Chester To Telford #2

Chester To Telford (Again)

Thursday 25 September 2014
Chester to Telford again.

Entry to follow.

Scotland - Day 5

Scotland 2014 - Day 5

Friday 15 August 2014
Back to England.

Entry to follow.

Scotland - Day 4

Scotland 2014 - Day 4

Thursday 14 August 2014
Callender to Killin (in the rain).

Entry to follow.

Selfie taken on the Glen Ogle viaduct.

Scotland - Day 3

Scotland 2014 - Day 3

Wednesday 13 August 2014
Pitlochry.

Entry to follow.

Scotland - Day 2

Scotland 2014 - Day 2

Tuesday 12 August 2014
Inverness to Kingussie - washed out.

Entry to follow.

Scotland - Day 1

Scotland 2014 - Day 1

Monday 11 August 2014
Travelling day.

Entry to follow.

Church Stretton

Ride To Church Stretton

Thursday 19 September 2013

We did a 50 miler today to Church Stretton and back. There was time to stop at Mrs Miggins' pie shop in the town for some refreshment:

Chester To Telford

Chester To Telford

Thursday 5 September 2013

To be continued.

Way Of The Roses - Day 4

Way Of The Roses - Day 4

Friday 23 August 2013
Huggate > Bridlington.

Entry to follow.

Celebrating completion on Bridlington promenade.

Cheers! Job done.

Way Of The Roses - Day 3

Way Of The Roses - Day 3

Thursday 22 August 2013
Ripon > Huggate.

Entry to follow.

Way Of The Roses - Day 2

Way Of The Roses - Day 2

Wednesday 21 August 2013
Settle > Ripon.

Entry to follow.

On the road to Pateley Bridge.

Way Of The Roses - Day 1

Way Of The Roses - Day 1

Tuesday 20 August 2013
Morecambe > Settle.

Entry to follow.

Setting off from sunny Morecambe.

Hebden Bridge To Home

Cycling Back From Hebden Bridge

Sunday 28th July 2013

Having spent the weekend in the company of Bryn with a day out at the Indietracks festival, I decided to cycle back home from Hebden Bridge on Sunday afternoon.

I set off at 12:45.

I decided to take the road out of Hebden to Heptonstall and then go over the tops via Blackshaw Head (past the wind farm) to Burnley. The worst bit was the immediate climb off the A646 up to Heptonstall. What a killer! I was in first gear for ages, grinding upward at little more than walking pace with sweat pouring down my face. The climbs after that were easy in comparison. When I got close to the wind turbines, I stopped to put my yellow jacket on because it was grey, felt like rain and I was getting a bit chilly. A minute later it started drizzling, then rained quite steadily for 10 or 15 minutes. I was soon descending on the Burnley side so this wasn't so bad.

2 pm I reached Townley Park in Burnley. It was drizzling a bit.

I navigated out of the park (following NCN 68 signs) and amazingly found the canal towpath with no problem. The sign for Finsley Gate was clearly there. Why did I sail past this on Friday? It's a mystery.

I began retracing my steps from Friday, reaching the bit where the canal goes into a tunnel so I had to climb up some steps, go through a few underpasses and then get back to the canal on the other side. Easy.

Once back on the canal tow path, I was soon making good progress. I had to slow down for a group of friendly walkers just outside the town and had a chat with some woman who was interested in buying a new bike.

At this point I made a slight diversion, having inevitably missed / not spotted a sign telling me to leave the canal and get on the Padiham Greenway (ie the old railway line). You'd expect that with me really. It became obvious when I came to a bit of the canal path that was blocked off with wire fencing for some building work and I had to take a diversion around it.

"Hmm, this wasn't here on Friday." I thought to myself.

I stopped just after this when a sign pointed to an exit from the canal for Hapton. Looking at my map, I'd come about a mile further than needed. No big trauma though, I just left the canal, cycled up the road a bit and spotted another sign for "Padiham Greenway". I actually joined this with only about half of the mile of it to go.

Soon I was on the A671 Whalley Road. I decided to just go for it down the main road to Whalley for a couple of miles, rather than faff about up and down those hilly lanes again.

