Monday June 30, 2014

A long day but a lovely ride.  We left the hostel at 9:00. We were hoping that the roads would be a little quieter at that time, I don’t think they were that much quieter.  It seemed to take forever to get out of Edinburgh and to the Forth Road Bridge – in fact it did take two hours for 22.5 kms.  Our planned route was 75 kms, I was a little concerned that we were taking too long.  However, as soon as we crossed the Forth we got going a lot quicker.

We followed cycle route 1 and 7 to get to the Forth Road Bridge which kept us away from the A90 (which we weren’t allowed on).  Sustrans is working on a dedicated route from the A90 to the Forth Road Bridge.  At the moment there is a diversion through the Dalwhinny Estate.  Ralf commented that this was the nicest diversion we have been on.

We crossed the Forth Road Bridge – it was great – a very wide cycle way and a separate pedestrian path.

The Forth Rail Bridge is famous for having to be constantly painted.  By the time it has been painted from one side to the other, they start all over again.  It was a lovely route, rolling hills and the road coming down into Perth was 5 kms of winding downhill.  I was expecting it to kick up at any time but it didn’t.

No idea when we cycled into the Kingdom of Fife – or why it is called the Kingdom.

At one point we saw a big hawk sitting on a post.  We both managed to stop without disturbing it and Ralf almost had his camera out then a big lorry came by and scared it off.

We have now planned our route for the rest of the week.  We should be in John O’Groats by Sunday.  When we get to Inverness we will have to book our train trip from Wick to Troon and our ferry trip from Troon to Larne (Northern Ireland).

We arrived in Perth and tried to find the Tourism Information, eventually we found it and found out where the camp site was.  It is about 5 kms out of Town which we will have to return the same way tomorrow.  We got the tent set up just before it started to rain.  Our tent is leaking!! We will have to get some seam grip when we are in Inverness.  We managed to eat our dinner before it started to rain again. Forecast is for showers all night, hopefully it will be good tomorrow.

Our campsite is in the area of Castle Scone, where the Stone of Destiny was kept.  The Stone of Destiny was used in the 1300’s to Crown the Scottish Kings.  It was taken from the Scots and kept in Westminster Abbey, only returning to Scotland in 1996.

Sunday June 29, 2014

This should be the week to get to John O’Groats.  We are a little concerned that it has taken us longer than we thought, but on the other hand it is not a race.  I think because this was seen as more of a challenge ride rather than a trip around the UK it has become something different from NZ and Australia.  The diversion to Edinburgh has been good for us.  So what if it takes longer we are still seeing a lot of England and Scotland.  The disadvantage we may find is that the weather will turn against us as we get to Italy/Greece later and we do not have gear that is rated below 0 degrees.

Today we had a nice lie-in and a good breakfast.  We decide to take a “free” walking tour of Edinburgh.  These ‘free’ walking tours are provided throughout Europe and you pay what you think it is worth at the end of the tour.

Our tour started at 11:00 and took 2.5 hours, our guide was called Billy and he was very good. Lots of information about Scotland, the City of Edinburgh and places to return to see when we have more time.

Billy took us down little side streets which are called closies in Edinburgh and you can find some interesting history down these streets. Down this particular closie was the Writers museum – Robbie Burns, Robert Louis Stephenson – not sure if JK Rowling is in there or not.

Did you know that equestrian statues have a distinct history – one leg up means that the rider suffered an injury in battle, two feet up means that the rider died in battle, all feet down means that the rider dies a natural death.  Things you learn from this blog! The above photo is Billy describing the equestrian statue – one hoof up.

We passed the café where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter novel.  She looked over Greyfriars cemetery and the school which she used as Hogwarts.

The school was donated to the city by George Heriot to provide an education for the orphans and poor of the City.  It is now a very expensive private school – which still accepts 73 scholarships a year – apparently.  We also went in to the Greyfriars cemetery which houses the grave of Bobby, the terrier who sat on his masters grave for 14 years.  At that time in Edinburgh he would have been considered a stray dog.

However, the story of his loyalty to his dead master became well known and the City Councilors awarded him the keys of the City, giving him the right of a citizen of the City – which actually meant he could vote in an election – several years before women had the right to vote.!!   If you work at 113 Collier Street (my former employer) the tiles in the fireplace on the second floor which used to be Chris Jones’ office and is now Dan Amadio’s office depicts the story of Greyfriars Bobby.

