London to Edinburgh 2003: Richard's Diary

Sun 25 May 2003

That's it. Finished. Job done. Despite being the last day (and thus to be completed come-what-may), it was actually fairly hard work (no harder than I remember last year though). Fortunately the free-wheeling nature of the group carried it through. I think yesterday made most people a little sore in the legs, and I certainly didn't have much energy to play with for the hills in the morning - I seem to be better in the afternoons. For this reason we were glad to start in sun, and even if we did see some showers during the day, we never really got wet.

By the way, I never really mentioned our encounters with National Cycle routes. They aren't really factored into the planning (for no particular reason) and so we tend to coincide with them or cross them. Ones I remember seeing are 1, 65, 63, 68 and 1 again, along with something I've never heard of called the "National Byway". Sometimes they make life easier by causing routes to be improved (like disused railways).

Plenty of ups and downs today made for really classic riding. With all the weight, hills are still hard work compared to last year (reminder - never cycle with panniers you can't actually carry 100 yds). However, given that I have to do hills slowly, the rest of the day seems to run OK. The Galashiels to Edinburgh run (up a parallel road on the opposite side of the valley to the A7) was harder than usual because of a headwind, and the ups and downs keep you working, but the sunshine was glorious enough to keep your mind off it. The loss of Gary was coped with (see other diaries) and Mark's little dying fly impression (chain-off jamming his chainwheel on a steep hill, causing rapid loss of verticality with Mark still clipped in to the bike) didn't do any serious harm.

Best part of the day was my only real roadie riding of the whole trip. Once back on the main A7, when Col had kicked off a big burst of speed at the front (looking for followers) I couldn't follow him until I had warmed up a mile or so later. Once I was up to speed though, it just turned into one enormous speed rush and I even passed Col with my head down and no intention of stopping before Edinburgh. Eventually I passed Kev's famous Ice Cream stop of last year, and knew I should stop and wait. Big mistake, because Kev's little diversion off the A road ("It's all downhill from here, innit!") turned into a muscle-burning climb and a puncture for me. Never trust a troll! Puncture repaired with a tube from Col, we made the final run into Edinburgh in the sun (quite a hilly town really) and went straight to the ward to spend some time with Carolyn who was very pleased to see us.

Back at the hostel (where Gary had managed to arrive against the odds) a tremendous take-away banquet was laid on (somehow, while I was in the shower) with Morgan and Veronica Jones kindly in attendance and bearing gifts. What a top night! For me, it is the plane home tomorrow AM, so I'm taking advantage of the YHA's washing facilities and finishing this, before getting back out on the road to Edinburgh airport at 6am. We're planning next year already.

Sat 24 May 2003

We left the (really old and traditional) youth hostel at Acomb and headed up to see Hadrian's wall at Chesters. My first disaster of the day happened when I dropped my little camera in a petrol station; some damage done but still working. The Roman town at Chesters did have some atmosphere, although it was mostly grass and low walls. The famous (but now gone) bridge across the river must have been very impressive. For some reason I really liked the idea of actually standing on a hypocausted floor in the bath house, instead of just looking at the bare floor supports you normally see.

Having pfaffed enough, we began the up-and-down run to Kielder, catching increasingly wet showers and cold wind on the way. The group had split by this time, with Annie and Bernie going on ahead. A quick stand-up lunch in Bellingham when we were already pretty wet, and we carried on to Kielder water, into the wind. It was a fairly long run into Kielder, punctuated for Colin and myself by a coffee at the tourist centre. Unfortunately I managed to leave my favourite water bottle there, which is something of a loss since that's the best bottle I've ever had and it's got me through a few scrapes.

