Cycling the TPT - and more! May - June, 2003

We chose to spend our holiday cycling the Trans Pennine Trail for three main reasons:

•  we wanted to see more of Liverpool, which we'd visited the previous November for the first time, for a CTC / CCN conference, and been very impressed with
•  Liverpool, on the TPT, is easy of access by train from Norwich, being the other end of the Central Trains route and not necessitating changing trains;
• The TPT is a fairly new route (much of it still interim) and the leaflet advertising it had some stunning views.

At the planning stage we sent away for the pack containing the three maps covering the TPT and a very handy little book, this being the official visitor guide and accommodation list (£19.75 including p&p from the TPT Office, Barnsley Metropolitan Council, Kendray Street, Barnsley S70 2TN). All the B&B accommodation we used came from this book. In addition, as back-up, I obtained all the relevant OS maps and highlighted the route on them. This turned out to be a very wise thing to do, necessary of course to find some of our accommodation addresses which were not directly on the route.

The first indication of how hard the TPT would be came when two cyclists got on our train at Manchester and sat with us in the cycle compartment. They were returning home to the Wirral after cycling the route from its start at Southport. They informed us that about 80% of it was off-road, on disused railway lines, bridleways and canal / river towpaths. One of the cyclists had a splendid Giant bike with suspension, but the other was suffering from a sore neck after only 4 days on the Trail. The second indication was the weather. We'd already had several days of very heavy storms and at that time there was no prospect of any improvement.

Having spent an enjoyable time at Liverpool youth hostel on our previous visit we stayed there again, for three nights. We had our own en suite room, with cooking facilities if we wanted to do our own meals, but in fact excellent meals were served in the restaurant downstairs. Breakfast was included in the overnight charge, while three course evening meals were priced at £5.10 so very economical. The only snag about our room was that it was in the front of the building, overlooking a main dual carriageway, therefore very noisy.

The YH is also very conveniently placed within walking distance of the Waterfront and the Albert Dock. We walked out that first evening in the sun. We even saw a large group of wet-suited swimmers pounding up and down the Albert Dock, quite a distance.

The sun was out next morning too when we took the Metro (so cheap and convenient) to Southport to see the start of the Trail, with its tall column with the TPT logo on top, its fish sculpture and its comprehensive information boards. None of the locals could fail to know about the Trail. One thing that helped enormously on our ride was that it was generally well signed with large blue signs, quite conspicuous across a road junction for example. Also, when we were in doubt, all the locals we asked knew about the Trail and could direct us - more than can be said about the majority of Norwich citizens and Route 1 of the NCN which passes through it.

On our second day in Liverpool we took our bikes across on the ferry, hoping to repeat the lovely ride around the coastline of the Wirral (NCN Route 56) which we'd done in November. But by the time we arrived there it was pouring with rain so we spent time only at the Historic Warships museum, most interesting with several ships one could explore. Our YHA cards gave us the bonus of half-price admission.

On our third day we were ready to start our long ride, described in diary form below:

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