Their story, in their words….
For the Mark Evison challenge we group of 4 decided to cycle from Preston to the Lake District and camp there for a few nights and explore its vast beauty.
We set out in the early morning from London Euston and took a 3hmin train to Preston(Lancs). From Preston we cycled up to Lancashire which was quite an exhausting journey as we had to constantly go up and down hills as well as avoid as much of the main roads as possible but the cycling infrastructure there made the journey quicker and easier for us.
We stopped at Lancashire to have an early dinner and a small rest before we continued for the other half of the journey which went a lot smoother as the from Lancaster the cycling infrastructure was a lot better up until we reached the Lake District. The elevation began to be very challenging especially with all the weight we had on our bikes, our fatigue from cycling such a distance as well as the lack of cycle paths, but we powered through and eventually made it to our campsite just as it was about to get dark. We set up our tent and equipment with the help of our neighbours providing us light and woke up in the morning with one of our tent poles snapping. This made it quite difficult to sleep at night, but it was tolerable.
We set out in the late morning to get food supplies as well as some tape to fix the tent slightly. We cycled around the lake ‘Coniston Water’ to reach Coniston which was quite a lovely village and cycled back with beautiful views of the lake and mountains. Some of us forgot to put on sunscreen leaving our hands and necks slightly sunburned which made cycling a bit more difficult.
For the next day we went down to Ulverston which is a very nice town Your location situated below the lake district, this was a very fun journey at it was almost entirely down hill and the countryside was stunning. We bought some more supplies for dinner and breakfast for next day and went back to our campsite to prepare for our journey back and we decided not to cycle the same way we came back through the A590 which was quite dangerous and we didn’t want to take this large risk as we had to make our train to London in time, so we cycled to the small village of Kirkby-in-Furness and took a train to Carnforth in order to bypass that part of the journey.
Going back was a lot easier to Preston as the hills were more in our favour and we made it back with time to spare so we visited the local park were one of us got a flat tyre right before the train station which we found hilarious, and we eventually made it back to London in the evening.
Cycling to the Lake District and through it gave us a new understanding on long distance cycling as well as camping. We learnt many things about our equipment, the Lake district as well as Preston/Lancashire and mainly ourselves and our limits. This trip was one of the most physically and mentally demanding experiences we have had but it was worth it and greatly rewarding. We would greatly encourage others to do what we did and do something that is challenging and out of your comfort zone.