We passed the Grass Market which used to be the site of the gallows.  The story of Maggie Dickson was related to us, she was hung here, and was taken to the cemetery.  However, she wasn’t dead, she was bought back to be hung again when someone shouted she had already paid for her crime and could not be hung again.  She was left to go free and married the young lawyer who had shouted she had already paid for her crime.  There is a pub named after her.  The other noteworthy pub is called the “Last Drop”  the pub that the convicted were allowed to have their last drink in.

The castle currently has an abomination of a structure attached to it.  It is built for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a stadium which houses 7,000 spectators.  There is a 3 year waiting list for tickets. Our tour took us only in the old city – the new city was built in the 18^th century!

After our tour we had a bit of lunch then wandered back up Princes street.

I got back to the Backpackers and updated the blog, but was unable to post.  Our hostel is within 100 metres of the Balmoral Hotel.  I am guessing we are paying a lot less than people who are staying in the Balmoral.

Our hostel is the one with the blue door!

We got a free dinner tonight Chilli con Carne. After dinner we chatted to a group of young Spanish people.  We have noticed that there are a lot of Spanish here in the UK.  A lot of them are disillusioned with their government in Spain and the high level of unemployment (55% for young people aged between 18 and 28)!  27% unemployment overall.

Saturday June 28, 2014

The sun was up when we got up and so were the midges, we quickly put on our head nets that we had bought in Australia, but I still got bitten in the face by the little buggers.  The sun went in while we were having breakfast and it was cold all day.  The temperature never got above 10 degrees – it is the end of June for heavens sake.  We wore our windbreakers all day and cycling socks, Ralf even had his winter cycling gloves on.

It was a lovely route today, legs felt good and I lead most of the way, even though we had a headwind. We had a brief heavy rain shower so we switched jackets. Usually the heavy rain jacket is not good if it is warm as we perspire and although it is supposed to be breathable, you get wet from the inside as well as the outside.  Not today, it was cold, the jackets kept us warm and dry.

The car drivers today were really courteous, giving us plenty of room.  I worked with Chris Jones, his son is called Coulter.  We cycled through the small village of Coulter, this one is for you.

We arrived in Edinburgh at about 1:00.  The roads in Edinburgh are atrocious.  No cycle lanes, although we were allowed to use the bus lanes.  The roads were like washboards, potholes and messed up.  We were hoping to have a warmshowers in Edinburgh – I sent out 10 emails – 5 responded all with too busy so we booked into a hostel.  We found our backpackers hostel, although they said they had storage for bikes it was up four flights of stairs and down two flights.  Our room is at the very top of the hostel which is about 6 floors high. We hauled our panniers up the stairs and then Ralf decided that the safest place for the bikes is in our room, so we hauled them up all the stairs as well.

Tomorrow is a rest day.  We are looking forward to seeing historic Edinburgh.

Friday June 27, 2014

The weather this morning was quite cool, I wore cycling socks for the first time since – New Zealand. The sun came out about mid-afternoon.  It was a rolling hill kind of day, and a head wind, not too difficult climbs, but I didn’t have it in me today.  Sometimes it is like that, you go great guns for days and then boom, you stop.  Because we had a head wind and we now have a mirror on both bikes, we took it in turns to be up front, even that didn’t really help.

The scenery in Scotland is beautiful, which does help when you don\’t have a good cycling day.  There was a lot of wind farms and forestry.  The roads had great shoulders or bike lanes and the drivers gave us plenty of room.

On this side of the road, there was clear cutting and down the road a little ways there was a new plantation growing.

You cannot see the wind farms in this photo, due to the grey skies, but they were there!

When we got to Abington, we bought some fresh buns and ham and made a quick sandwich outside of the little grocery store.  We then headed down to our campsite, which was reasonably priced and had all the facilities we needed including a picnic table.

Ralf commented on how he liked the Scottish lilt, until he heard the woman in the camper next to our tent screaming at her child.  Not so much a pleasant Scottish lilt more a screaming banshee.

As we were getting ready for bed the midges attacked us.  These things came from no where and swarmed the tent.  We didn’t feel any bites until later when we both noticed red welts on our face and legs.  These are almost as bad as the sandflies in NZ.  Although the you couldn’t even see the sandflies biting you.

