Once throughout the city centre we go through the hatbour upstream along the Tees over the Tees Barriage Bridge. We stop at a big ASDA to buy some heartburn medicine and stop in Stockton-upon-Tees for lunch. I am not sure what to get as I feel that whatever I have, I might throw up again. While we’re inside, outside it starts raining. We have lunch, I take the heartburn medicine, gag, but manage to keep the food inside. Meanwhile it has stopped raining and we’re once again on our way. Once we get past the outskirts of the city we hit again an old railroad track through Wynyard Woodland Park. It starts raining just a bit, but we’re protected by the trees. Off the track, back in the villages like Wingate or Wheatley Hill, it is not a pretty sight. We make our way to the Strawberry Hill Farm Camping, which, on Google, looked like a great site. What I did not notice is that is sits along the very busy A181, just where it is a dual carriage way. Trying to avoid to have to do a big detour, we risk our lives crossing and climbing up the road while cars are passing at 100+ km/hour. Arriving at the site, it looks as loveley as on the internet, except for the noise of the flying by cars of the busy A road. Arrived at the tent area, we immediately spot a Dutch couple. As usual, they think we’re Germans. I am starting to think the Germans should pay us for indirectly promoting their country. Since last year we’ve noticed at least all Dutch people, think we’re Germans. The English guy a few tents further has just a bit more culture and did read the Belgian flag right. He is a big cycling fan, even has been to the “zesdaagse” in Gent. We have a chat and move on to making dinner. Pasta with broccoli and salmon on the menu this evening. I was looking for something relatively light and nutricious at the same time. After having swallowed three spoonfuls, by stomach decides to give it all back to nature. The heartburn medic he clearly did not work very well. Our English neighbour bring us earplugs. We did not use them, but should have.
It rained during the night, but has cleared out by the morning. I am still feeling a bit under the water and we’re considering our options. Going over Newcastle, we don’t have too many options. We have breakfast first before making a final decision. I finish my breakfast and take the heartburn medicine. My breakfast decides it wants to be free again. Without fuel, it will be hard to ride a long way. Bien suggest to take the train, something I had not event thought of strangely enough. Durham is about 10k away and gets us to any destination Northbound. As, except for the Yorkshire Moors we’ve been quite disappointed with the surrounding so far, we decide to train all the way to Scotland, to Dunbar, famous for it battle as you all know and the birth place of John Muir father of America’s National Parks. We follow the signs to the northbound platform and I purchase tickets. Two people, one way, one bicycle. “Only one?”, the lady at the counter asks. “Yes, its a tandem”, I reply. She gives me a bit a strange look, but just issues the tickets. We’ve got about a two hour wait before our train arrives. I drink some water and have some yoghurt and manage to keep everything inside. About every half hour another member of the station staff comes to see us, to ask us about the bicycle. Where we’re going, telling us we need to report to the platform and train manager. All very helpful. About 15 minutes before our train arrives, another staff members comes up to us. “You guys are going to Dunbar, right? Well then you need to be on the other platform.” So no one had consider this before? We rush to the other side and report to the platform manager. No worries, the train is late anyways. But that tandem, that might be an issue. Anyways, just get on, and you’ll see. When the train finally pulls into the station, that is exactly what we do. We get in the “bicycle carriage” where we find to single bicycle spots. One is filled with a stroller, the other one with garbage. We clean out the garbage one, squeeze in our tandem and find ourselves a seat. When halfway the journey the train manager passes to check the tickets, he is not happy. “I’ll have to report this.” Fine, as long as we get to our destination, which we do. Off the train, we make our way to the Dunbar campsite just outside of town. It’s a great site with an amazing view on the sea. Considering the stomach problems, we decide to stay two nights.
The following morning we wake up under a blue sky. It’s laundry day. However what took us half a day to a day last year to get done, we now finish in under two hours. Plenty of time left to go discover. We take the tandem for a spin. Always a bit of a strange experience without the luggage. We had noticed a lighthouse not too far from the campsite and decide to pay it a visit. It make a nice little ride and walk along the beach. After that we ride to Dunbar. It isn’t much, but it has all the facilities you need and is actually quite cosy. We have lunch outside on a terrace, enjoying the sun for as long as it lasts. Tomorrow we have a short ride planned to Edinburgh. About 50k, but the weather forecast looks really bad. We go to bed early to be able to leave early.
Ninth of August. Our birthday. It doesn’t really feel that way and in all honesty, we care less, and less. The weather report got it right this time, no presents for us today. We wake up with the sound of rain on the tent and a terrible wind. We were mentally prepared for this. We break up camp from the inside out and take everything to the laundry room. We actually manage to get most things more or less dry. As we have breakfast I. The laundry room, a less fortunate father, and not so happy camper son, walk in to use the tumble dryer. Their tent basically collapsed during the night leaving everting soaking wet. They did get the front view pitches through ;-). Again the weather forecast is spot on. As we leave Dunbar, it is pouring rain. We’re singing “Blue skies”, just to keep the moral high. It slows down a bit after a while, but as we get to Musselburgh, roads are turning into creeks again. We have decentralised gear, bit our feet our drowning in our shoes. We decide to stop at a pub to take shelter and have a hot drink. “We don’t serve hot drinks, luv, but you’re welcome to have a pint with the rest of the lads.” It is just before noon, we still have about 20k to go, no beer for us. Bien stick to a Diet Coke. Still trying out whatever is local I have an Irn-Bru. “It used to be the best medicine against hangovers, but they changed the recipe”, the bar lady declares. Whatever, I guess. As we sit in the bar waiting for the rain to pass, my phone starts acting weird. It doesn’t want to launch certain apps, types on its own. Just in time, I manage to make a hotel booking in Edinburg before it hardly responds at all. In today’s day and age, that phone is our life line. It’s our satnav, weather forecast, travel guide, everything. I’d love to go back to the good old times, but if you look at the pictures I posted from the maps we used over two decades ago, they would not have survived this kind of rain. Fortunately we’re on the national cycle route and that is pretty well signposted. As we approach Edinburgh, the clouds disappear.
We settle into our hotel room. Find the nearest Apple store to get my phone repaired. While it’s great you can have a dives purchased in other country repaired somewhere else, it remains increadible timeconsuming. We manage to see some of Edinburgh, but as the Fringe festival is taking place, it is a bit too crowded for us. When you’ve been riding a bicycle, even just for a week, it gets a bit alienating to enter a city. We manage to find a nice place to have our birthday dinner. And as we get back to our room, all our gear has dried. Ready to hit the road again tomorrow.
0 comments:
Post a Comment