Lejog day 23 Seahouses to Cheswick
Today was all about battling against the wind. The ride was only 22 miles but it felt like about 50! We thought it was going to be more of a sideways wind but no, it was straight in our faces from the word go. The three miles to Bamburgh, although fairly flat, was equivalent to an uphill struggle. As it's Bank Holiday weekend the road was busy but drivers must have seen us wobbling around in the wind so they gave us plenty of room. Bamburgh Castle is a magnificent sight, perched high on its pedestal above the town.
After Bamburgh we gradually ascended to quiet lanes where we got great views across to Lindisfarne.
Although each mile felt like two we still found ourselves with time to spare so we stopped at a café in Beal. We failed to resist temptation and ordered fruit scones with jam and clotted cream. Cream on top or cream first? Well I did both to squash the runny jam in the middle so it couldn't escape! It seemed to work.
As we still had time to spare we did an extra little bit and cycled down to the causeway that goes across to Lindisfarne. It's only passable at low tide which it wasn't so nobody was on it. A walker we talked to had just completed a long distance footpath called the St Cuthbert's Way. It's meant to finish at Lindisfarne but he'd got his tide timings wrong and didn't realise that the crossing would be impossible. He was quite disappointed but said he'd come back one day to do it. He kindly took a photo of us by the causeway.
After that there was a really exciting section that took us on a cycleway that turned out to be more like a mountain biking experience. It started off on a nice wide gravelly track but soon changed to a narrow footpath along an embankment. It was great though, taking us out into a wild landscape of marsh and sand dunes. One road biker cane along and paused. "I wasn't expecting this," he said, obviously unhappy. "I don't think it goes on too long," said I. "Hope not!" he replied.
In fact it did go on for a while but maybe that was because the wind meant we could only go at about one mile per hour!
Eventually we hit tarmac and passed a house where we'd stayed for a mini break with our friends Max and Helen.
From then on it was a fairly straightforward ride to our accommodation at the Island View Inn. We were still half an hour earlier than we should have been but the kind Simon took pity on us and let us in.
36 miles to do tomorrow into bonnie Scotland. We hope it's less windy!