3:20 arrived in Whalley. I'd been looking forward to visiting the deli / restaurant that's just by the railway station. I'd previously bought a sandwich there and with lunch on my mind, had been salivating at the prospect of a tasty tuna and cucumber butty for a good half an hour. Alas! It was closed! Oh, the disappointment. The newsagent on the main road was closed as well (this was Sunday afternoon after all) so I made do with flapjack instead. It just wasn't the same.

3:35 set off again after a bit of a rest. It started to drizzle a bit as I plodded on to Ribchester.

4:05 Arrived in Ribchester. I had a manic craving for chocolate milk so went to the Spar shop and bought a bottle. Took my jacket off because it was getting warm.

4:35 reached Longridge after the tortuous slow grind of Preston Road.

4:55 Inglewhite. It was drizzling on and off.

5:10 crossed over the A6. Hooray! Maybe the flat terrain made a difference, but I put in a burst of speed for 30 minutes and was cruising along nicely after the grind from Whalley to Longridge.

5:20 reached St Michaels. It started raining quite heavily. The jacket went back on. It was only a short shower, but the roads going forward were very wet so it must have put down a fair bit of rain before I arrived.

5:55 arrived in Hambleton. Back home! Get the kettle on.

Stats: exactly 55 miles from Heben Bridge. 117 for the round trip. 185.6 for the week.

Next time I'm getting the bloomin' train.

Cycling To Hebden Bridge

Cycling To Hebden Bridge

Friday 26 July 2013
For a number of years I harboured the idea of cycling over from the Fylde Coast to Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire. It's a part of the country that I know quite well. My mate and occasional cycling partner Bryn lives there so I've driven there or taken the train over plenty of times. Cycling there was a slightly trickier prospect due to uncertainty over the route, but at a distance of around 55 miles it would make a decent afternoon's ride and be enough of a challenge to make it worthwhile doing. The extra miles would give my weekly total a boost, of course.

To be continued.

The Lancaster Loop ride

The Lancaster Loop


Tuesday 7 August 2012

Today I did a special longer ride (52 miles) ride with my cycling mate Bryn, up the hills to Caton, Lancaster and back. We took a chance on the weather. It was belting down at 8 am and still raining at 10. But the BBC forecast claimed that the afternoon would be sunny, so Bryn took the chance and came over from West Yorkshire. By 1 pm the clouds were beginning to disperse and the sun was attempting break out, so we set off. Things temporarily got a bit grey and chilly when we'd climed through Quernmore, but before too long we had blue skies and pleasant sunshine for the remainder of the ride.

Here's a link to the route:

http://www.plotaroute.com/route/32189

And a screenshot of the route:

August 2011 Big Trip - Day 5

Day Five - Friday 12th August

Settle > Gargrave > Barnoldswick > Colne > Hebden Bridge

The final day of the trip. I ended up cycling alone almost all the way back from Settle to Hebden Bridge. Here's how it happened.

The previous evening in Settle I'd attempted to charge up my mobile. The charger had been temperamental for a while. I suspect there was a break in the lead somewhere. I only had one bar of power left on the phone, but no amount of cajoling could entice the charger to give it any juice. So I gave up. When I tried to unplug the charger from the power socket, it seemed stuck. I finally wrenched it out and in the process ripped out the top prong of the charger plug which was left sticking out of the wall socket. Oops. Before too long I had a dead phone and no charger. Just when I was about to need it...

After our final splendid B&B breakfast of the week, we departed from Settle just before 10. The weather was overcast but mercifully dry. Leaving the town proved to be a bit tricky due to unobvious signage, but having wasted about half an hour looking for it we picked up route 68 and set off - to discover that we were immediately presented with a stiff up and down climb. Bah. The pace for the first hour was frustratingly pedestrian for me and I was keen to push on. Several times during the trip I went on ahead of the other two and then stopped to wait for them to catch up. With their agreement I waved them goodbye with the customary understanding that I'd wait for them at the next settlement of reasonable size. That was the last I'd see either of them until 4 pm.

