SLOTHO is a tour I planned from Swanage to Newcastle staying at YHA Youth Hostels on the way. My idea was that I would be supporting the YHA in its post-COVID recovery by staying at the hostels. SLOTHO means SLeep Out To Help Out.
This ride became the 5th day of my SLOTHO tour, but I have numbered it 4b as (by adding it to day 4a in my previous video) it completed the stage I had planned for day 4 of the tour.
Sorry about the confusion over stages, but I blame the weather! Originally this was not intended to be part of SLOTHO; I undertook this ride to Hartington in order to set myself up with a tail-wind for a long and fairly hard ride back to Boston (my home town) next day, testing a possible low-traffic route I had noticed while browsing maps at home during the plentiful bad weather we’ve had. On this occasion the weather window was only 2 days and I rejected this as an opportunity to continue with SLOTHO – which would need 4 1/2 days. It was only a week or so later when a third respite in the weather flickered briefly across the forecast and I realized I could just complete the SLOTHO trip from Swanage to Newcastle, but only if I incorporated this day and the ride back to Boston next day to join up my tyre tracks between my first and third attempts! I’ll write more on this in a later description, but you can see the idea from the blue arrows on the map in the video.
Next days ride would be over 100 miles and would involve a few hills, so I was keen not to wear myself down on today’s ride and not to injure any aching joints. I rode at a relaxed pace and resisted any temptation to make an effort (I found that quite easy to resist). I took time to mess around with my camera too; it is nice to find places to hang the camera to capture video that shows the scenery which is often hidden behind tall hedges or to capture a different angle such as the view down from a bridge, or even the view behind me. I try to include myself riding in the view as I think it maintains the sense of continuous movement and journeying in the finished film.
This time my route (NCN 6 & 54) used the Tissington Trail rather than the High Peak Trail. The Tissington line was built much later than the High Peak; by this time steam engines had developed the power needed to climb hills so the whole Tissington line could incorporate a long gentle gradient, whereas the earlier High Peak line was built dead flat with all climbs confined to short steep (1 in 6) inclines where wagons were pulled up by cables and chains. The gradient on the Tissington line was up to about 1 in 60 so it’s noticeably nicer when you’re going down rather than up, but even up is not particularly challenging for a cyclist although it is steeper than most railways.
I was also impressed by the cycle route between Nottingham and Derby and especially along the Derwent into Derby. Thanks to SUSTRANS and it’s partners there are now many such routes enabling cyclists to gain easy entry into city centres without fighting traffic or even (sometimes) breathing too many fumes. There may now be an even better route out of Nottingham using the Trent Way path, but I am not sure if cycling is permitted there.
It was a fairly uneventful ride which went completely to plan (apart from a delayed train to start with) and so it may look a little boring! I was never bored – it was a real pleasure!
Once again I met many friendly people at the hostel – including several cyclists this time; I think meeting like-minded people at the end of the day is one of the nice aspects of hostelling and Hartington seems to be a very good place for that. My bed was comfortable. I just won’t mention whether anybody snored as long as they don’t grass on me!
Made by FotoPlay
Music Copyright:
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Music: Classical Piano Waltz Of Birds
Musican: MusicLFiles
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/6238-classical-piano-waltz-of-birds
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B&W photos: JW Sutherland collection
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2 Comments
Hartington Hall YHA looks great, well done in bringing in some support. Happy trails to Newcastle.
Well done on drawing attention to the great opportunities for (mostly) traffic-free cycling on the NCN routes linking major towns and cities. You show how they are accessible for all and give an alternative, often unexpectedly scenic, view of familiar places. I enjoyed the variety in your video, including some Benny Hill- style speeded up footage and the old black and white photos of locations on your route. The detailed descriptions help explain the slightly convoluted route. You've done well to persist with the project in the face of all the rain we've had.