We made it!!!
An easy 40 miles (577 total) brought us to Edinburgh today past the best stratified coffee we have had on the trip yet and also past the Glenkinchie distillery. Mmmm! It was a bit of a slow start as everything was soaked with very heavy dew but there was no rush.
Kind of odd to cycle onto a city after being in the countryside for so long but the cycle lanes make it super easy.
Tomorrow will see us being tourists for the day then we're back home by train on Saturday....
We're getting there! The further north we get the less distance we have to go each day and the more we can see en route. An actual holiday in fact!!
After a miserable night for both of us with chronic snorers in 6- bed dorm rooms in the youth hostel in Berwick, we headed up to St Abbes Head which is a wild peninsula and nature reserve. In Scotland!! Whoop we made it this far!
We had a lovely walk and a good coffee then cycled up and up and up for what seemed like forever. Eventually after passing lots of wind turbines we came all the way back down again to the coast, very steeply, to a lovely cove with a terrible holiday village nestled in it.
From there we saw the best that industrial Scotland had to offer: cycle route along the A1, power plant, huge quarry and rubbish dump before coming into the pretty village of Dunbar.
On a recommendation we headed to the nature reserve where we found a sheltered wild spot in the dunes to lay out the bivvy bags for the night. Awesome stars!
Today was another short day cycling-wise, 20 mi in total of which 10 were without panniers. We left our kit at the campsite and made our way across the causeway to explore Lindisfarne.
With everybody rushing into the island once the road was above the tide we were a bit worried about the crowds, but fortunately the 200m rule appears to be universal. Once you are around the corner from the coffee shop, the crowds dwindle and if you walk only a few minutes you are on your own. We had a great visit with some (around 20!) seals along the shore, not entirely sure who was observing whom.
Once off the island we went back for coffee and cake at our campsite and cycled the short way to Berwick where we are staying in the local youth hostel.
Another quiet day today albeit one with a 30 mile ride. We started early with F heading down to the beach at 5.30am to watch the sunrise. The sun then rose behind a cloud-doh!
By 9.30 we'd made it to Seahouses and by 10 into a boat heading towards the Farne Islands, famed in the summer months for their seabird colonies but mostly quiet at this time of year.
After a nice trip and more deep fried food we headed off to Beal and an awesome campsite overlooking Lindisfarne. After pitching the tent and dumping stuff we cycled over the causeway to the village and then headed back to watch the water pour back in again. It must be interesting living in a tide-dependent access zone.
We sat and watched the water creep over the road and a great rainbow appear as we cooked pasta by the sea. Then we cycled back up the hill and thus too bed.
Today was a proper rest day where we only cycled about 5 miles or so - without panniers to the pub for dinner.
The day was spent mostly wandering along the beach to check out Dunstanburgh Castle on one end and to eat crab sandwiches on the other. The castle is quite entertaining in that it appears to have been built by an Earl in the fourteenth century primarily to show that he was just as important as the king. The king didn't get the point and eventually had the earl executed. Moreover, the king did a much better job in providing for his own castle (Bamburgh, just up the road), which is still lived in and in apparently decent shape, while Dunstanburgh is mostly a pile of ruins.
Today was a bit slower after yesterday's long march, also because it is Saturday and J kindly took us to Druridge Bay Parkrun and we all went for coffee along the coast after. Did not leave Morpeth until well after lunch, thanks to J & D for being such fabulous hosts!
We managed only a few miles to Lidl before stocking up on lunch and snacks before setting off for the Northumberland coast in earnest. 39 mi took us a very full campsite - it's a long weekend and we forgot until yesterday that this area might get crowded. We really want to explore this area of the coast a bit more, so for the next couple of days we will stay around here.
C is very happy about this because her seat bones are threatening to poke through her backside and she's becoming a bit fed up at the steep climbs that lurk around every steep downhill corner and catch us unawares!
We somewhat over-reached today. We knew it was going to be a long one but we hadn't quite reckoned on a 68 mile special. Luckily, however, the wind was mostly on our backs and the coffee and cake availability good.
We set off from "Starshinezzz" (!) at 9.30ish after hearing lots more tales over breakfast. The first part of the trip, to Seaham, was along an old railway track so flat and easy. One short section was along a board walk over a muddy puddle which was fun. Eventually we came out to a main road then followed a glorious newly paved section down hill to the waterfront and coffee.
From Seaham it was a short stretch to Sunderland then down along the coast to Souter lighthouse (NT and therefore cream tea) then South Shields and the Tyne Ferry by 3pm. After that it was a bit of a drudge north through some lovely and not so lovely bits of coast until we turned inland at Newbiggin towards Morpeth. Both of us nearly had a sense of humour failure but chocolate diverted the worst of it.
5 miles uphill and into the wind later and we arrived in Morpeth to the welcoming sight of J and D's house. Fabulous food and a comfortable bed awaited us, allowing with some terrible old photos of C and J aged about 13 (we were at school together and haven't seen each other for about 15 years). A fun night after a long weary day!
