This morning, it was another eerie day. I walk around a bit outside in the fog before breakfast. Not raining though. Yet. That will be later. The hostel owner is running around a bit, checking to see if everything is ok, mostly in the way. It seems as he slept all night on the couch, with the tv on rather loud. Most everybody seems annoyed by the tv and eventually he turns it off. But then puts on classical music, also rather loud. Creating atmosphere, I guess. Mostly pretty annoying. He really does seem bewildered by us.
He has set out some boxes of cereal and stuff and we mostly finish it off and then try to pack. Now, this was probably the most challenging task here. I got tired of trying to pack in the inches of room in the bedroom and eventually drag my stuff out into the hallway and finish it there.
We are promised a possibly tough day today and it doesn't disappoint. Although my bike rebels a bit about the treatment. We have a few different choices for routes. All of us at least decide to go to Bellingham and then decide from there. A bit down the road from the start, we come across Mithraeum. It is a ruin of a Roman temple, it looks even more mysterious in the fog. It seems like a surprisingly complete ruin, but I guess probably a bit of it had been reconstructed.
About now, I could probably say that it starts raining a little bit and it could cover just about any point of the day. It mostly stopped and started all day long and then poured for a little bit later on, but at this point it is just a bit misty. The roads we take are a bit small and we have to stop a few times to consult the map, make sure, yep just going over a stream as the road turns this direction, this must be right. The back road part is pretty pleasant. We go by a few farms and houses. As we are in Simonburn, somebody asks, so are we in Wark yet? Strangely, some lady from inside a house yells back that no we are in Simonburn. Does she hang out by the window all day hoping to talk to anybody passing by? Somebody else in the group says there is a funny joke about Wark but I don't get it.
Around Wark, we join a slightly more major road and travel briefly on the most glorious road surface, just freshly paved and silky smooth. I notice a section of road on the map, just a bit west of where we are that has three up and down chevrons in a row within a mile or two. That would be one horrible section to go through, but we miss it. Our route is pretty hilly though. A last steep section and then a fairly nice glide down into Bellingham. Just on the outskirts of town, Brenda says that her gears are not working anymore and has to limp in the rest of the way on a fairly high gear.
Since we are there first, we look around for somewhere suitable for tea and snacks and probably a early lunch. There isn't all that much until we get to Kielder. Brenda also asks around, seeing if there is somewhere she can get a new cable for her gears. No luck there but fortunately when everybody else arrives, there are a few spares that she can use. But for now, we should have some food.
Ian comes in with a cycling map of Northumberland he got from the visitor center but that the woman manning it is a bit weird about giving them out, like she doesn't have very many or just doesn't like giving out informational things. So, of course all of us go and ask for one, I mean a free map, who wouldn't? I get scolded for asking for one, although she does give me one. It was rather helpful during the trip, so I'm glad I did get it. I had to promise to not tell anybody else where I got it. So, if you go there, ask for one and tell them I sent you.
Fixing Brenda's cable becomes a huge production. Dave A takes the lead and starts in on it as everybody crowds around and watches, taking pictures, etc. Brenda feels left out and insists that she wants to help, can I oil the cable? Ok go ahead. Umm, so where do I put that? Soon it is all done and we are ready to go. At this point, Matt and Dave T decide they are feeling a bit rough and want to take main roads instead of the proposed rocky road in our future. Maybe they were the wise ones here, but oh well, I survived.
The road through the forest and then around Kielder Water was actually really lovely but in retrospect, I'm not completely sure it was worth it. It rains, heavily at a few points and then stops and starts again. I'm just going to copy that last sentence and cut and paste it into random points in the next few paragraphs. Brenda and I arrive in Kielder a bit ahead of everybody and wander though town to see if there is anything open. The cafe in town seems to be closed and there isn't anything else. So we head back and head everybody off and we go to the fall back option of the castle.
Now, this must have been one of those fake castles, it is too perfect and all that to be all that old. But they have a cafe in it so that's the main good point about it. And I'm disappointed, they really missed out. They had signs to the Lords and Ladies room but they couldn't even keep the theme up and when I get there the door is just labeled Gents like every other one in this country. A tea and a bacon sandwich (see, no more of them for a long long time) and some soup. But we can't put it off much longer. The Forest Drive has a few warning signs on it about the suitability of the road.
Really, the first few miles of it were actually really good. One section was so fantastic that at that point, it all seemed totally worth it. Gursh zips by on his mountain bike and big tires. We overtake him a bit after that and don't see him or anybody else for the rest of it. The scenery is really remarkable, although a bit too much of it seems to have been clearcut and then replanted tree plantations so a bit of that sameness. But it is eerie and foggy and rather isolated. There were only a few cars the whole way and most of them were pretty patient, although there were a few, logging trucks especially, where were rather terrifying as they flew by inches away. One lady in a car stops and talks to us and seems rather concerned that we are even on the road, you know it is just this bad the entire way? Hmm, maybe should have listened to her.
The road was a fairly steady climb up to like 400 something meters and lots of ups and downs and then a slow descent down the other side. Well, I thought it was slow. A few times I reached what seemed like a terrifying 14-15 mph and still saw Brenda pulling off into the distance. That just seems crazy. Unfortunately, about 3/4 of the way through the road, my front tire decides it is done. Crap. This is where I realize that all my stuff is in the very bottom of my bags and it is raining pretty steadily. And the midges are feasting on us the whole time too. Brenda has a spare tube easily available and I change the tire as quickly as I can before the midges finish me off.
It is just so exciting exiting the woods and getting back on a normal wood. I can't quite believe it for a while, like it will get really bad again just to mess with me. But we are back on the B road and Byrness is only a short distance up the road. Matt and Dave T are already there and gets us some tea and we come in and try to dry off. We put things in the drying room, at least that's what it is labeled, it was a room and you could hang things up to dry but it just didn't happen. The showers are bewildering too. There are elaborate instructions on the wall on how to use it. But if you turn it to 4 like it says, you will be a charred mess. Putting it barely on 1 was still a bit too hot.
Dinner is funny there. They have a freezer full of meals to heat up and salad and dessert brought in. Although freezer is the keyword here. It takes about an hour more than anticipated to actually heat things up, even with the beer run to a far away pub to bring in some drinks. For frozen food, it is decent enough and it seems to be plenty. Bedtime again, what a day. 49.20 miles for me. I realize too, I really need to make sure my bed is made up and I don't have all my junk on it well before everybody else goes to bed. It is annoying trying to handle all that stuff in the dark.
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