Day One - Monday 8th August
Leeds > Berwick-upon-Tweed > Norham > Wooler > Powburn
Prologue
In August 2006 three of us - my friends Bryn, Rik
and yours truly - cycled the C2C route from Whitehaven to Sunderland*. We did it
over three days, although it was more like two and a half really since we didn't
get underway until 3 pm on day one. We thoroughly enjoyed it and decided to do
another long distance ride together sometime. It only took us 5 years to get
around to arranging it... When we did the C2C, Bryn drove our bikes up to
Whitehaven and left his car there while we pedalled over to the east coast. We
arranged a bike taxi to take us back to Cumbria so we could collect the car and
return home. This was a bit of a faff and an extra expense, so for the next trip
Rik suggested we take our bikes on the train somewhere, disembark and then cycle
home. Heading homeward to West Yorkshire (their home, not mine) would give us a
target to aim for. I suggested Berwick-Upon-Tweed. It was far enough away to
provide five days of cycling and there was also an official NCN route - #68
the Pennine Cycleway - we could follow. The distance would give us an average
ride of 50 miles per day, which seemed very comfortable to me. Of course, I'd
completely failed to take into the account the terrain... but that was something
I'd discover with a grimace as the trip unfolded over five days. In the
meantime, we agreed on this plan and left it to
Rik to sort out the schedule and book B&B accommodation along the way. Which
he did, very nicely.
* I kept a journal during the trip and started
writing it up when I get back. Typically I never quite finished it off, but the
bulk of the detail was there. Maybe sometime this year I'll belatedly complete
it and post it on the blog.
Day 1
The day began for Bryn and me in Leeds. We cycled a
few miles to the railway station and then boarded a train to take us up to
Berwick. Due to alleged restrictions on the number of bicycles you could book in
advance onto the train, Rik had travelled up there two hours before us. I say
"alleged restrictions", because there was clearly plenty of room for more bikes
when we loaded ours. Two hours later, we disembarked in a cool and drizzly
Berwick. After stocking up with some supplies from a sandwich shop, we set off.
Route 68 briefly takes you across the border into Scotland, so naturally we
posed for photos in front of the sign. We could later boast that we'd cycled to
Scotland and back.
We only travelled for 3 miles in Scotland before
crossing back into England via the Union Suspension bridge over the Tweed.
A few miles further on - and about an hour or so
into the ride - we stopped in the border village
of Norham for a lunch break.
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| Lunch break in Norham - castle in background. |
Carrying on from there, the route took us along a
scenic route alongside the River Till, emerging by Etal castle. From there we
cruised along narrow country lanes to the small town of Wooler. The weather
picked up after an hour or so and was generally overcast but warm.
There was a steep hill to climb in Wooler, and as I
started the ascent, my chain came off. This was the first of many occasions it
would happen during the week. When gearing down to my lowest gears for the
climbs, the chain jumped off the chainset and often got lodged in the gap
between the gears and the frame. I'd had the bike serviced before the trip but
this must have been missed. I managed to untangle the chain on this occasion and
made my way up to the top of the hill where I discovered the other two had
stopped at a cafe for a late afternoon coffee break. With cake,
naturally.
 |
| Coffee break in Wooler. |
Coffee break over, we continued the journey.
Leaving Wooler, the route takes you off the roads and onto what I would describe
as a farm track. I could imagine a flock of sheep being herded along them by a
chap on a quad bike. Along this route there were three fords we had to cross.
The recent heavy rain in the area had made the
fords impassable on bikes but there were foot bridges alongside these to cross.
All very well, but the rain had also reduced the surrounding
banks to a muddy mush. In the worst occasion, having crossed a
bridge we then had to push our bikes up a steep muddy bank, made very slippery
by the recent rain. Not easy at all, especially with fully-laden panniers on the
back of the bike. A lot of swearing and cursing went on, I can tell you.
Frankly, this part of the route was only suitable for off-road bikes in my
opinion. Had we known that the terrain would be
this bad we may well have just gone down the A697 the 9 miles from Wooler to
Powburn. Mind you, having had a look at the road on Google street view, a more
sensible alternative would have been to thread our way to Powburn using the
spidery network of country lanes that appear to shadow the east side of the main
road.
Our lodgings for the night were in the village of
Powburn. Arriving there at about 6:30 in the evening, after a bit of faff we realised that the B&B was about a mile out of
the village back up a steep hill (groan). At the start of the climb my ruddy
chain came off again when I geared down to tackle it. I ended up pushing my bike
for the last half mile stretch. When we arrived at our lodgings I spent 20
minutes trying to free the chain.
In order to save money, Rik brought his cooking
stove from his camping equipment with him, plus a supply of dried food to cook
up in the evening. Bryn and I opted to use the local amenities. We were kindly
given a lift down into the village with the proprietor of our B&B.
We'd passed the village pub earlier and had
spotted a sign saying "sorry, no food". So for our tea we fell back upon
the "Ginsters option" - a sandwich / sausage roll from the local petrol station
shop. When we got to the pub they appeared to be serving food anyway. Eh? Oh
well, we had a couple of pints while watching disturbing footage on the BBC news
channel in the bar about the unfolding riots in London. This set the tone for
the remainder of the week. We'd spend hours out in the middle of nowhere, often
in splendid isolation and barely seeing a soul all day, only to put the TV on in
the evenings in our lodgings and seeing the incongruous sight of English cities
in flames.
The overall memory of day one for me was the
pleasantly undulating countryside we passed through, with the distant Cheviot
hills edging closer. It was a fine way to ease ourselves into the journey ahead.
Day Stats
47.04 miles (about 43 from Berwick
itself)
Average speed: 11.15 mph
Top speed: 33.9 mph
Wheel time: 4 hrs 12 minsClick here for day 2.
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