I pushed on quite happily through the village of Airton and then, a couple of miles further along the road at a place called Winterburn, came the error. Arriving at a junction, I saw a cycling route sign pointing left and understandably, followed it. This took me through the village of Hetton and eventually to a place called Cracoe where not surprisingly I struggled to pick up any signs for route 68. A bit further along the B6265 I did see a sign but this was for NR 688 (Way of the Roses). Something had gone wrong. I'd passed a garden centre a little way back up the road which had a cafe attached and a friendly sign stating that cyclists and bikers were welcome. So I decided to go in and have a coffee break and ask for directions. The girl working behind the counter couldn't really help, but as luck would have it a couple of motorcyclists happened to be in the cafe at the time and they pointed out where I'd gone wrong. I'd wandered off the edge of the Sustrans map in the process, so no wonder I couldn't find my bearings.

I set off again just after midday and retraced my steps back through Hetton to the junction. Once there I realised that I should have gone right and not left: the cycling arrow pointing left was for NCN route 10 (the Reivers route) and the aforementioned Way of the Roses. The sticker for route 68 was pasted to the pole and wasn't clear at all. I suspect this was designed for those approaching from the south rather than the north.

The offending junction.

An easy mistake to make then. So where were the other two? My initial thought was that they'd taken the correct turn and were thus ahead of me. So I put my foot down and sped off in hot pursuit. After about 25 minutes of brisk pedalling it dawned on me on the other side of Gargrave that I probably wasn't going to catch them up after all and they must have taken another route. With my phone dead, I had no way of contacting them. Argh! I also had our only copy of the Sustrans map with me, which wouldn't help them. I just had to shrug my shoulders and get on with it alone.

On the road to Barnoldswick I was supposed to turn off and get onto the canal towpath, but the sign wasn't clear and I missed it. I decided to take the main road past the Rolls Royce factory into the town and pick up the canal route there. Seconds later, I got stung by wasp! I was just cycling along, minding my own business, when I suddenly felt a sharp stinging pain on my left ankle. Looking down, there was a blasted wasp there. It managed to stab me twice before I flicked it off. The area swelled up nicely and throbbed painfully for some time. Ouch.

So, Barnoldswick. Route 68 follows the canal towpath through the east of the town, but once there I couldn't easily spot a way of getting onto it. So I stayed on the main road and eventually picked up route 68 again a mile further on at Salterforth, where I joined the canal. This was a really nice section for a few miles. The sun almost came out and it was warm and pleasant. And flat. It's a shame that this section wasn't a little longer.

The next stretch was a bit odd. Leaving the canal as it approached Colne, you were sent twisting your way through the middle of nowhere and then up a nasty steep hill. The arrow then directed you along a rough road into some trees. I debated whether to ignore it and keep to the road I was on, but I followed it in the end. To my surprise, the track shortly burst out into Alkincoats Park in Colne, which was very pleasant... in contrast to the town itself. I had to go through the centre of Colne to find my exit. After wasting twenty minutes cycling around trying to locate the way out, a nasty surprise awaited me when I eventually did pick up the route in the shape of a particularly steep hill. Argh, it was a calf-burning killer for day 5.

Ahead of me I had the climb over the tops at Widdop Crags to Hebden Bridge to look forward to. I'd not stopped for anything to eat since breakfast, so my energy levels were flagging a bit. Being on my own meant that I hadn't felt secure enough to leave my bike unattended while I dashed into a shop on the journey so far. Salvation seemed to present itself when the Coldwell Park Cafe came into view. I nipped inside, dreaming hungrily of some hot soup and a sandwich... only to discover that they were closing for the day! Wretched luck. I think the girl working there felt sorry for me and offered to make me a brew in consolation, but as I had plenty of liquids on me I decided to turn her down and crack on. Hebden was only an hour away so I pressed on. The climb was a bit of a killer. The weather turned a bit drizzly up there as well. I was very happy to start dropping down towards Heptonstall. I made it back to Bryn's house at 4 - there was just one last hill to climb to his house, which seemed a doddle. I'd literally just walked in and was propping up my bike in his kitchen when Bryn himself turned up. Great timing.