I chatted to a lovely lady who is on holiday with her two grandsons for a few days.  They went panning for gold in the rivers and the kids actually found some gold.  Just wee speckles she said, the kids were over joyed and the littlest wanted to make a ring for his Mum out of his portion of the gold, she wasn\’t sure how she was going to explain that there wouldn\’t be enough for a ring.

An early night and hopefully a good nights sleep.

Thursday June 26, 2014

It rained last night and it was cool, but we had a washing up room where we could cook and eat out of the rain.  This morning we woke up to a dry, grey, cool morning.  The tent was dry and we packed it away before breakfast, just in case it started to rain again.  We were on the road by 8:15, a good start.  There was a little climb out of Penrith and then a rolling hill kind of day.  Great downhills and just enough momentum to get you up the other side and bonus we had a tail wind!  We were in Carlisle by 10:00 we had a little wander around and then found the C Road that would parallel the M6 all the way to Scotland and Gretna.

At last we are in Scotland.

We stopped in at the visitor centre at Gretna Green, where someone was actually getting married.  Gretna Green is famous for young couples eloping and getting married.  In Scotland you could get married at 16 without your parents consent.  In the 60’s and 70’s ‘kids’ would run to Scotland to get married.  Gretna is now a large retail outlet mall and Gretna Green has a visitors centre which is not too tacky. The couple that were getting married were obviously not 16.

We asked someone to take a photograph of us together under the clasped hands, and the piper joined us, \”I will just join you he says\”.  I didn\’t really want him in the photo but what can you say!!

We met a French touring cyclists today. She was very frustrated with English roads and even more so with directions from English people. They either directed her onto a motorway or major highway or up major hills.  She is heading to Edinburgh and then flying to Norway then cycling back to France.

We had decided on a 60 km route today so that I could get some washing done.  The first camp site we stopped at was going to charge 18.00 for a powered site and 1.00 each for a shower.  I had already checked on line for two different camp sites.  The second was 16.50 for an unpowered site and 18.50 for a powered site.  Both had laundry facilities.  I opted to cycle the extra 2 miles (3.2 kms) I don’t see why I should pay for a shower, when I am already paying over the odds for a small tent pitch. We stayed at the second option 16.50 per night with free showers.

Tonight we are staying in the Castle grounds of Hoddam Castle, very fitting our first night in Scotland and we are staying in the castle grounds.  The castle was built between 1550 and 1560.  A lot of the castle is in ruins, but it looks awesome when you come down the lane and there it is in front of you.

This photo was taken from the same vantage point as one of the information plaques.  the tree has grown substantially since the original photo was taken.

On the grounds of the castle is a golf course and also has fishing rights in the river that runs through the grounds.

In the field next to our tent we spotted Highland Cattle. They look so cute, but I wouldn\’t want to mess with those horns.

I love trees.

Wednesday June 25, 2014

Although we had a late night last night, (chatting to our warmshowers host) we were up early this morning and after a lovely breakfast we were on the road by 8:15 am.

We arrived in Cumbria today, the Lake District, in England.  We are brushing the edge of it not actually cycling through it.  The Lake District is a beautiful area for a holiday if you enjoy walking.

Kendal is a lovely town that borders the Lake District, we had a little wander through it and then carried on our journey.

The weather was grey and overcast all day, but it didn’t rain.  We cycled through Kendal and could not find a shop that sold Kendal Mint Cake.  Kendal Mint cake is the original power bar – it is pure sugar, but very good.  Apparently Sir Edmund Hilary ate it when he conquered Everest.

The earliest part of this church was built in the early 13th Century, most of the church was built between 1400 and 1600 when the Town\’s cloth trade was at its peak.  This church was clearly visible from the main street.

However, this Zion Chapel was \’hidden\’ down an alley way.  We peered down a little alley and noticed the structure, we walked through the alley and this is what appears in front of you.

Market Place Chapel opened in 1720 and became Unitarian in 1756.  The first Zion Chapel opening in New Inn Yard in 1844.

The scenery in Cumbria is lovely.

