Well this is a bit different isn't it? I went on a cycling holiday last week, surprising myself and many people who know me. Mrs L and I cycled from Newcastle to Fife taking the well known Coast and Castles route up the east coast. She has done this route several times before with a child in tow, and had been nagging me to do it with her. It took many years for me to finally give in, and so now she had to shepherd the biggest child of them all 220 miles over the course of six days. I was nervous, the furthest I've cycled in recent times was to Alexandra Lake, less than a mile. Indeed I am so slack that this was also the extent of my training leading up to this - the day before. Apparently that was on me and I found sympathy to be in short supply.
Well?
Well I made it (clearly) and it was fantastic. It was made even better by being able to bird the entire way and make serious dents in my Northumberland and Scottish Borders lists. When you're going as slow as I was you see and hear everything! Great fun! Anyway, I thought I would use my usual trip report format as it's a trip I would recommend to anyone wanting a wholesome and rewarding few days away with a nearest and dearest, even if you're (hypothetically) really unfit and rubbish at cycling. Doing so feels rather fraudulent as essentially what happened is that Mrs L organised the whole thing and I just showed up....
Logistics
- A six day cycle tour with Mrs L, taking the train from London to Newcastle and then cycling up the east coast and around to Edinburgh and onwards into Fife.
- Train: We took the LNER Azuma service from Kings Cross to Newcastle. It is imperative that you book your bicycle on the train you are travelling on. It's free, but there are only four slots per train so you (or someone....) need to plan in advance. The bike rack seems to be in carriage K, try and get a seat there too. We then went home entirely by train.
- Bike: You need a bike with robust tyres, slick road tyres will not cut it. Lots of the route is paved, but there are also lots of bits that are unpaved and quite rough. One part of the UK's premier cycle route is in fact just a field. I have an old Ridgeback hybrid which seemed fine, and Mrs L has a dutch tourer. Both had racks. In an ideal world I would have had an electric bike to deal with the hills, of which there are many.... We saw many people cheating like this but having done it on a regular bike I can see the appeal.
- Bike Stuff: Mrs L packed bike lights, locks, a tool kit, spare inner tubes, water bottles, a first aid kit, sunscreen and drysacks. Both bikes had panniers with waterproof covers, and we both had quick-release handlebar bags for stuff we wanted to be able to carry with us when not cycling.
- Clothing: Entirely seasonal I suspect, but I cycled in shorts and a t-shirt each day, with a high viz vest over the top and a cycle helmet. Waterproof trousers seemed only to funnel water into my shoes so next time I will not bother. Next time (I am informed there is definitely a next time) I think I would prefer padded shorts. And a more padded saddle.
- Accomodation: When Mrs L has done this before with various children she has camped. Very sensibly I refused to come unless we stayed in places with beds. We stayed in B&Bs and small hotels, with my sister for one night, and in one case a one room self-everything bothy.
- Food - Cooked breakfasts, packed lunches, fish and chips, beer, regular wonderful British fare. We threw the towel in in Edinburgh and went out to a proper restaurant with a five course tasting menu and a matching wine flight.
- Weather - This can make or break a trip like this and I reckon we got pretty lucky. We left on the day that most of the the UK declared an amber "danger to life" rain warning and got soaked to the skin before we had left London. An excellent start. We had just about dried off by the time we arrived in Newcastle and then immediately got irretrievably wet again during our cycle to Blyth. Aside from this difficult start the rest of the trip was largely very pleasant, with warm weather and a fair amount of sunshine. There were some very unfair headwinds as we headed inland from Dunbar.
- Other - You need quadriceps and buttocks of steel. When the trip started I had neither. Plan ahead is my benefit of hindsight advice....Also small panthers are optional but highly recommended.
- Birding: I cycled with my bins around my neck the whole time and stopped frequently, making small eBird lists at virtually every point. Mrs L was amazingly tolerant now that I think about it, as the map below clearly shows.
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| This is the route composed in eBird lists.... |
- Day 1 - Lunchtime train from KGX to Newcastle arrived at about 5pm, then cycled about 20 miles to Blyth.
- Day 2 - Blyth to Seahouses. Met a high percentage of this blog's readership in a café in Cresswell mid morning. Lunch at Amble.
- Day 3 - Seahouses to Eyemouth via Bamburgh. Lunch at Berwick-upon-Tweed.
- Day 4 - Detour to St. Abb's Head, then on to Dunbar got lunch and inland to Haddington in the afternoon.
- Day 5 - Haddington to Edinburgh via Longniddry and Musselburgh lagoons. Lunch looking at sea ducks.
- Day 6 - Edinburgh to mid-Fife. Cycled over the old Forth road bridge and then past Dalgety Bay and Pettycur before heading inland at Kinghorn.
