I have to say the best scenery and the nicest people of my 3,200 km journey so far, I found along the Northumberland Coast and on into Scotland. The weather left a bit to be desired though, and I struggled through days of cold wind and rain. Would I go again? You betcha!
Don’t forget: you can zoom-in to see the detail
Monday 9 May 2022. Alnwick to Berwick-upon-Tweed |76 km|
In Alnwick, Ziggy, my faithful companion and poor dumb beast of an eBike, was in bad shape with his rear pannier rack having collapsed onto the wheel when its front support brace, which is also the Tubus lock housing, failed at both ends due to stress fracturing. This has been a recurring problem (I’m on my fourth rack on 2 different R&M eBikes) and is due to really stupid design, Mr. Riese & Mr. Müller, and no, the rack was not overloaded thankyou.
After a good night’s sleep and a wholesome breakfast at Jo and David’s B&B, I went early into Alnwick town to the local hardware store to buy some cable ties. They weren’t open yet so I had to loiter in Costa Coffee up the street for 40 minutes until 8.30 for the owner to arrive. But his cable ties weren’t exactly of industrial standard and were no good at all for tying down the rack.
So I set of gingerly to NCR 1 and back towards the coast at High-Newton-by-the-Sea. Don’t you just love these names. In spite of some nice scenery and a trailing wind, I was on tenderhooks the whole day as the bike was still handling weirdly, with that strange kind of squishiness in the rear end.
I pulled in to R. Carter and Daughter Food Emporium (right next door to R. Carter and Son Family Butchers) in the seaside castle town of Bamburgh, and was sitting down next to the bike enjoying my scrumptious pie, when a tradie-type guy named David came walking up the road and we exchanged pleasantries.
I explained to him the problem with the rack and he said he might be able to fix it if I pulled in to his jobsite about 1 km up the road. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, I gobbled down the rest of my chunky meat pie and dashed after him. Just as well too, because he disappeared from view just after I rounded the corner but I managed to take note of where I’d last seen him, and arrived at a mansion well hidden from the road (it shows it clearly on the GPX track above and on Google Earth), that he was helping renovate.
David, who is an electrician, rummaged around in the back his van for a bit and pulled out the thickest, strongest, not-so-longest cable tie I’d ever seen (not-so-long is just as important because you can’t tighten it or cut it off before the teeth-and-pawl section or else it cannot hold). Just perfect!, and I managed to bolster the rack in no time at all. [One year and 7,000 km later, it’s still holding].
More trouble came to a head at the village of Fenwick, though, where the rear tyre went flat again – it was another pinch flat caused by the totally deteriorated rear tyre. I shouldn’t have been too surprised. If I’m not mistaken that’s the same Schwalbe Mondial that I put on coming down the Elbe on 16 May, 2019, 13,000 kilometers ago. So, well done Schwalbe!
Anyway, I tried three times for 1½ hours to fix that puncture there on the side of the road but the patch just wouldn’t hold. I ended up repatching the old thick-walled Continental tube that had the pinch flat a few days ago, and then it took ages to find a tiny secondary leak caused, I think, by a fragment of wire embedded in the tyre tread. The locals in Fenwick were very kind and helpful, from the guy who searched his shed for the right-sized wheel to give me (all 26’s and thus too small – I’m a 27.5), to the old couple whose house I was outside of doing my repairs who gave me a tub of water to find the leak, to the Postman who came by several times just to check I was okay and to give me directions to the nearest megastore where I might be able get a new tyre and tube (I called ahead – they said they had one, but that I’d better hurry on over as they were due to close at 4.30. It was already 2.00 pm).
Off I set again even more gingerly. My effort at tube repair only lasted 25-odd kilometers, still 3 km short of the Go Outdoors store in Scremerston North, and I had to push the bike the rest of the way, arriving just a few minutes before closing time. They were too busy to do the job of changing tyre and tube themselves but let me use their workshop and all the proper tools, including a bike stand, while they were shutting up shop around me. No problemo.
Reinvigorated, but still a wee bit wary of the rear rack issue (‘Go Outdoors’ didn’t have any suitable cable ties either) I rode as far as Berwick-upon-Tweed, where I arrived slightly frazzled and stayed at the not-so-cheap but friendly Queens Head Hotel for £110, and had an even nicer and not-so-cheaper £37 meal. Once again, other hotels in town were full and the Queen’s Head was the 4th one I’d tried. It sure is turning out to be an expensive trip.