We knew we had a climb today up to Shap Fell.  The hill started almost as we left Kendal and carried undulating upwards for 16 kilometres to a height of 394 metres, we had started at 70 metres.  It wasn’t particularly steep (8% at one point), but it was long.  At the top is the bleak Shap Fell and a monument to the transports who had to use this road before the M6 was built.

\”This memorial pays tribute to the drivers and crews of vehicles that made possible the social and commercial links between north and south on this old and difficult route over Shap Fell before the opening of the M6 Motorway.  Remembered too are those who built and maintained the road and the generations of local people who gave freely of food and shelter to stranded travellers in bad weather.\”

We saw four other touring cyclists, two going up the same way as Ralf and I.  They were taking a break about one quarter the way up the climb, and two coming from the other side.  One was walking his bike the last 100 metres or so and the other had just started the climb from Shap Village.  We had big grins on our faces as we were hurtling down the other side after conquering the Shap climb.

The run down into Shap Village was awesome.  We stopped in the Village for lunch and then carried on towards Penrith.  We had the option of 2 campsites tonight – one 6ks before Penrith and one 6 ks after and a Backpackers hostel in Penrith.  We passed the first campsite and decided against it – the photo explains why it would have been our most expensive site to date.

We had a little wander around Penrith and I popped into the Tourist Information Centre.  The TICs are few and far between in the UK.  Often they are unmanned and only have leaflets.  Fortunately this one was manned by some really helpful staff who told us about a campsite just outside of Town (not even 2ks).  We called the site and she had spots for tents.  It is a nice site, but noisy due to the M6 running close to Penrith.

Tuesday June 24, 2014

We followed the A59 to Preston and then the A6 all the way to Lancaster and beyond to Yealand Conyers, another warmshowers hosts.  We are now following a more direct route north and although busier with vehicles we do get to see more as the hedges have now almost disappeared and changed to dry stone walls.

We had stopped in Preston to get our bearings, a fella came up and started chatting to us about where we were going and his travels around the US.  He had also lived in Israel, working on kibbutzims in the early 1980s.  We asked him to confirm the route that Garmin was taking us and he started to give us alternative directions.  He must have seen the glazed look on our faces because he offered to lead us.  I asked him if his route was a short-cut, he confirmed that it was, so we followed him.  It was a great route and cut out the City Centre completely. Thanks Terry.

Today\’s route was quite an urban route, although we did see some country side between Preston and Lancaster.  We are in the Industrial north.  The canals were used for transportation from the mills in the north to Manchester and London.  Now they are used for holidays on converted steel narrow boats.

We arrived in Lancaster around noon – we had lunch and found a phone shop.  It was very obvious that I was interrupting the sales person checking his email and was no help at all.  He told me to go to the TMobile shop.  Off we went to the TMobile shop and got lots of help from an Australian lass who is from Glenelg Adelaide.  She is homesick – but is here due to her fiancée who is studying at Lancaster Uni, to be a teacher.

I was told when I bought my dongle (data stick) that I had 3gb to use over 3 months – If I used more than 1gb per month, the second month would kick in.  Not true, I get 1gb per month, if I use it all before the month is up I may be able to \’add-on\’ data onto my stick, but doubtful.  I went into the library and updated the blog today and I will try to add-on data at the warmshowers tonight as the library is an unsecured site.

Our warmshowers host for tonight lives about 16 kms outside of Lancaster, but was not going to be home until 6:30 pm.  We had asked him if there was a pub in the Village which there was so we ate there. Tim cycled by the pub and joined us for a pint, after we had eaten we made our way to his house.  We had a lovely evening chatting to him, he really wants to do a world trip, but his wife is not a cyclist.

It would appear that we are putting a lot of churches in the blog.  Not because we are hoping for divine intervention, just because the buildings are lovely.

The weather is still remarkably good for England, still no rain, but it is getting a little chillier.

Monday June 23, 2014

We were up and away early this morning. We followed the A49 through Warrington and Wigan.  The road was quite busy with transports, campers, caravans and cars but most gave us room and we did have some shoulders.

On one road we spotted four gypsy caravans – we were holding up the traffic on our side of the road and they were holding up the traffic on their side of the road, we gave each other a wave.

We got to our campsite in Bretherton, which was again on a working farm.  This farm farm grew grains, not livestock.  We were “welcomed” by four yappy terriers, later a very large german shepherd came to investigate who we were and what we were doing.  She was another large dog, but so calm, all she was really interested in was to see if we had any food for her.

