Coast to Coast cycle route
Melanie Bryan crosses Cornwall
FOR the vast majority of the British population, neither an endurance bike ride to rival the Tour de France nor the prospect of donning headto-toe Lycra is advisable or desirable. Luckily, this impressive-sounding cycle route, on one of Cornwall’s mineral tramways, is a) pretty much flat, b) only 11 miles long (one way) and c) doesn’t require you to fashion an outfit that would look more at home on a Marvel superhero.
Suitable for cyclists aged from five to 105—especially with the advent of electric bikes, which have opened this sort of route to a far wider range of people—this is the perfect way to release your inner child as you pootle through the reclaimed industrial landscape of England’s westernmost county. It’s also the easiest way of stating, truthfully, that you’ve crossed an entire county under your own steam in one day.
Following the path of the former Portreath Tramway and the old Redruth and Chasewater Railway, the track is made from one of numerous repurposed industrial routes that are almost entirely off-road. This means that there’s no need to do battle with the nation’s potholes or pantechnicons, which put many an aspiring cyclist off the urge to take to two wheels.
The tracks are generally earth or gravel, however, so a hybrid or mountain bike suits the terrain best (for bike-hire places and maps, visit http://cycle.travel).
Before you set off, it’s hugely important to know what the route markers look like. This is because they have been thoughtfully designed to look like ancient route markers that blend with the landscape, which make them visually unobtrusive and, thus, notoriously difficult to spot until you’ve got your eye in. Once you’ve grasped this, it’s fairly plain sailing on the path above the cottages in Portreath, then out into the open countryside.
As you pedal along, you pass hedgerows —we last did this ride in July and were chaperoned by numerous swallows, house martins and butterflies—under viaducts, across moorlands and past Rodda’s creamery at Scorrier, which will make you desperate for a cream tea as you make your way through the Poldice valley to the pretty little former tin port of Devoran and the welcome sight of the mouth of the River Carnon. Do indulge in a proper cream tea when you’ve worked up an appetite (jam first, of course). Melanie Bryan
‘This impressivesounding cycle route is a) pretty much flat, b) only 11 miles long and c) doesn’t require a superhero outfit’