It was raining lightly as we rode out this morning, but it lifted as we climbed out of the Tweed valley along the Leithen.  For an hour or two it looked as though we might complete our 11 day riding adventure without any serious rain.

But when we reached the northern edge of the Moorfoot Hills we were denied any view down into the Firth of Forth. In fact, the road ahead disappeared into cloud.  As we entered the cloud there was a sudden coldness in the air, and it has remained chilly for the rest of the day.

At first the cloud was just a misty fog, but as it soon turned into light rain.  The lower we got in altitude the heavier the rain became.  It rained pretty solidly on us all afternoon, and so we rose with few stops (and sadly no camera stops – it was wet and there were no views today anyway)

It was lovely to have a warm shower and get dry.  I suppose we have now experienced some authentic Scottish weather.

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The clouds were low when we left Kelso this morning, and it soon began raining.  The rain was not heavy by Australian standards, but it was the wettest we’ve had so far.  By lunchtime, however it had cleared enough for us to see through Melrose Abbey in patches of sunshine.

Melrose Abbey is better preserved than the one at Kelso, but it is still a ruin.  Like all the abbeys in the Scottish Borders, Melrose has a colourful history. It was burned down by the armies of Richard II, but he then helped pay to rebuild it! 

A low portion of wall remains from the original 12th century church, but the rest dates from this rebuilding.  Some of the pillars were added to in the 18th century by the people of Melrose, who converted part of the ruin into a local parish church. One tower is still sound enough to climb via its spiral staircase, and I thoroughly enjoyed the rooftop view.

We enjoyed a look around, and then continued up the Tweed.  The valley sides got steeper as we rode towards Innerleithen, and the route became more and more beautiful.

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We rode past Norham Castle at about lunchtime, and had a quick look at the ruins. It was once the strongest fortress on this part of the border, and was considered to be the most dangerous place in England. From the ramparts it is easy to look down across the Tweed into Scotland, so this castle had more than its fair share of battles.  The remaining ruins are from when the castle was largely rebuilt after a defeat in 1513, and they are now a freely accessible park.  When we were there a family of children were playing hide and seek in the ruined walls.

The ride to Kelso was on minor roads through fields and forests, and the day was again sunny enough for us to worry about sunburn. It will be an irony for us to return to Australia tanned and peeling from the English sun!

The ruins of Kelso Abbey are striking in the rooftop view from our loft room. We had a wander through the remains of what must have been an enormous church building, and the adjacent tree canopied cemetary.  There were a lot of abbeys along the debatable lands, and they were mostly destroyed in the border wars.

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Lindisfarne, or “Holy Island”, is one of the oldest and holiest christian sites in Britain. Without a boat, the only way out to the island is a causeway that is covered by high tides.  If you don’t consider the tide times it is easy to get stranded on the island; or worse, find yourself in rising water on the causeway.

We rode steadily along pleasant back roads to Beal, at the mainland end of the causeway.  There was time for us to get some food before the tide was low enough to cross.  On the way over we had salt spray thrown on us by cars coming the opposite direction!

On Lindisfarne is a ruined priory with remains from the 12th century, but there was a monastery in the site in the 600s.  The Lindisfarne Gospels are a decorated (“illuminated”) Latin translation of the four Gospels, and they were created at this priory in the early 700s.  We walked around the priory ruins in glorious sunshine. The weather really has been kind to us on this cycle tour so far.

Riding back to the mainland was hard work against a strong headwind, but the tide had dropped further and we didn’t get sprayed.  Most of the way to Berwick was right along the shoreline, and in a few places the track was just ruts in the grass behind dunes.

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Only a few miles out of Amble, we stopped for a look in Warkworth Castle. There has been a fortress on the site since Norman times, and the reasonably well preserved keep was built in the 14th century.  It is a well designed building, with multiple stairways down to the storage basement.

We rode along lovely country roads through the coastal fields. For a while we were on a public path through a farm, and got good views of the Dunstanburgh Castle ruins.

At Boulmer we ride past an RAF airfield, which explained the military jets that have flown over us a couple of times in the last few days.  I haven’t been able to recognise the planes, but they could be the new Eurofighter.

Bamburgh Castle is one of the largest and most famous in Northumberland. It was the seat of the King of Northumbria at one stage, and it has the dubious honour of being the first English castle to fall under cannon fire.  That attack was by lord Richard Neville of Warwick.

Much of the current castle was rebuilt in the 19th century, and it is an imposing fortified mansion. We had great views of it on the coastal skyline as we rode the last few miles down to Bamburgh.

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Today was less pretty because a lot of the route was through industrial areas around Blyth and Lynemouth. We needed to cross the River Blyth and the River Wansbeck, so there wasn’t really any other way for the route to go.

Unpleasant surroundings do not require as many camera stops, and so we covered the distance in quite reasonable time.

We followed the edge of the coast as we left Tynemouth, and that first section was beautiful. It had the feel of an old seaside holiday destination, and we rode along a nice promenade on the clifftop. The view out to sea was wonderful, and it was clearly a popular place to walk the dog.

The ride today ended nicely too. After Lynemouth the route returned to the coastline and wound along rural backroads just behind the beach. A highlight was the icecream shop in Cresswell, which nearly cured us of the gloom that comes from riding through smelly industrial streets.

But then we got lost.

