It’s all about the bike, no worries…. Newbiggin to Berwick

All about the bike. My poor bike. And it doesn’t complain.

We did an amazing day today. Set off at 945 and arrived after 6. That’s as long as a day’s work… It taught me that sitting in a chair in the office, with a few trips out to schools each week, and a few gym sessions aren’t the greatest preparation for a long day on the bike. We rode over 70 miles… And it wasn’t quite so flat, and the wind wasn’t always quite so helpful…

I was exhausted today! Was wondering at one point if I’d prefer sitting in a chair in the office answering emails and writing reports… Was a brief wonder!

The path today was varied. Some roads, some farm tracks, some cycle specific paths, a brief section of the A1… And some serious off – roading… My poor bike. The map said a section of shared track. We were sharing it with sheep and their little lambs.

However, the day started with this view. I lay in bed looking at it. My idea of a seaside view…

I forgot to mention yesterday that as well as the coast we’d seen our first castle. Tynemouth Castle.

Today we saw a fair few… Starting with one just by the side of the road… A small one.

A colourful one at Warkworth.

We saw the ruined one at Dunstanburgh.

And a huge one at Bamburgh.

Much of the day we were close to the sea. Early on we were following an old road along the dunes, with lots of marshy areas at either side. There were a fair few twitchers out with their long lenses.

At one point the marshy areas spread across the road. The road was so full of potholes it seems risky to just ride through…

The next puddle had no pathway along the side. Mark rode through. I was a wimp and attempted the edge, holding onto the fence… Typically Mark made it with only wet rims. I managed ankle deep…

I am now really thankful for cycling specific socks (thanks Aldi) as they dried out pretty quickly. For a while I was imagining trying to dry them out at the next toilet stop. Quite an image of me trying to get my feet in a Dyson air blade… (Two product placements in one paragraph – pretty good going). It is strange the things that you think as you pedal along.

We’ve seen a fair bit of the coast too. It’s a beautiful part of the country. I love suddenly coming across a gap in the dunes or racing down the side of a hill to come across fantastic views.

Today was a long ride.

Just as I was getting really tired we missed a turn for the cycle path and ended at the end of the causeway to Lindisfarne. We didn’t go across…

We headed back to the path and I was just saying that it was hard to decide whether it was best to stick to the roads with their generally good surfaces (quick and comfortable) or go for the official cycle route which takes you to places you’d never see if you stuck to the road.

Minutes later we were crossing fields of mud and sheep… With a barely recognisable path… It was so slow, scary (although if I had fallen off it would have been a soft landing) and bizarrely amusing…

Shortly afterwards we took a detour via the A1. It’s just a single carriageway up here… It wasn’t too bad and we managed to arrive in Berwick in one piece…

We arrived in a very pleasant B&B where the owner was so keen to show us everything… And I just wanted to lie down!

It looks like a lovely town. I take back my comments about arriving in beautiful French towns. Here is similarly beautiful and we have had a bit of a walk around the walls. We discovered that Lowry loved this place and many of his paintings feature scenes from the town. And he nearly bought a house here…

The house on the right is the house he nearly bought, and it features in his paintings…

Tomorrow we’re heading to Dunbar. Its not half as far… (hopefully).