Reet then, pics sorted so here it is, part Ramo ramble, part me, and the tasty pics are from Cyclops.
As Tim said, after chewing it over at Matlock on Tuesday night, we thought we'd bite the bullet and try and get some riding in and somwhere different. None of us have ridden the Northumberland Coast so that's where we plumped for, necessitating a stopover somewhere along the way. The weather forecast was dry sunny and for Thur/Fri so great, a chance to get out,
To get up there meant a longish grind up the M1/A1 to get past Newcastle so an early start was the order of the day.
I rode up a gloriously bright A614, all dandy till I passed the Bawtry junction then, normal summer weather resumed fookin drizzle. Kin el, weather forecasts cocked up again, but it was only short lived, 15mins later all fine, so onwards and upwards to Wetherby services for the meet,
Got to Wetherby for 06.45 to find Tim and Cyclops already queuing for a Greggs finest. (06.45 that's in the morning Oldbull)
From there it was a straight forward "blatt" directly north on the A1 to put some miles under our belts and leave more time to explore Northumberland the coast,
so 20 mins later refreshed and bellies topped up, we set off in once again kin drizzle,
Fookin drizzle persisted and heavy traffic on the A1 was beginning to dampen the spirits, fortunately the Sena's kept us entertained...."look at that twat/did you see that coont/fekk me is he blind et etc etcv but even so, after an hour of this, a coffee break to re group was called for,
So we then set off from Washington services to Amble, to get on the coastal road. Washington Services...now there's a fekkin place stuck in a timewarp...the elevated "tunnel" to get you across the A1 to the "better" services was made of fekkin old wriggly tin..we half expected Michael Caine in his mac carrying a shotgun to walk around the corner. very early 70's dump. The filling station was exciting as they'd obviously only just finished the daily diesel spray all over the fekkin place.
had hoped to stop and look at the Angel of the North but too busy yakking and missed the turn off. She is still an impressive sight though as you pass.
Eventually, we got to a road signed "The Coast Road" Excellent, this dual carriageway will soon end....No it didn't...long stretch of carriageway, a roundabout and another sign "Coast Road and again. After a bit we thought fekk it got to get off and so we did...heading for Amble. A quick stop outside Amble Marina cos we couldn't get past the barriers left us no option but to have a piss in the bushes and bugger off. What a dump this first stop was and not a good start.
On the way out, two road workers pointed us in the right direction and from there things got better...the roads, the traffic , the countryside and the villages..next place was Alnmouth and a stop at Craster. really wild and rugged outposts up here now.
great twisty roads now and the weather brightening up all the time. Stopped at Dunstanburgh Castle, well the end of a lane about 3/4 of a mile from it
Still with full bloody Winter gear on, yes, really, well Tim and Cyclops anyrode, we ummed and arred..."shall we go have a look? It's a fekkin trek, fekk it why not" and off we jolly well walked along the golf links ducking the quite frequent sliced ball to the Castle. Fantastic place
A lovely hour spent there but by the time we got back the clothing was readjusted due to overheating.
Off we set, next place Seahouses then Bamburgh Castle.
Bloody bigger place than we expected but the place was jammed with holidaymakers so after a quick photo stop we were off again.
A stretch of the A1 was unavaoidable until we got to the Lindisfarne turn off.
The tide was coming in so no chance of hopping over to the Holy island and see the cradle of all the troubles
A tea break at The Barn at Beal with Lindisfarne in the background and blue skies
Where to next huh? Well, it was getting on into late afternoon and with the next place up the coast being what we thought would be a busy Berwick on Tweed and Bellingham our overnight stop near Keilder being south west of us, we decided on an impromptu, off the cuff, Mini Borders Run.
so heading due west away from Lindisfarne, we crossed the A1 and got onto nice B roads that climbed gently inland. The Cheviot Hills rose impressively to our left and it wasn't long before we got to Kelso. We saw a monument on a hill top in the distance and gradually closed in on it. Trying to actually get to the top though proved fruitless and so we eventually gave up and got back onto some fast sweeping roads.
The tower, we later found out, is the Waterloo Monument
On lovely empty roads we rode to Jedburgh, filled up, then rode south to Carter Bar
Beautiful evening now and time for Tim and Ian to put their winter woollies back on.
A few pics and gawps at the stunning early evening views and it was time to "crack on"
Earlier we had planned to ride from Carter Bar across to Bonchester Bridge, Newcastleton road, turning off and heading west alongside Kielder, but time was getting on and we were getting fekked too so we stopped on the A68 for a lovely fast ride down to Bellinghham via the B6320. fantastic traffic free riding.
Arrived at digs, Demesne Farm about 7 ish
Very clean and comfortable place, obviously a relatively recent barn conversion.
Cracking night in Bellingham, beer and food and a fabulous urinal in the pub, The Cheviot. We did try the Rose and Crown first, but the two drunks bouncing against the walls on their way out for a fag. the looks from the locals as the noise dropped when we walked in and the distinct lack of food smells made us turn around and try the Cheviot. We weren't disappointed as the bar meals were excellent and a great selection of beers too.
Next morning a good breakfast was had at the Rocky Roads Cafe,
The forecast was wet all day, FFS, so we were not looking forward to the ride,
but once again the forecast was wrong,
yeaaaaah, tank fook fa that,
So we set off initially south towards Hexham then directly South to Middleton as Alston was too far west of us.
However, with a couple of deft turns and U turns from "Red Leader" we ended up on some lovely back roads eventually popping halfway along the Brampton to Alston road
. Must add here we did not plan any routes, and we did not have a map between us,
found some great uncharted roads, and I am now a expert at U turns on Bird.
As we headed over Alston Moor the low cloud was causing drizzle, but it was dry before we got to Middleton.
Cake and coffee at Middleton
After which I happened upon a pair of trousers with jonos name on them,
the store owner said it would not be a problem to whip 4” off the leg for ya
The cake was spot too
From Middleton to Brough -then Kirkby Stephen and Nateby
Hung a left at Nateby B6270, a crackin road I first rode on a Maxx2 route,
its a great road, I have been trying to find for a couple of years,
The views back behind us as we climbed over the yops were stunning, all the way over to the Lake District.
so then Nateby - Thwaite 11 miles of scenic moorland road, which leads straight to the junction to Buttertubs pass,
and from there, onto Hawes
- Grassington Fuel £1.24 litre
on to Skipton, where we decided to sit out the rush hour with a couple of coffees and topped up our bollox talk, whilst watching the world go by
From Skipton we rode a great Tim route to Glossop, all back roads,
I cannot begin to name all the villages we passed through, hmmmm, Carlton, Haworth , Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge
even passed the famous pub they named a novel and a song after, Wuthering Heights
Then there was the cobbled road. fekk was that steep with a bloody huge camber off the centre either side.
From Hebden Bridge it was up Cragg Vale start of the longest continuous gradient in England - 968 feet over 5.5 mile, over to Ripponden, across the M62, Sleights and a few very very steep hills to Meltham and Holmfirth, Glossop and finally (for me) Snake Pass.
We seemed to have crammed a lot of miles and places into the 2 days,
but the pure bollox spoke per mile was astounding, thank you Sena
here's to Tim, Cyclops and Orville, till next time
