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Post by Rubbertramp on Oct 1, 2014 21:01:45 GMT
Another one on the bucket list. Started three days ago a couple of miles to the North of Berwick on Tweed near Lamberton on a bridge over the A1 which I cycled under three years ago on the hairy-scary ride down the dual carriageway to complete the coastline of Scotland. Don't know if I'll complete it this year but fingers crossed for good weather and enough daylight hours Up and down some lanes here, then over some farmland before I get the first glimpse of what is ahead on this ride Down a lane which follows the border exactly for a couple of miles and through Paxton and a short cut via a path To Union Chain Bridge to get to the path along the River Tweed. Tis the oldest suspension bridge still carrying road traffic in existence in the world. According to local info; if the Bridge designer, a Captain Brown of the Royal Navy hadn't designed the cast iron links to connect the suspension cables then bridges like the Menai and Clifton wouldn't of got built.... well done skipper! Along the Tweed for a few miles then up to very wide main street of Norham A hard slog then back to the van and an evening watching a pod of dolphins passing through at Cocklawburn beach.
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Post by Rubbertramp on Oct 1, 2014 21:50:42 GMT
Lots of fly fishing going on around here on the Tweed in this beautiful weather, haven't seen anyone land a salmon yet though. Manage to follow the river on mostly good but some disused and overgrown paths for a good few miles....wearing trousers today so no overdose of formic acid, lesson learned from last week! I need to cross a tributary up ahead and me map tells me that there's a bridge carrying a disused railway just where I need it so I'll just climb up the bank and pedal across then down the other side....won't I? Nah, it's a feckin great viaduct! At least 150 feet in the sky above me head, a magnificent structure that must have taken blood, sweat, tears and no doubt, a few lives to build....shame it's no longer used for what it was intended. So as I've left the ropes and grappling hooks at home I have to double back a mile, then up half a mile of steep track to get over on to the bridge. I'ts part of a bridleway which runs alongside a newly tealed winter corn field that has an equally impressive derelict chapel growing out of it, eventually coming out on to the main road that leads down to Coldstream. That's the way I go now, mostly by road where the border kicks South toward the Cheviot Hills, via Cornhill and Wark down to Meldrum Mill where I spot a nice little layby to park the van tomorrow. A well downed couple of pints in The Mason's Arms in Norham after the frantic wind assisted pedal back.....don't even get back to the van, it's parked 20 yards away! Off to spend the night in a quiet shpot by the river....zzzzz.
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Post by Rubbertramp on Oct 4, 2014 21:05:51 GMT
Start off early next day pedalling down to Yetholm to check out the lie if the land on the Pennine Way. Tis going to be a two day event either walking or cycling as this first (or last) Stretch of Britain's most famous long distance path meanders across some of the highest peaks in the Cheviots for about 28 miles, 25 of them follow the Border exactly. Anyway, a local guy preparing himself for a fell run tells me it's tough but some of it is rideable. With the sunshine out again, I haul myself into the fray with the intention of seeing if it's do-able on a bike and getting just past Black Hag where there is an escape route, I'll then come back tomorrow with an overnight bag, toothbrush and make-up to do the whole thing. I only get about two miles uphill before I have to abandon the bike to some livestock fence! He was right, it is tough! ( I'll bet that Danny Mckaskill bloke could whizz it in a couple of hours.....bastard!) Then go on another four to The Schill before turning back and picking up the bike to ride back to the van near Meldrum Mill. Going to have to do all of this on foot. .... That wall (locally dyke) marks the border exactly. Do you think it may have been built by Adrian?....Just popping over England for me breakfast! That evening the outdoor pursuits forecast on Radio Scotland (always very useful...6pm) says severe gales on the tops for Thursday night /Friday morning so I'm going to have to abandon this bit and go down to a lower level....Too good to miss though so will come back and do it at a later date. Next day a ride from Yetholm up the lane to Mawhaugh then cut across the moorland on a good path for a couple of miles to the parallel road leading to Hownam finishing here for the day. About four miles from the border here but at least I can see it. A day and a night parked down by the river in Kelso to do me washing and stock up on food and petrol. Wake up in the morning to find that the River Tweed has risen tremendously during the night after 14 hours of non-stop rain. Today I has been mostly doing recce for places to park at the end of possible escape routes for the daunting Pennine way voyage....18 miles but only covered four on the route.
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Post by Rubbertramp on Oct 4, 2014 21:08:03 GMT
More Cheviot Hills! Attachments:
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Post by Firefox on Oct 4, 2014 21:53:33 GMT
Very nice part of the country. I have through a few times, but would love to explore!
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Post by Is it spring yet, dormouse? on Oct 5, 2014 9:49:37 GMT
Hope you've got your waterproof mascara with you, Mark!
