After today's leg, I can claim that I have cycled the length of the country of my birth, having crossed the England/Scotland border at around 17.30 this afternoon. Not quite as challenging as having been born in Chile, but I'm still quietly proud of myself this evening. The route I took meant that it was 587 miles from Land's End to the border.
 |
| Crossing the border - check the rain clouds |
The A68 has represented about 80% of my route today and I would like to thank the A68 for being principally a cycle friendly road. I will admit to having a little wobble on the section between Corbridge and Otterburn where the hills seemed to be relentless.
Setting out from Toft Hill, I soon came across a pub called the Duke of York. It would have been very rude not to have a couple of verses of “The Grand Old Duke of York, He had 10,000 men. He marched them _ _ to the top of the hill and he marched them _ _ _ _ again. When they were _ _, they were _ _ and when they were _ _ _ _, they were _ _ _ _ but when they were only halfway _ _, they were neither _ _ nor _ _ _ _”. Unfortunately, I caught myself out with one of the ups in the second rendition, so I had a little drink. I did check that it was right-handed drinking at the time.
From then on until Corbridge it was fairly plain sailing (or should I say cycling) as I sped along a decent and relatively flat road, knocking off over 30 miles in the first 2 hours. The first signposts I had seen for Edinburgh this morning showed 103 miles to go, by the time we met for lunch this was in the 70s. My progress was so good that George and I had to abandon our plans of a picnic at Hadrian’s Wall. She eventually caught me up at Great Swinburne. Our birthday feast was so good that I had to have a 20 minute power nap before setting off for the afternoon leg.
The next 15 miles after lunch were really hard going – not so much physically but mentally as I struggled with hill after hill. The stretch of road north of Corbridge was advertised as having had 75 fatalities in the last 3 years. Whilst I negotiated it safely, at one point I was desperate not to see another ******* hill. It was also very open and the cross wind made keeping a straight path quite difficult (note it was not a windy day). This stretch must be very bleak when it is howling a gale and tipping it down with snow. The sheep must be very hardy.
After passing Otterburn and entering the Northumberland National Park (how many National Parks was that?), the road flattened out again and the rate from this morning was resumed. Like in Cornwall, many of the establishments advertised themselves as the “First and Last” – hotel, café etc We stopped outside the First and Last Café in England to enjoy a cuppa and George’s birthday cake – chocolate caramel shortbread and Bakewell tart.
On towards the border. The last mile and a half has a gradual incline. It is almost as though someone thought that if you want to escape England, you have to do it the hard way. It was also at this point that it started to rain, so out came the waterproof and determined to reach the border, I pressed on. Whilst I know there is still a long way to go there was definitely a strong sense of satisfaction at having reached this landmark.
It would have been easy to call it a day at this point, but with only another 17 miles to go to reach Hawick, I cycled on. Whilst there was elation at reaching Scotland the reality on arriving at our accommodation in Hawick was that I was absolutely drenched. The forecast for tonight is heavy rain, clearing to sunny intervals with the odd shower, so hopefully a bit drier but I think I will need to keep the waterproof handy.
We are staying at a converted bank http://www.thebankno12highst.com/ . From the façade it does not look particularly like a guesthouse and from the front you can still see the traditional money deposit box, but the inside has been furnished and decorated beautifully. Our hostess greeted us with a couple of glasses of red wine – how very civilised!
The recommended Damascan Drum was not open this evening, so we had to console ourselves with our second birthday curry of the week. This time the nan bread was definitely XL if not XXL.
Today’s mileage: 79 miles
Duration: 5 hours 19 minutes cycling
Calories burned: 5,461
Maximum speed: 34.72mph
Average speed: 14.84 mph
No comments:
Post a Comment