coast to coast cycle day 4 osmotherly to Robins Hood Bay

Day four was our last day, about 47 miles of hilly roads (surprisingly, this day had the most ascent of any day on the trip) to Robin Hoods Bay, where the Packhorse minibus would pick us up at 4 o'clock.

I was a little anxious about getting away fairly early, so we would have time to enjoy a pint or two at the end and, most importantly, not miss the bus. After delicate negotiations, myself and Brian persuaded our companions that breakfast at 07.30 would be a good idea (clearly Matt and Mark are not early morning people) and we were away reasonably early.

Although the route profile showed us climbing to lesser heights than on previous days, the roads were constantly up and down, with hardly any flat bits today. First big climb was up Sandhill Bank, on which I was feeling surprisingly sprightly, to this bus stop at the road junction.

Brian has his "I'm a bit knackered" face on

The rollercoaster of hills continued, Matt had a slow puncture

and through to  Castleton for a teashop stop, and on to Glaisdale. Rearing out of Glaisdale was probably my favorite climb of the whole trip - Limber Hill.

Limber Hill is remarkably steep, and myself and Mark climbed it at a remarkably low speed, barely above walking pace at times. By now I had adopted the Whybrow method of climbing - out of the saddle, not too fast, using all the road to minimise the gradient (apologies to the BMW driver who may have been surprised by my presence on the wrong side of the road on an earlier climb), and most of all, not stopping until the top. It works, and I didn't have to resort to walking on any climb after Kirkstone. At the top of the hill, this sign says it all.

On of the best things about Limber Hill is that it leads to Egton, and the superb Wheatsheaf pub and our beer/ lunch stop

Before departing the pub, Brian was anxious to check the way forward. He carefully checked the map and announced that we should go left out of the pub, before immediately taking the first left turning to Grosmont. The route confirmed, nothing could possibly go wrong.

Navigationally empowered, Brian led the way out of the pub to the left, and immediately and inexplicably sped downhill, missing the left turning to Grosmont. Brian was clearly on a mission to go the wrong way, and no amount of shouting or arm waving could stop him. We waited for him to come back, but Brian was not forthcoming.  Eventually, I pedalled off after him, only to find a road sign warning of a 33% downhill drop. I wasn't going down that, and then back up again, just to find Brian, so I gave up. Matt called his mobile, but Brian had no signal.

So we waited. Eventually, a forlorn figure in bright yellow appeared in the distance, puffing and sweating up one of the steepest hills in the north of England. I warned some passers by to cover their ears in case of bad language, and we tried, in vain, not to giggle.

To Brian's enormous credit, he took it well, and by his standards the language wasn't too bad, and once he had recovered (and the rest of us had stopped laughing), we were on our way.

At Grosmont we encountered another ridiculously steep hill, and then we reached the magnificently named village of Ugglebarnby, with another never-ending hill up to the church. Normally, you expect the church to be on the top of the hill, but no, this hill just kept on going up way past the church and beyond.

More undulating roads took us to main road, and a lovely, long descent into Robin Hoods Bay. Robin Hoods Bay has a twisting, narrow road down to to the sea, full of pedestrians and 30% descents, so we walked down to the water for a welcome pint at the bay Hotel at the end of a fantastic ride.

Day 4 stats

46 miles

3901 feet of ascent

5 pubs

So, that was it, another beer at Robin Hoods Bay in the Victoria, a minibus ride back to Kirkby Stephen, a curry and more beer, and back home the next day.

The whole trip couldn't have gone any better - nobody fell off, no mechanical  disasters, only two punctures (both Matt's), we didn't get lost (apart from the Brian incident), plenty of beer, and wonderful cycling in good company.

I can't wait to do it again.