We had packed all our stuff and loaded up the bikes on Coast and Castles South Day 1. We were all ready for our Coast and Castles South Tour. Whatever we were taking, we had to carry.

  

Coast and Castles South Day 1 began by cycling to Manchester Piccadilly where we were catching the train (about 9 miles). As you can only book 2 bikes onto a train,  we were travelling in small groups up to Newcastle.

The train journey became rather an adventure! At Manchester they changed the platform we left from. Our train was direct to Newcastle. However when we got to York, they cancelled the train. We were told to go to Platform 1 (we had been on platform 11), so we got the lift to tbe subway went across the station and then back up again. As we tried to find platform 1, I noticed that the departure board said the train went from platform 10 – we then rushed back to where we had started just as the train was pulling in. It was a really long train and we were told the bikes had to go in the guards van at the rear, so we had to run (whilst pushing the bikes) down the full length of the train! Finally we all made it to Newcastle. Debbie and Tracey missed their train due to the platform being changed!

The Coast and Castle Day 1 route then took us down to the waters edge and we were off!

The beginning also followed the same route as Hadrian’s Cycleway.

We were following NCN72 (National Cycle Network route 72).

The first castle was Tynemouth Priory and Castle, although we didn’t go in to look around.

We then followed the coast again.

Coast and Castles South Day 1 took us to Whitley Bay. We were staying at the York House Hotel. Which is a great place – the people were very helpful!

We ate at the local Wetherspoons called the Fire Station.

The ride from Newcastle to Whitley Bay was about 16 miles.

You can view our Coast and Castles South Day 1 route below:

[sgpx gpx=”/wp-content/uploads/gpx/candcs-day1.gpx”]