Tuesday 10 May 2022. Berwick-upon-Tweed to Berwick North |84 km|
This was a gut-wrenching day, energy-wise. I went to the Berwick bike shop the Postie had mentioned, which is around the corner from the Queen’s Head: the owner was friendly-enough but couldn’t offer much help. He did give me a couple of extra cable ties as back-up, but they weren’t up to the job either.
But I set off north in high spirits and even exaulted in the benefits of a southerly gale pushing me along for a while. Unbeknownst to me, I had already crossed the border into Scotland somewhere just out of Berwick.
Eyemouth – yes, at the mouth of the River Eye – was an okay place and I had an icecream and an iced coffee there from the COOP on the waterfront to celebrate my arrival into Scotland.
After a steep dowhill and an even steeper climb up out of Pease Bay I passed the Torness Nuclear Powerstation that can be seen from miles away. The wind by now had shifted around to the north-east but was still near gale-force and now blowing directly into my face. I trudged on past the town of Dunbar, a so-so looking seaside town, from where the NCR 1 track veers inland once more all the way to Berwick North.
Passing through the non-descript village of Tyninghame the rear tyre suddenly went flat again and I had to upend the bike once more and set-to with the tools. The battery level was already getting very low due to the hills and the head wind, so I knocked on the door of a house opposite and politely asked if I could charge-up while fixing the puncture.
Well, that kind, not-kind, kind of lady living in that terrace house opposite very (un)graciously did allow me to poke my leads in through her front door to connect to her power outlet for half an hour (not any longer!). She was obviously too afraid to allow me into her home at all, even though the power outlet was in the foyer, and I had to patiently explain to her through the door how to connect the battery leads, in itself a self-explanatory task.
Her highschool-aged daughter and friend arrived home just later, and then she went off to pick up her younger son from primary school (I saw them coming and going from across the street). Her husband arrived home shortly after that too, and pretended to be taking out the bins while sussing me out – I’m sure she called him in a panic to come straight on home. Fair enough I suppose, but I can’t imagine living a life like that.
While this was all happening, I’d patched the tube and put everything back together – pfutt – instantly flat again! So this time round I installed the spare tube I’d just bought, and it held all the way to Berwick North, as did the extra power I’d managed to squeeze in, despite the massive head winds (50kph) I was confronted with. I saw a rain squall coming and geared up for it before heading off, but it was all over inside 10 minutes.
I finished the day at the Nether Abbey Hotel in Berwick North. The most expensive night’s accommodation yet, at £164 breakfast included. I even managed to use their laundry to wash some clothes, so a bit of a bargain, eh?
Wednesday 11 May 2022. North Berwick to Glenfarg |110 km|
Cold and blustery but the sun was shining – everyone was telling me what lovely weather we’re having! Straight into the teeth of a 50 km/h gale from the west for most of the ride – it really chewed up the batteries in TURBO mode but I could hardly move at all in the other modes even though the terrain was not particularly difficult.
I tried for more strong cable ties at a Screw Fix store at the Fort Kinnaird Trade Park in Newcraighall, an outer south-eastern suburb of Edinburgh. It’s kind of the equivalent of a Bunnings mega hardware store in Australia in terms of stocked items, but a shit store by comparison – you’re not even allowed inside but have to find what you want in a catalogue and ask the desk to get it for you. B&Q nearby had some of the skinny ones but only sold them in bundles of 20 for £13.50 so I didn’t bother. It was a hassle to find (look at my track in detail!) and an hour wasted. It’s just becoming a habit now, this looking for a back-up cable-tie, so I think I’llgive it a rest.
I went through the Innocent Railway Tunnel to get into the CBD of Edinburgh. That was interesting – you’re cycling along in the suburbs one minute and then suddenly emerge out of the tunnel directly into the downtown area.
I felt intimidated by Edinburgh somehow and barely stopped there. Dunno why. I thought it was an ugly, grimy place but I guess I never gave it a chance to show a better side. The weather was harsh and while still in the CBD I took shelter under a barely big enough verandah to gear up again for an impending storm. I was just in time too, but it was all over in 5 minutes.
