I was in the area to visit my family in nearby Stockport and had been camping in the beautiful town of Heyfield on north Derbyshire border. Waking up with the dawn chorus meant that I was on the road quite early. Heading into Glossop I then cut across the Kingdom of Yorkshire towards Barnsley and joined the A1 heading north. Coming off just before Darlington I hit the a-roads and B-roads and spent an enjoyable afternoon working my way up to Haltwhistle in Northumberland. And what a beautiful part of the world.
This is another part of the UK that I have never visited and it opened my eyes because Northumberland is so varied. From the green and lush valleys and gentle rolling hills to the stark, flat and wind-swept moorland of the dales, each mile you travel you see another aspect to Northumberland. Another thing about being in the wilds of Northumberland is that the air felt different. Softer and scented, or maybe it was just my imagination, but whatever it was, the air does feel different.
After a good night’s sleep I was up and on the road early to spend much of the day riding around the North Pennines and then north through the Kielder Forest park. At one point I stopped at Hadrians Wall and I was going to visit the Roman ruins at Vindolanda but I run out of time and needed to make some mileage. At one point I was riding along the B6318 – which is as straight as a ruler for mile upon mile. Its easy to forget the influence and innovation that the Romans were responsible for, but roads were one of their main innovations, and you don’t need to guess the history of the B6318 to understand why.
Just before I crossed the border from England to Scotland – and thankfully no passport is required (yet) – I stopped at the Carmien Cafe, which is on the A68 at Rochester, and it’s the last cafe in England before you cross into Scotland. The menu is vast, the choice varied and the service quick and cheerful. It was also much cheaper than some other eating places I’ve visited, and while I was enjoying my egg, bacon and sausage roll, I watched their chickens though the window doing what chickens do in their back garden.
The afternoon brought me to towns of Hawick, Kelso, Coalstream and then to Berwick Upon Tweed where I stopped for a cup of flask-coffee on the quay next to the bridge, which was going to be my last stop before heading to Glasgow. I was very tempted to go cross-country and take the backroads, but I took the easy way out and decided on the coast road and the motorway – which was the fastest way back. Once you know you are near home, all you want to do is make haste…
With a stop at the ASDA in Dunbar for cheap fuel, I hit Edinburgh (and my first traffic jam since Dorset and Sussex) and then the final few miles back to Helensburgh and home. It had been an amazing couple of weeks, and with around 2800 miles done, it was time to return back to normality.