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Post by Rubbertramp on Oct 8, 2014 20:41:05 GMT
Parked up in a layby on the A68 to cycle down from Hownam to some forest tracks beyond Hindhope. According to the map I have to lug me way on a path in the woods to get to them. At the end of the road I find myself in someone's back garden and a flattened bit of grass where it looks like a quad bike has been....no-one in and no sign of a path. So, follow the quad bike track and the edge of the woods to see if I can find it, it's supposed to follow the edge of the forest but 100 yards in. I soon find meself in a rough meadow and the going is very heavy, lots of bog and tufts of grass and moss the size of sheep! On the ridge there is a herd of cattle. They've spotted the crazy bloke with the bike and are stalking me at a distance....mooing like foghorns and trotting along the ridge like a bunch of Apache Indians waiting to ambush the wagon train! They're a suckler herd, it looks like with some hefty calves in amongst them so if they decide they want to gallop down to say hello I've not much chance in that boggy ground to get away. Decide to abandon me search for the path and the cows and calves escort me at a distance out of the field the way I came. What is it with me and big bovines beasts? They did the same to me in Wales. An eight mile ride back to the van and the end of another very frustrating day. A short whizz downhill on the A68 next day from Carter Bar on the border where I spent the night. Cut across then to The Hawick road and some forest tracks through Wauchope Forest. Meandering here, there and everywhere was thoroughly enjoyable, however the last bit, where I can cut off to a parking place I've spotted on the map, is cut off by blokes with chainsaws and timber moving equipment.....Forestry operations! Not allowed in! Says one of those signs with the hand held up in yer face and a head with an expression that looks like "The Scream". Divert about 5 miles to get to where I want to be and a 13 mile ride back to Carter Bar on the road. I'm off to look for a massage now....in the meantime here's some bleddy trees!
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Post by Firefox on Oct 9, 2014 1:11:46 GMT
Forest landscapes change fast it seems. Got caught a couple of years back at Usk Reservoir. Nice forest track on the map. Well it started off nice. Instead of leading back to starting place, it gradually turned into an impenetrable bog after 3/4 mile with more tufts the size of sheep. It was a 20 year old map and I think the track was used to harvest the timber, some 15 years ago. Then they plant new stuff and sod any maintenance on the track!
We also got accosted by a young herd at Stonehenge when collecting firewood. They were bullocks; very interested and friendly. I am sure they thought we were farmers arriving with some feed for them. We got away from them into the forest behind a fence, and in the end Keira saw them off with some mad barking from the other side of the fence. They took some shifting though. Most disappointed there was no early dinner.
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Post by Rubbertramp on Oct 10, 2014 10:45:49 GMT
Oh aye Vern, best to take a compass along with your map when in the woods! As for the cattle, some seem less fearful when they have the bull or their youngsters with them. Must admit I was little worried, so much so that I had to nip into the woods for a poo.....buried of course!
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Post by stonedaddy on Oct 10, 2014 22:24:44 GMT
Oh aye Vern, best to take a compass along with your map when in the woods! As for the cattle, some seem less fearful when they have the bull or their youngsters with them. Must admit I was little worried, so much so that I had to nip into the woods for a poo.....buried of course! LOL hope it was dead and buried Mark?. .... Tom ....
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Post by Rubbertramp on Oct 20, 2014 20:17:23 GMT
Found my way through Kielder Forest on the forestry tracks OK from just North of Saughtree Station. Did take a wrong turn and did a two mile uphill slog for nothing though. The forest here has been pretty well harvested recently with more open spaces of chopped timber and young forest than mature woodland. A 26 mile cycle one way today finishing off at Kershopefoot at the end of the Cycle route 10 following the border down Kershope Burn then a lift home from my new assistant! A lovely welcome earlier in Kielder village from the lady in the shop there who took great pleasure in telling me the nearest baccy was seventeen miles away. So bought nothing and ate me packed lunch and had a fag on her picnic bench outside....she didn't sound as if she was from round these parts by the way. Had a visitor next morning. The little bugger doesn't like crumbled up Bourbon biscuits and I think he only came in for a shit.....all over the dashboard! How's that song go? When the red red Robin goes bob-bob bobbin along.....The things you see when you haven't got yer gun eh?
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Post by Rubbertramp on Oct 20, 2014 21:01:50 GMT
A nice quiet night (ahem!) in a walker's car park just South of Newcastleton then tootle on down to Kershopefoot for the last day. Manage to follow a track on the old dismantled railway following the border and the River Liddel for a few miles before I'm ordered off the land by a shooting estate's gamekeeper. Twas me own fault because I did see the geddorf moi land signs but ignored them....might have been better off going on the Scottish side where you can roam freely. Anyway he very sternly tells me that I'm a very naughty boy, that he ought to take my photograph and name and address and never to set foot here again.....should have taken down me trousers and offered him me arse to smack too.... don't you just know when you're in England! On then by road to Canonbie via Rowanburn where I met Lang Sandy, well a stone statue of him anyway. A notorious local Reiver who was executed in the early part of the seventeenth century. I'm trying to find a way through the heavily wooded Scots Dyke, a three and a half mile ditch marking the edge of the "debateable lands" the most fought over patch of ground the Scots and English ever contested. No way through at the western end but a track which dissects it about a third of the way along. I go and have a look but where there might have been a path once looks very overgrown so I'm not trying that. I pedal along the lane that runs roughly parallel, to the eastern end where again there is dense forest. A great ride mostly downhill from Scots Dyke to Gretna where I have a bit of a struggle getting over the M6 but come out at the border where I cycled up the coast from England five years ago. I sit on the bench outside the Methodist church in the town centre and contemplate what I've done....then nip around the back to pee up against the wall to complete the marking of my territory all around the edges of England, Scotland and Wales! Many thanks for my lift Jill and for the making these last two days easy and enjoyable x
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