Dinah and Ben Hatch and family take a leisurely cycle through the county’s old mining country
Route information
Length 12 miles
Duration 4 hours (approx)
Start Broompark, Durham
Finish Lydgetts Junction
Classification Easy
Terrain Off-road, some hills
Who’s it good for? Families; couples and friends
MapOS Explorer 307 and 308
Broompark to Lydgetts Junction
Now let’s be clear about this. We, the Hatches, are not an outdoorsy family. We wish we were, but somehow catastrophe always strikes when the pavement runs out; we panic when we cannot hear traffic, at least in the distance.
A family member was knocked into the Atlantic with a paddle when we last kayaked and on a holiday cycle ride our son’s tagalong became detached Frank Spencer-style and he rolled down into a canal in France. But we are determined to instil the virtues of the countryside and activity into our children Phoebe, nine, and Charlie, seven, so we agreed to a weekend of ruddy-faced cycling in Durham. We left the iPad at home, banned all talk of Minecraft and even bought an Ordnance Survey map (that’s what folk do, isn’t it?).
via Diggin’ the past: Durham’s scenic cycling country | Travel | theguardian.com.
Deerness Valley Cycling 