So what did happen to the other two? It turned out that they'd made exactly the same mistake as me and had turned left at that junction and had also emerged onto the B6265 at Cracoe. We must have only just missed each other - rotten luck. They'd used their phones to access the internet to get their bearings and had then decided that they'd had enough of being sent around the middle of nowhere and wanted to get home the quickest way. So they'd stuck mostly to main roads and had headed south via Skipton to Keighley before splitting, destinations being Hebden Bridge and Halifax respectively.

Day Stats
49.2 miles
Average speed: 11.09 mph
Top speed: 36 mph
Wheel time: 4 hrs 26 mins

So it was all over. I think we were all knackered by the end of the week. It was hard work at times and felt more like an endurance event than a cycling holiday. Perhaps next time we'll pick somewhere flatter.
But that wasn't quite the end of the tale.

The following day (Saturday 13th) I decided to cycle back alone to the Fylde. It turned into a bit of a mini-adventure in itself, when I reached Whalley and in a comical blunder started following the wrong Lancashire cycleway route (91, not 90) which took me to the south of Preston before a friendly passing cyclist put me back on track just outside Gregson Lane. As it happened, it only meant that it took me an hour longer to get home than it should otherwise have done, with the bonus that I did even more miles for the bumper weekly total. I got back eventually with these stats for the day:

68.38 miles
Average speed: 13.7
Top speed: 33.6 mph
Wheel time: 4 hrs 59 mins

Total miles for the week: 341.14

Perhaps not surprisingly, this was a personal record by some margin.
And on the seventh day, I rested.

August 2011 Big Trip - Day 4

Day Four - Thursday 11th August

Appleby-in-Westmorland > Orton > Sedbergh > Dent > Ingleton > Settle

After another good breakfast, we got away just before 10. The weather was murky but fine, for the time being at least.

A typically murky view of day four.

Leaving Appleby, we passed through the village of Great Asby before climbing a hill that led us up into the clouds on the way to Orton. Several sheep stared blankly at us as we passed. Bleakly impressive moorland.

In the village of (Joe) Orton, I temporarily parted company from the other two. Having consulted the map, they realised that route 68 took you off on what they considered an unnecessary loop out west under the M6 and back again. Since day 4 was going to be another of our longer days, they decided to chop a few miles out of the journey by heading south and rejoining the official route just below Tebay. You won't be too surprised to learn that I elected to do the extra miles because I'm like that. Mind you, it wasn't long before I came to almost regret my decision, as first of all the route sent me down a bumpy farm track that was liberally covered in liquid slurry (lovely) before throwing a short but horribly steep climb into my path as soon as I'd passed under the M6 and west coast main line. Going down the other side of the hill was quite an experience - steep, narrow and twisting. I was grateful that I didn't encounter any traffic coming the other way.

Passing back under the M6, the road shadowed the motorway for a few miles. Rain running off the hills turned the road into a stream for extended sections. Around this point I happened across a pair of fellow cyclists who had stopped to free a sheep that they'd spotted tangled up in a fence by the side of the road. The poor animal looked exhausted, so I guess that it had been there for some time. It seemed to be coming around a bit when I left them.

Flooding on the road to Sedbergh.

I caught up with Rik and Bryn close to Sedbergh. We halted there at 1:45 for a late lunch break. Rik was ready to leave some time before us, so as the slowest cyclist of the three it seemed sensible to let him get a head start. It was several hours before we saw him again... Bryn and I set off in pursuit a little later. We had some trouble picking up route 68 leaving Sedbergh due to an absence of signs, but we eventually found the right road. The way took us alongside a river for a stretch and was often flooded in places. You could see how high the water had been by the marks in the grass on the bank to our right. If we'd there a week earlier we would have needed a snorkel to get by. As it was, there were sections of water where your foot was fully immersed as you pedalled through it.

Soggy socks on the road to Dent.

Then we had to climb steeply again, just as it started to rain. What joy! To add to the fun, my chain kept coming off in those low gears. The hills echoed to the sound of industrial strength cursing. I'm informed that the views in this area are stunning. Not that we saw anything of them. As we learned later, Rik had taken the lowland route to Dent that follows the valley floor and so missed out on all this. Lucky swine. 