We missed a track that continued along the coast, and continued along a lane that made a turn inland. By the time we realised our mistake, we had climbed up a hill and encountered an A road. Rather than backtrack, I suggested we ride along the main road for a few hundred metres and go down the next lane back to the beach. This would have worked nicely, except the lane marked on the map didn’t eventuate in real life. We did find our way back, but only after some stressful A road riding.

Happily Amble is a delightful town. It is a quaint old harbour on a rivermouth, and has a relaxed feel. I am reminded a lot of Strahan on Tasmania’s west coast. It was worth the long ride to get up to Amble for the night.

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Our ride has covered 239 kilometres, and the C2C is complete. From here we follow the Coast & Castles to Edinburgh. It is nice to have finished the first stage of our trip, but exciting to only be half way through.

We rejoined the Waskerly Way this morning and rode on a gentle downhill most of the day. We had a bit of difficulty where the path forked to Newcastle, and found ourselves on the route to Sunderland. Luckily we realised this mistake early.

The Newcastle route followed another railway path most of the way to the River Tyne. This was on an elevated embankment, and we had nice views through trees into fields and forests. Once we met the Tyne, our surrounds became industrial and urban. It was a strong change from the last few days in the fells and moors and country towns.

Riding along foreshore paths, we passed under Newcastle’s Tyne Bridge. It is a lot like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but smaller. Heading out of Newcastle towards Tynemouth took us through some more fairly rough industrial areas.

The remains of Segedunum provided pleasant respite. This was a Roman fort at Wallsend that formed the eastern end of Hadrian’s Wall (hence the town’s name). We went into the little museum and had a look around the uncovered remains of the fort. They have a reconstructed bath house that we also looked through, and I was impressed with the painted decorations on the walls. I wonder how authentic they are?

Tynemouth is prettier and more inviting than the largely industrial picture we got of Newcastle. Having the North Sea visible out our window is a marvellous way to celebrate our pedal powered traverse of England.

Here on the north side of the river mouth there is a ruined castle and priory. They make a dramatic backdrop to the main street, and are helping us get in the mood for the next part of our riding adventure.

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Alston was a great place to stay last night, but it was a mile or so off the C2C route. Rather than retracing our steps (or pedals) back to where we left the official route, we found our own way on a B road and a minor road to Garrigill and rejoined the C2C there.

The climb out of Garrigill started very steeply and took us over a hill with lots of mining remains. This whole region was heavily mined for lead and silver, and we’ve been riding past old mining huts and hummocks of tailings for lots of the day.

It would have been nice to have a ridge to follow, but we had to descend into Nenthead. We stopped to eat some lunch, and the friendly motorbike riders we met yesterday just happened to drive past as we were eating! They saw us and waved.

Out of Nenthead we climbed to the highest point on the C2C at 609 m. At the top we passed from Cumbria into Northumberland, and had a wonderful few miles of smooth speedy descent.

The rest of the day remained undulating. Slow steady climbs were followed by zooming cruises down good roads. The empty Moors were beautiful in a more rugged way than the Lake District.

After the last major climb on the C2C, out of Stanhope, we rode down an old rail path called the Waskerly Way. The gravel surface was a bit loose and rough in places, but the gentle descent made for very pleasant riding. It was from a point on this path that we saw the sea, and that excitement pushed us on to our bed at Castleside.

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Some of the steepest ascent today was right at the start climbing out of Penrith. It didn’t take long to get a great view back over the town. Penrith itself was historically a market town, and these days it feels more industrial than Keswick.

Our route wound up and down between country villages and fields, and we detoured a mile or so to see a stone circle that dates back to druidic times. The stones were a lot smaller than the more famous Stonehenge formation, but this circle (called “Long Meg”) was still about 100 m in diameter. It was well worth the little diversion.

The big climb was up Hartside, and it went on and on. The view kept expanding as we gained altitude, and made it all feel worth it. Near the top there was a nice little white cottage, with sheep around it. Perched on top of the pass was a welcome cafe where we got some celebratory nibbles for a late lunch. It seemed like a popular stopping point, and we had a great chat with some motorbike riders.

The climb up took hours, but we covered the few miles down into Alston in minutes. The top of Hartside was very open moorland, but we have dropped back onto rich farmland.

Everyone we’ve met or stayed with has been thoroughly intrigued by our trikes. Even experienced cycle-friendly B&B owners haven’t seen anything like them before. It is possible that we are the first people to do the C2C on recumbent trikes!

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As one of the most beautiful and heritage places along our route, Keswick was worth lingering in this morning. We went to the Pencil Museum and learned some fascinating things about their history. Pencils are so common these days that it was strange to be on the place where they were invented.

The ride out of Keswick was on an old railway path. It crossed the river repeatedly, sometimes on the old rail bridges. Railways make excellent cycle paths, as they never climb steeply.

It was so beautiful that we kept stopping to take photos and video and just to soak in the scenery. We had only reached Threlkeld by the time we were hungry, and so we got a great meal at the Horse and Farrier Inn. We could eat at one of the outside tables to keep an eye on our trikes.

The route then followed country lanes with great views down into the fields of the valley. We wound along the side of the hills to Mungrisdale, which was my favourite bit of the ride so far. It was peaceful and exquisitely beautiful.

The last pat of the day was mostly downhill through pretty little villages into Penrith. The weather had lifted, and sun lit up the fields as we passed old farmhouses.

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