Saturday July 8, 2017, 32 miles (51 km) – Total so far: 113 miles (182 km)
Wake up – yes
Pack – yes
Breakfast -yes
Easy ride out of Bamburgh -NO !
It was long and steep, verging on ENORMOUS, but we conquered it and proceeded onwards towards Lindisfarne about 12 miles distant. We had to hurry because the tides meant that we had to leave Lindisfarne before 13:30, otherwise we would be stuck there for about 5 hours. We followed the map, turned a corner and were confronted by a MIND-BOGGLING ramp of 17% We considered walking up for a moment, but ground the gears and slowly, so slowly, made our way up until we crested triumphantly about 10 minutes later.
Total climbed today : 1350ft
The road to Lindisfarne was undulating but we made steady progress and eventually crossed the causeway at about 10:50 and parked the tandem next to the very nice English Heritage people. We wandered around, impressed by the size of the island and also the number of people who lived there. We had imagined it was small and mostly deserted, but actually has a small but substantial population and quite a bit of land – no wonder the Vikings invaded.
We viewed an archeological dig of a very early church dated, possibly, around 700AD, and had a very nice sandwich in a pub. We might also have seen seals, but equally we might had seen some large wading birds .. We have old eyes and they were a long way away !
After leaving Holy Island in plenty of time we followed the route and crossed some increasingly rough ground, so rough that at one point we managed to fall off the bike into some thistles – some scratches and bruises the only result.
We chatted to a few other cyclists going the other way who were very friendly and also complained about the quality of the route. We made very slow progress, wobbling precariously at the edge of cliffs, but eventually arrived in sunny Berwick and found our accommodation.
We wandered into town and had a beer in The Queen’s Head. Belinda, her parents and Lucia had stayed there a few years ago with the sloping floor being a particular favourite in one of the bedrooms. We had a pint of beer and half a cider for £7.50p !! When I was a student we would have got 15 pints for that much. We eventually had an OK Indian meal iafter failing to get a table anywhere else and then settled down for the evening to read, rest and sleep.