We crawled into the viillage of Dent, home of the highest mainline railway station in England, at 4 pm. My only recollection of the village is that the rain began to belt down heavily here. The road from Dent over Back Gill Head was the worst section of the trip for me. The climb was lengthy and debilitating, not helped at all by the wind lashing horizontal rain into your face so much that it made your eyes sting. We pushed on slowly to a soggy Ingleton, soaking wet and cheerless. We had about 11 miles to go to reach Settle. Rik got in touch to say that he'd already arrived at the B&B. I'm still not sure how he managed to reach Settle a full two hours before us. He must have taken a short cut. 

Route 68 delivered us to Clapham a few miles later. At this point we should have followed an off-road road section to Settle that passed through a tunnel. But Bryn and I were tired, wet and impatient to end the day, so we just rode down the main A65 into the town. The road was busy and quite narrow in places, but we didn't mind. There was a terrific hill we flew down just outside Settle, which provided late cheer to an otherwise grinding afternoon.

The hot shower in the B&B felt wonderful.

In the evening we dined in a local pub and then found the local social club where they were showing Sheffield Wednesday v Blackpool in the League Cup. After a couple of pints it was off back to the B&B and off to bed.

Day Stats

61.2 miles

Average speed: 10.65 mph

Top speed: 35.7 mph

Wheel time: 5 hrs 44 mins

Click here for day 5.

August 2011 Big Trip - Day 3

Day Three - Wednesday 10th August

Haltwhistle > Alston > Hartside > Melmerby > Appleby-in-Westmorland

Day 3. First of all, the weather. We'd had plenty of advance notice that bad weather was going to move across the north on this day. Oh well, this was always going to be the gamble, booking something months in advance. This was bad news for us, as this was the day when we had to cross the Pennines at Hartside. We were mentally prepared for heavy rain but as it happens, although the day was wet the rain was mostly light but constant; Thursday turned out to be a much worse day. The fact that it wasn't lashing down actually cheered us up a bit.

After another hearty breakfast, we set off into the drizzly gloom at about 9:45. Leaving Haltwhistle to the south, for 3 or 4 miles route 68 follows the bed of a former railway line. Sadly the route taking you across the Lambley Railway viaduct was closed. Instead we had to follow a diversion that took us up a nasty steep hill (just as the rain got heavier) onto the main A689. After a short distance the diversion directed us back down the hill, where we would then have to climb again up the other side of the valley. "Sod that," we thought, and carried on down the main road for another mile or two before rejoining the cycling route a little further down.

It was pelting down when we arrived in a chilly Alston at about noon. We had a quick break to buy provisions and have a coffee. Then it was time to cross the Pennines via Hartside. We'd experienced this hill before, of course, during our C2C trip, but approaching from the opposite side.

The climb up Hartside was a grind, especially with the wind howling and rain lashing you. I went on ahead. The experience was quite disorientating. Due to the rain, the visibility was limited to the stretch of road in front of you, but nothing much to the sides. What you had no way of knowing was how far you were from the summit, where the cafe was the sight we all ached to see. This was mental torture. All you could do was keep pedalling, inching onward and upward but longing for the torment to end. Eventually I arrived at the top and feeling frazzled, crawled into the cafe for a restorative mug of hot tea and a slice of apricot cake. The other two arrived about twenty minutes later.

Leaving the summit we enjoyed a giddy descent through the mist down the other side. I found myself singing out loud the Velvet Underground song "Heroin", in a semi-hysterical state. I blame the cake.

We eschewed the NCN route and stayed on the A686 to Melmerby before picking up the 68 once more. Once we got onto the western side of the Pennines the weather quickly improved. Well, it was still a heavily overcast day but at least it stopped raining.

The final two hours of the day's cycling were mostly uneventful, as the route took you along mostly flat country lanes, occasionally passing through picturesque villages.

