A few great days was spent touring Northumberland and the Scottish Borders with Mark recently. We both agreed on a four day, long weekend trip up North so I started researching a few routes found in ABR and the Simon Weir Biking Britain book and decided to meet up on the Thursday night at the very friendly Redwell Inn in Barnard Castle. I was first to arrive with an afternoon spent riding through the Peak District, stopping just past Bakewell en-route. Mark arrived about 8.15 following a fast route up via Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales. It was a hot days ride for both of us, however a few beers while waiting for him then a few more afterwards saw us grab a Pizza and more drinks to follow in the bar chatting to the bar staff. The following morning after a hearty breakfast we took the pre-planned route up through the North Pennines, Kielder Forest and on to the Otterburn ranges through the Northumberland National Park to Alnwick and up to Berwick upon Tweed for the second night stopover.
A visit to Hadrians Wall was a must, so we met the A69 near Haltwhistle following the Wall to a stop and view at Steel Rigg to get up close to a section with some magnificent views as it winds its way over the hillside. On the way we linked up with a few other GS riders and tagged on to their convoy before leaving them at a junction to wave and go our separate ways.
Our next intended route was to take in the Kielder Forest Trail, a gravel 12 mile section through the forest that was fun. It's not too challenging, mostly gravel chippings but following Mark, myself and my GS were soon covered in a fine powdery dust. The scenery was spectacular and the ride to and from the trail through the forest is a good fast road with quite a few twisties. I thoroughly recommend the trail, it is a toll route costing a few quid but well worth it.
Alnwick was our next stop after riding along the Otterburn Ranges out to the picturesque village of Elsdon. I seem to recall us following some scenic moorland too before stopping at the Castle, otherwise known as Hogwarts School from the Harry Potter movies.
Later in the afternoon we took the steady coastal road up through the seaside town of Seahouses with the wonderful Bamburgh Castle on the horizon looking magnificent overlooking the sea from up high. Another short stop and walk out across the cricket pitch took us to the beach. Excellent sand and a great stretch of coast too.
At Berwick we stayed at the very nice Kings Arms Hotel. Ideal for bikes with an alleyway around to a convenient parking spot just outside the main doors. A quick wash and brush up and we were soon out for an evening meal seated outside in the sun at Limoncello, a really popular Italian Restaurant for some Mediterranean Fayre and Cocktails. A few more beers later and we ended up spending the rest of the night drinking Newcastle Brown Ale in a local night club watching the locals having their fun and games on the dance floor before getting back to the Kings Arms around 3 am knowing full well we would both pay for it in the morning!
Another Full Breakfast and much in fear of putting back on the three stone I'd lost over last Autumn/Winter we took a slight southerly route across to Holy Island, otherwise known as Lindisfarne riding the bikes over the tidal causeway. There’s a window of opportunity before being closed off from the mainland at around 1.30pm so we changed into shorts and ditched the bike gear to take a quick hike up near the monastery for a view out to sea before leaving the island crossing the border into Scotland and taking the mountain route across Dumfries and Galloway.
An afternoon stop near St Mary's Loch at this Reservoir we found one of the largest man made dams in the UK and quite impressive. A few people were wild camped on the shore and later as we rode through the amazing Border country scenery we saw whole families wild camped along the rivers edge, caravans, tents an motor homes galore. You could tell lock down rules had just been lifted that weekend and with the good weather they had all hit the road with the free to wild camp rules in mind as is permissible in Scotland.
We stayed the night at the Rivendell B&B in Dumfries, another excellent place with bike safe parking. Nice spacious rooms followed by a walk down in to Dumfries town to try and find a decent Indian Restaurant. The one we did find was ok, but mad crazy service, not the best Jalfreizi but a few pints of Cobra after a stint in the local Weatherspoons hit the spot. Our chosen route was through Alston just past Scotch Corner into the Dales stopping briefly at the car park above with a little thought and strategy on how we could avoid the number plate recognition camera on the way out as we realised we had been there longer than the 20 minute grace period and could be charged £100 fine. Before cutting South East across to ride that twisty Helmsley run and on to Beverley we stopped for a great lunch at an Italian Cafe 'Uno Memneto' in Stokesley where I was served an amazing cheese omelette with some amazing chips. The chips are off my diet these days so I did wonder if they just tasted great because I hadn't had any for a while, but no they were really that good. If you are in Stokesley you must visit the Cafe. Great part of the world but today seemed busy on the road with plenty of tractors in the 23 degree heat meant by the time we got to the Holiday Inn in Hull via the road work diversions I was well tired but after a shower I was back in action ready for us to meet Alex for another good night on the town to include a Gin bar and real ale pubs with burger in the Weatherspoons. Good to meet Alex, and a fun night out.
The following morning after a ride down to Barton upon Humber we both grabbed another Full Breakfast at the nature reserve and discovery centre right on the banks of the Humber overlooking the estuary we tracked south across the wonderful Lincolnshire Wolds to a lunch stop in Grantham before heading down to Melton Mowbray. Unfortunately the ride home wasn't that good, being a Monday it was congested with tractors and trucks and my dash showing a temperature of 26 degrees at times it was quite arduous and I was pleased to arrive home tired and well cooked at around 6pm. However, all in all this was a great trip and really do recommend the North East, Northumberland for roads and scenery is sublime. The Border country of D&G is often ignored while racing to get to the Highlands so this trip was great to explore some more and get some long overdue touring adventure riding in too.
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