The famous Firth of Forth bridge lived up to its reputation and crossing it was, dare I say for risk of hyperbole, spectacular. From the north side of the firth there are 2 ways of getting to Dundee – east then north around the headland via Burntisland and St. Andrews, or north then east across-country and up the Tay River estuary via Dunfirmline and Kinross. I’d already been to Burntisland once in the 1980s and all I remembered about it was how depressingly industrial it was in spite of the romantic name, so I decided on the Kinross route.
But by now the batteries were way down again and I started searching frantically for somewhere in Dunfirmline to charge up. And after a bit of a search I found somewhere too. It was a lovely little cafe serving interesting Euro-food, buffet-style by the weight, and run by a Polish chef who took his food seriously. He did the cooking as he had limited English while his wife worked front-of-house. The business was only 2 months old and unearthly quiet (at 2 pm on a cold and drizzly Wednesday afternoon) so I hope it survives.
While I was there for nearly 2 hours, his teenage kids, a boy and a girl, came home from school and started doing homework at one of the tables while eating up all the profits. It was good to be in the company of such a polite and respectful family, all genuinely interested in each other. [I fear it must be closed already, because a year later I couldn’t find it on the internet, although the google map and google earth photometry was 2018 vintage].
And for once I did it right! I used Google Maps on the iPhone to find hotels not too far away and called and made a booking for the night at one called The Famous Bein Inn at Glenfarg for £60. The ride out there from Dunfirmline was a bit harsh with some steep sections through pine plantations, but after Kinross the countryside was very pleasant indeed to ride through, though I quickly became stressed about the state of the batteries once again.
I found the hotel just in time, it’s about 5 km past Glenfarg and the batteries were showing ‘depletion imminent’ for the last few of them. It was a cosy pub, and just as well I booked ahead too – the guys in front of me at check-in hadn’t booked and were turned away. The room was okay though a bit of a hike with all my luggage way up at the far end of a long corridor up in the eaves on the second floor. The steak pie for dinner was okay too. Breakfast was included, but it certainly wasn’t as good as those I got from the two Berwicks – they would take some beating, especially the second one from Nether Abbey.
Thursday 12 May 2022. Glenfarg to Dundee |48 km|
It was bitterly cold alright but the biting wind didn’t get to me until I rode up out of the glen, and then it was perishing, though mostly in my direction for most of the way.
But straight out of the Bein Inn the Bosch navigation went completely haywire again and I went up some rough tracks through a wind farm until I just ignored its directions and sussed my way back out onto the main Perth – Dundee road, the A913, at Abernethy and then I had an easy morning’s ride all the way to the Tay Bridge.
Crossing the Tay Bridge was a bit thrilling too, in the vicious cross/ head wind coming in off the port bow (as we nautical folk would say). No, I’m not nautical – I just like saying “off the port bow” for “from the left-fronthand side”.
I checked into room #406 (directly under the “L” in “Hotel”) of the Queen’s Hotel, which is a stone’s throw away from where my daughter Molly had her student digs, for 3 nights at £91 per night (including decent full breakfasts).
I had planned to continue on up north all the way to John O’Groats but insteaad I got the call to go back to Guinea in West Africa to follow up on some work I’d been doing there earlier in the year, so instead it was a quick trip back to London by train for me!
– ends –
Day 31: 2022 in Europe so far: 3,249 km in 29 days of cycling
Nights in hotel 20
Night on ferry 1
Nights in tent 12
New bike defects/ repairs:
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- Rohloff oil change (Toulouse)
- Repairs to rear kickstand (Toulouse)
- 12 punctures:
- 2 punctures rear (Toulouse to Agde)
- 4 punctures front (Toulouse to Agde)
- 2 punctures rear (Hull to Birtley)
- 4 punctures rear (Alnwick to Berwick)
- 2 new tubes (Montelimar)
- Two new Ortlieb Front Roller panniers (€140 Koblenz)
- 2 sets new brake pads (£8 Boston)
- Rear pannier rack broken; temp fix with cable ties (Bamburgh)
- 2 new tubes (Scremerston)
- 1 new tyre (Scremerston)
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