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Day 10 Barnard Castle – Hexham
Weather – Good, warm with some sun (and some rain)
Dr Pepper – Availability poor.
Terrain – “Not quite as bad as yesterday”, quality downhills.
Campsite – A field near Hexham
Obviously by this time we were two days behind with no hope whatsoever of making it to John O’Groats in time, but we had thought there was a chance if we didn’t fall behind further of adding two days on the end. To do this Lister would need to pull a sicky at work and Martin would have missed some lectures at uni so it was looking unlikely especially since that relied on having no further problems of any kind – not one of our specialities.
Setting off from our campsite quite early we headed up to Stanhope on the sort of roads we’d hoped to see the last of yesterday, namely up one hill after another punctuated with some all too brief downhills which really were the most fun I’ve had in ages. Particularly coming into Stanhope there was a hill marked with not one but two black arrows downwards and, with no brakes to speak of, Martin had to walk down some parts of it it was so steep and so fast. Not letting the whole no-brakes situation bother us Lister and I flew down the hill and almost went straight through a ford into the town with no option. Stopping just in time we considered our options but really there was only one – to go through the ford all the cars were avoiding by going round the main road.
Lister and I made it safely through slowly then a few seconds later when Martin appeared we obviously encouraged him to do the same. In spectacular fashion he went in too fast then tried to change down the gears, upon which his chain fell off and he rolled to within about two feet of the bank then had to put his foot in the water right at the end – and got soaked. Sadly Lister and I were too busy rolling about laughing to take a picture of the scene. Martin didn’t seem to find it quite so comical but the fact that the ford was at least 30ft wide and he got so close did it for us. To be fair it was no standard Essex-type ford and after quite a bit of rain in the last few days it was deep enough to get the bottom of my soles wet just cycling across, so it wasn’t as easy as it sounds, especially when your chain falls off. There was a stepping stone walkway for pedestrians from which I took the above picture so you can see it was quite a big river.
We had lunch at Stanhope and after a brief chat with some other cyclists proceeded (Slowly) up the other side of the valley. Despite the fact there was only one arrow on the map rather than two it was every bit as steep as the one we had just descended and we had to walk, after which the going was easier and before long we descended on another good downhill to Blanchland and the Northumberland border – the last English county before Scotland.
At Blanchland the sun came out and we stopped for Dr Pepper in the village centre, which had two small shops. The first was ‘closed for 20 mins’ so we tried the other, where we were confronted with a choice of just Pepsi or Lilt. Drinking our Lilt in the sun outside we discussed our options and after the hills of the morning it was clear that we were not going to make Hawick, supposedly our destination for the night, by a long stretch. On paper this was one of the longest days and there was no chance of getting there, in fact it was so far away that we didn’t get there the next day either as it turned out.
Realising there was now no way we would make the whole journey we settled on Edinburgh as our final destination because it is such a major landmark and it would give us some time to relax at the end of the days rather than being all go like it had been previously. Not wishing to wait for the end of the day we sat and played cards on a bench in the village square for a while before giving it up for an elderly couple, then walked down to the scenic river.
Like big kids we immediately set about trying to get to the island in the centre of the river, which we made without getting wet, and continued our game to the envy of all the other passing children. Before long it became necessary to build a dam in the river (it was someone else’s idea I swear) from the island to the other side. Martin crossed back to the bank to go to the toilet and in doing so fell in and got soaked for the second time today, much to our amusement. Anyway our project was underway and before long we had raised the water level on the bank side of the island a good couple of inches such that there was no dry way back. I don’t know if there is a record for the oldest people to build a dam out of stones in a river but I think we’re in contention, and as we pressed on to reach the other side and get out two kids waded out to the island and started competing with us, building a dam on the other side. After comprehensively beating them to the task we got out the other side and took this picture of our masterpiece (on the right) with the others in their futile attempt to beat us!
After having a bit of a laugh for a couple of hours and after Martin dried out again we finally got moving up the road to Hexham, which was a pretty civilised place with a lot of shops etc. On Martin’s recommendation we went in a J.D.Wetherspoons pub and was impressed with the prices of everything and the meals were fantastic. If I remember rightly the (huge) mixed grill and a drink was just £5.19 and it was well set up not like some someky little pubs there was lots of room. Having claimed our table for the night we had a good evening and got in some more all-important card playing time. Since day 1 we had been playing a particular game and keeping score all the way through, by this time we had played about 70 games and we were going to add up the scores on the way home, all through the fortnight we had no idea who was in the lead.
Anyway eventually we left the pub in search of a field to stay in and got pretty lost as we tried to find the right route out of the town. Finally picking a small road we got bored walking along it and climbed over the fence into someone’s field and camped there, making sure we left nice and early in the morning. The picture below is taken at about 6 in the morning as we threw all our stuff back over the fence (we had left the bikes the road side) and packed up. Fortunately there were no cars on the road, but unfortunately although somehow we all got over the fence safely in the dark the night before, there was no obvious way back and we all got ripped to shreds by the brambles which had suddenly appeared.
