Local hilly road ride in the pouring rain, wind and cold.

After a near three hour hike yesterday and was tired and slept like a log last night. First time in many weeks so was full of energy this morning. I decided to take the van through to Lanchetser to park up and head off out into the countryside / hills on the Cannondale Synapse Neo E bike. I sort of had a route planned in my head but it changed several times due to the wind and rain. It started off dry and temperature was round 10/11 degrees but overcast and cloudy. I headed straight up hill all the way to the top of the Waskerley via the back country lanes. I had a massive headwind nearly all the way up. Once on the top I was going to drop down to Edmudyers / Blanchland then back up to the top of the Waskerley but my legs were telling me no. So I dropped down Crawleyside to pick up the more sheltered valley road to Stanhope / Wolsingham. By now it was getting darker and darker. I climbed out of Wolsingham towards Tow Law via Thornley Village. From there it was all the little back country lanes, mainly the old Beast of Durham route before dropping back down into Lanchester. Nearly 4700ft of climbing and 21% left on the battery. I had to ring my soaks out back at the van with my Sidis soaked through. I was dry on the top half as I had my new Gore Goretex jacket on! Below are some overcast / damp / cold / windy photos and a short video clip. Enjoy and hopefully more soon -

 

 

 

and a short video clip at the top of the Waskerley

 

Couple of days up in Berwick upon Tweed / Spiittal

Me and Jane decided to have a couple of days away up in Berwick recently. It was a last minute decision and got booked up at the Travelodge for a night. The forecast was lashing rain for two days so nothing new there. Driving up the wipers never stopped and there was massive puddles at the side of the A1. On the plus side the A1 was quiet and no accidents. We stopped at Marshalls café for breakfast and a look around Go Outdoors next door. We then had a drive down to Cocklawburn beach for a walk along the cliffs then drop down onto the beach for a big loop. It had dried up now but still windy. After that it was a look around Homebase for a few things as we don't have a Homebase now in Durham. We then drove down to Spittal for late lunch and another good walk along the beach then up onto the promenade all the way back to the car park. We called in past the arcades to spend a few quid! Time was now getting on so headed off to the garden centre for some more shopping before booking into the Travelodge. We were going to have tea in Morrisons next door but the sun came and it was looking lovely so dropped down into the town for the chippy and parked up at the pier and had our fish n chips / haggis n chips on the bench looking over the harbour/pier/spittal beach in the distance.
The next day it was raining again so headed off to Morrisons for breakfast and some shopping then down to he town for a walk about. The rain dried up but was still cold. We were going to have a walk around the ramparts but headed over the old bridge to go to Dockside Gallery to buy a painting by David Barrow and some new coasters. Once we got everything packed up we headed back home down the A1. The temperature was 12 degrees when we left Berwick, when we got home it was 8 degrees! Below are a few snaps from the short break, enjoy and hopefully more soon -

 

Thanks to Mary & Mervyn for the kind hospitality and sorting out our purchases.