We were actually booked into the Broom House B&B just outside Appleby in a hamlet called Long Marton. We arrived there just before 4. We received a very warm welcome from the lady who ran the place, with a splendid afternoon tea laid on. After a cold, wet ride, it was a very nice surprise. My cycling wasn't quite over though. I set off on my own to cycle the couples of miles into Appleby in search of a cash machine. On the way back I decided to take a detour and visit some of the nearby villages of Brampton and Dufton, just to bump up a few extra miles. Typically, I was caught by a vicious shower of rain on the way back to Long Marton. Urgh.

In the evening we went to the local pub. Sadly it was fully booked for serving food when we enquired, but I wasn't feeling particularly hungry anyway, having spent the day munching my way through mini pork pies and flapjack. A pint soon filled me up. I looked forward to my breakfast in the morning.

And finally... Somewhere in between arriving at the B&B in Haltwhistle and departing the next morning, I mislaid my cycling glasses, plus the extra lenses I'd packed. Gah, annoying.

Day Stats
38.72 miles to Long Marton, 51 in total
Average speed: 10 mph to Long Marton, 10.6 afterwards
Top speed: 34.1 mph
Wheel time: 3 hrs 52 mins to Long Marton, later 4 hrs 48 mins

Click here for day 4.

August 2011 Big Trip - Day 2

Day Two - Tuesday 9th August

Powburn > Elsdon > Bellingham > Haltwhistle

This was probably my favourite day of the trip although at 64 miles it also turned out to be our longest day of travelling. The weather was the best we were to encounter during the week, being cloudy with sunny breaks initially before the sun managed to burst out in the late afternoon.

After a decent breakfast consumed to background music of Abba tunes played on panpipes, we set off from Powburn at 9:30. The first 30 minutes of the ride were uneventful, apart from a brief occasion when Rik got chased by a dog.

Pausing to consult the map by the River Coquet.

Before too long we started to climb on the way to Elsdon. The climb wasn't particularly steep, just stretched out. At least the views were worth seeing. The ride down the other side made up for the exertion.

Bryn on the road to Elsdon.

We halted in Bellingham around 2 pm for a lunch break in the sun. Although we were now half way through day two of our trek, Rick soberly pointed out that geographically we were still north of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. We still had a long way to go. Never mind, we kept our spirits up by watching the comedy antics of a group of highway workers who were repainting the white lines in the main street.

Leaving Bellingham we spotted a newt attempting to cross the road. Our delight was short lived, as the poor thing was promptly run over by a car and squashed. To further dampen our mood we were presented with another stiff climb almost straight away. Not what you really want straight after lunch. The next stage of the route took us through Wark Forest. Once again, we had reason to mutter and grumble about the chosen path of NCN 68. Leaving the roads, we were sent along a five mile stretch along tracks that had been roughly carpeted with jagged stones. Bone-shaking describes it well. Again, we felt that the Sustrans map could have pointed this out a little more clearly so we could have found an alternative route. Fortunately all our bikes had fairly sturdy tyres. I wouldn't like to attempt that route on a road bike.

The climb out of Wark Forest.

Leaving the forest behind, the landscape was bleakly impressive, with a thrillingly swooping descent on the way to the oddly-named Once Brewed thrown in as a bonus. Just prior to this, Rik's milometer clicked on to register 100 miles cycled so far, requiring a halt for a commemorative photo to be taken. I'd been resetting my counter at the start of each day to collect daily stats.

The route took us past the entrance to the Vindolanda fort.

Finally we arrived in Haltwhistle, only to find - argh! - the Mount guesthouse was back up a steep hill on the other side of the town. We eventually crawled up there and were met by Pete, the affable host. When we were ready, he gave us a lift down into the town and arranged to pick us up again later. We had a fish and chip tea followed by a few pints. It was a very pleasant evening, as I recall. We were in bed with the lights off at 10:45 pm. That's the earliest I've been to bed for years. Wow, we must have been tired.

Day Stats
64.32 miles
Average speed: 10.92 mph
Top speed: 39.5 mph
Wheel time: 5 hrs 53 mins

Click here for day 3.

August 2011 Big Trip - Day 1

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. 

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 mins

Click here for day 2.