Short Cycling Trip - Trans Pennine Trail

Sunday, 14 August 2016

For some reason this day felt like a cycling day. I decided to do a circular route that goes like this: Monk Bretton - Elsecar - Wortley - Oxspring - Silkstone Common - Worsbrough - Monk Bretton. Distance estimated to be around 60km. Most of it on Trans Pennine Trail. The day was warm, a bit cloudy but dry. We packed only a few energy bars, plenty of water and took some money in case we fancied popping into a pub on our way.

We know the first part of the route, south from Monk Bretton quite well as we cycled this way number of times. We have never gone beyond Elsecar Heritage Centre though. This time we were lucky to see the locomotive in action.

Elsecar Heritage Centre

It looked like we had missed the harvest time. Views like this, although beautiful always make you realize the autumn is on its way.

View towards Wentworth

For convenience, I was using Viewranger and OpenCycle maps but I also had a paper version of TPT in my backpack. Sometimes sticking religiously to the route given in OpenCycle maps leads to some forgotten tracks.

Part of TPT trail shortly after leaving Elsecar heading southwest

The terrain after Elsecar became a bit more hilly and on-road parts we were able to reach mind-boggling speeds of almost 50 km/h. Coming downhill off course. Break before tackling yet another hill was inevitable.

A quick break in Bromley

A mistake in navigation led us to Wortley where we stopped for a pint in Wortley Mens Club. I did not regret my mistake. Roads around Wortley were a bit busy. I was glad we got out of the Sunday afternoon traffic as we headed towards Oxspring. We came across quite a long tunnel on our way. Great echo.

At the entrance to the tunnel somewhere between Wortley and Oxspring

In Oxpring we turned right and followed up the hill. In places, we had to carry our bikes, partly due to steepness of the hill and partly due to the fact that our hybrid bikes are not suitable for stony paths.
Willow Bridge in Oxspring Parish was another picturesque spot we encountered.

River near Willow Bridge

From there we kept pushing towards Silkstone Common. As we got to the top of the hill, after passing through a farm and leaving The Travellers Inn behind I realized a few years back we reached the same point by cycling from the east rather than west. I knew that from there we would hardly have to use the pedals right until Worsbrough. The breaks would come into use instead. We stopped for a while in a familiar spot near a very familiar tree in Stubbin Wood.

Magda climbing a tree

By then the day turned into great sunny Sunday.

TPT train near Silkstone

We quickly reached Worsbrough, popped into our holidaying friend's house to feed the cat and headed home. In total, we did 59 km this day. Not bad for us. Better than the previous record of 44 km cycling from Barnsley to Leeds. It's quite difficult to say how long it has taken us, as there were a few longish breaks. Maybe 3 hours of actual cycling and walking? I guess one could say it's cheating but  I don't have anything against trips like this especially when the weather is nice.

I need to come up with another interesting route now, clean the bikes, oil the chains, wait for another nice day and have a go at beating the record again.