Words + Photos by Michael Lelieveld
27 riders gathered at Haggs Bank (near Nenthead) on Saturday evening, 5th October, to make camp in very wet and blustery conditions during the middle of Storm Amy.
The following morning everyone set off in windy but drying conditions; riding either the Adventure or the Extreme roadbook. Both shared the same core route but the Extreme RB had a number of more challenging breakouts. The first of these commenced at only 3.5km into the route at Forenshield Burn and involved a fairly steep and rather loose rocky climb which very much awoke the riding muscles and the senses! In fact, the first 25km proved to be the toughest on the Extreme route; with a tricky descent on rocky broken terrain at 14.5km and a second most-challenging loose climb at 22.7km, all which enabled the remainder of the breakouts to be tackled with relative ease and confidence by comparison.
The second half of the Haggs Bank route included three water crossings. The first was aptly named Devil’s Water and the other two were ford crossings on the River Wear and River South Tyne (latter at Garigill). Our route and roadbook checker on Saturday, during the peak of the Storm Amy rainfall, reported that all three crossings were running fast, with higher water levels than expected and that he had been drifted sideways by the current at an alarming rate whilst crossing both fords. Devils Water was almost at mid-thigh level when pre-walked. However, by Sunday the levels had dropped by 8-12 inches and the flow rates had reduced to about a fifth of the day before. In fact, the 2nd ford at Garigill was now dry.
The riders enjoyed stunning North Pennines scenery and spectacular views throughout the Sunday, with the highlight arguably being the long, steady, stony (and blowy!) offroad climb up Causeway Road – near Burnhope Reservoir and amongst the highest peaks in the North Pennines – and then down the other side on loose stony terrain to get to the scenic B6277 which is popular with road bikers.
All in all, a very successful Adventure Rally Raid in a remote and stunning setting.
Congratulations to the two ‘Zero Heroes’ who rode the extreme route without any speeding or navigation errors!
Mikolaj Pietrzyk
Lukasz Bronka
