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After another fry up the climb out of Stanhope up the B6278 was bloody hard work! Even I was walking out of Stanhope, before getting back on the bike! Once past Parkhead we were on the Waskerley Way and heading along open moorland, and then downhill through wooded areas. A fantastic part of the route, making good time, averaging 15-20mph then 20-25mph, although getting bombarded by flies a lot of the time. The route around Consett was well signposted, and then we were on the Derwent Way, some great paths through woodland, broken up by the occasional gates and barriers as we crossed minor roads. Difficult to fathom where we were at times with the constant trees and few distinguishing landmarks, but we were soon through Rowlands Gill and into Gateshead. Over the Scotswood Bridge and along Hadrians Way took us alongside the Tyne, a great path into Newcastle itself, where we stopped at the Quayside pub for lunch. By now the sun was shining, and with the main bridges of Newcastle all around us, this felt like the finish and it was a good break sat there. we still had 10 miles to go though, and typically the weather started to change as we set off, and the last part of the journey was quite hard at times, mainly due to the distance covered and for me a bit of sore back. The route left the Tyne then through various parks, numerous small streets, past the docks, then finally into Tynemouth and along the sea wall, the four of us riding together in anticipation of some spectacular monument to mark the end of the journey, to be greeted by a rather boring sign in between grass verges proclaiming the end of the route! But we'd done it! 4 days of cycling, drizzle, rain, downpours, light breezes, gale force winds, glorious sunshine, blowouts, punctures, wobbly wheels, aches and pains, fry ups, energy bars, water, lager, pub grub, fantastic scenery, we'd done it! A celebratory ice cream in the rain, a walk into Tynemouth centre, then Glen & Paul's brother Gary picked us up and dropped me and Adrian at Newcastle station for the train back to Northallerton.
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