We arrived at the campsite at about 1:30 and had time to write up the blog and size some pictures.  Unfortunately, I have a problem with my dongle, I don’t have any data left on it for this month.  I was supposed to have 1 gb per month, Ralf had tried to update his maps a few days ago and used all the data. In the meantime I will try to find free wi-fi at campsites, so that I can update the blog.  No wi-fi at this camp site.

Sunday June 22, 2014

We had a little later start today, as we were chatting to Ang who came to say goodbye and wish us well on our journey.  She said she was in awe of what we were doing and maybe she would get on her bike again.  It is quite strange to think that Ralf and I only started to do the longer distance riding (over 50 kms) when I was 49 (7 years ago) and now look what we are doing!

As we left Shrewsbury we noticed, these sheep.  Shrewsbury used to be known as a wool town, as the wool was shipped from Shrewsbury down the Severn and beyond.

We entered the County of Cheshire today, it seems now that we are out of the South-West we are really moving through the Counties.  Hopefully we will be in Scotland by the end of the week.

We passed a sign for Copley Gardens, then another and then we came to a “side entrance” – this was called Beeston Lodge but still belonged to Copley Gardens and Estate.  Just a small country estate.

Tonight we stayed at another warmshowers host.  Emma and Stuart had been world tourers but had to abandon their trip when they were attacked by wild dogs in Turkey.  To date we haven’t been chased by any dogs, I hope I haven’t jinxed myself.  We were often chased while cycling in Canada, but we weren’t fully loaded, so I hope we don’t get chased here, as I am not sure I can do my impression of Mark Cavendish (Tour de France sprinter) and get away from the dogs.

We arrived a little early, Emma had planned on the scones coming out of the oven for when we arrived.  Warm scones and tea, it was lovely.

Dusty the Irish Wolfhound belongs to the owner of the farm and often visits Emma and Stuart.  As you can see he was huge, but very friendly.

Emma and Stuart live in a converted stable block on a small farm.  We went up to the farm to see a calf that had been born the night before – it looked a little shocked.

After dinner, I went for a lovely walk with Emma who told me about her best time on their world tour – the best was seeing the mid-night sun, Stuart’s was making people smile.  They had some great stories to tell.  It is such a shame their trip was cut-short.  I would like to think that our best “time” is inspiring other people to take a chance on doing things that they want to do before it is too late.  Carpe Diem.

We had an early night, which was great as sometimes when we are at a warm showers we stay up much later than usual chatting to our hosts.

Saturday June 21, 2014

The camp site has loads of rabbits hopping around.  We see at least a dozen every time we go to the facility block.

We were up fairly early and we got the washing done and some of it in the dryer.  Although the site is expensive the washing is the cheapest yet at 2.00 per load.  Of course, not all of our clothes can be put in the dryer, so we strung a line between our bikes and hung what we could.

We took the bus into Shrewsbury.  It is a lovely old Town.  Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury and went to school here.

This is the building Darwin went to school.

We decided to do the tourist thing and took the Sabrina boat ride along the Severn.  It was a very nice boat trip and the captain gave a very good narrative as we passed the buildings.

Shrewsbury is a walled City although we couldn\’t really follow them as you can in the City of York.  The walls were built to keep out the Welsh.

There was a lovely market in town, where we had some lunch.  I love street food.

We went into four bike shops and still cannot get a replacement mirror for Ralf.  They have one very interesting one that connects to the down-tube, but Ralf cannot see past his panniers so it isn’t much good for his touring bike.

We went into another outdoor store and they had Jetboil’s on sale.  A Jetboil is a cooking system that boils water very quickly, has its own burner and an electric start.  We had looked at these before leaving Canada and decided that because they only work on canisters, it wouldn’t be practical for Asia etc.  Well we decided it was worth the expense to have two burners, the jetboil can boil water for our coffee in the morning and we don’t have to get the primus out, the jetboil can also be used as a separate burner, so we can have the frying pan on the go and the pot at the same time.

Dinner tonight consisted of Salmon, rice and Mediterranean veges.  It is really handy having a second burner.

Finally, this picture may explain why we keep getting misplaced when we come through Towns.  Same street different name, the street changes name in the middle of a building, not even an intersection!!