my garment said 6372 km which is just shy of 400 miles I think I’ve concluded that I’m more of a road Rider and more of a cycleur than a bike Packer but had so much fun