Eventually we caught the others at Kielder castle (some more fragmentation had gone on, and now we were down to Kev, Julie, Anna, Mark L, Colin and myself). More rain and wind later, we were sheltering in a wood, drinking coffee and eating cashews and chocolate. We were about to turn onto our old route from last year, up over the top of the forest, a second climb and then a long down into Hawick. This year the weather was more forgiving on this section, and you could actually see what it looked like - very nice too. On the final climb the rain closed in again and soaked us, before the sun broke through to give a rainbow worth celebrating (see photos). Then it was all downhill (in full waterproofs to keep out the cold) and into the lush and sunny valley which drops you into Hawick. Anne, Bernie, Gary and Mark H were already at the hotel, so we just had to dump our bikes and have a quick 20 minute wash/shower in order to eat before the chef knocked off for the day. Fantastic meal and I'm afraid I got well into the Rioja and (my scottish beer) 70 shillings, which is probably why I couldn't really write this until this morning.

The team is physically tired, but elated and ready for the final day.

Fri 23 May 2003

Just a short entry since I'm against the clock - having breakfast and we need to go. Two big hills, both fortunately without a headwind but the second with rain, hail and a cold wind. Once we made it over those it was plain (and very fast) sailing down to Hexham and Acomb. A lovely surprise card awaited me at the hostel (thanks Kirsty!). Bit stiff today, and another long day...

Thurs 22 May 2003

I have to be brief here, because poor old Mark is trying to sleep in the next bed. We all need our sleep since the hills have kicked in today; real up hill and down dale stuff, with beautiful scenery to match. Having discovered a seriously damaged rear wheel rim this morning, it turned out that it couldn't be fixed in Ripon and I'd have to ride to Richmond (over 20 miles). Col and Kev became my "camels" and took a lot of weight from my panniers, then proceeded to ride some of the hardest terrain so far with about 150% of their normal pannier weight. Heroes or what? I nursed the bike into Richmond, then rode out of town with Kev (up some very vertical bits of hill) to the bike shop where my new wheel was waiting.

Removal of the old wheel showed up a new piece of news - a snapped rear axle! All back together we rolled back down the hill into the town square for lunch - except it turned out we had made a mistake, and now I had a puncture. All fixed and after lunch we rode on through more challenging ups and downs to the final stop at Barnard's Castle. A fish and chip dinner and a pint of Theakstons downstairs in the bar, and now I can hear the wind blustering outside, hoping it'll clear for the big hill day tomorrow.

Personally, I was a bit short of energy today, even without the load which Kev and Col were carrying. The hills show my lack of aerobic fitness, and I have to work hard and fight the mental battle to beat them. We are all physically tired. Better news is that my behind is a bit less sore. Looks like the new shorts tactic has worked.

Weds 21 May 2003

Sorry too tired, gone to bed!

Tue 20 May 2003

We cooked in last night. Fantastic - green curry and pie/crumble with ice cream. Wine and all that. I only hang with this lot for the cooking, you know.

I felt pretty good this morning, having got most of a night's sleep and my washing returned freshly pressed (not!) from Julie's Travelling Laundry (thanks Jules!). For some reason my feet had gone stiff - never had that before - but it didn't seem to be an issue. The huge hostel breakfast made the first big hill in Lincoln (which did finally materialise after all) a fairly serious proposition, but I puffed my way up it passed some of our illustrious leaders who had some kind of dramatic misunderstanding mid-hill which meant they unfortunately had to walk the rest of it. The first hill of the day usually sets you up for what is to come, but actually it took quite a while for the hills to warm up as we battled the winds towards the Humber bridge. One or two large ones, but mostly the countryside was just a bit more rolling than before. The sky was all over the place. A chaotic mixture of cloud and thunderstorms meant we got alternate sun and cloud, with occasional rain. Not enough wetness to be a problem, though.

As we passed the half-way mark of the day, lunch was still a hope rather than a prospect. Village after village passed with nowhere to buy food. According to the locals, there was nothing but tumbleweed and cacti between us and the Humber bridge. Fortunately the little post office and general store we eventually found, with adjacent sunny bit of grass, was clearly a secret from the locals..

Rain pushed us off of our lunch-spot and back on to the road. Things were getting colder now, too and the day was beginning to feel long. The Humber bridge was a welcome sight, and a few of us waited for the rain on the other side of the bridge to pass before launching off on our side. We've done worse bridges in worse weather, and this was just a bit breezy. We were soon over the far side and (after a desperately needed coffee-and-caramel-square reviver) battling up a mixture of fast A-road and cycle path to Beverley, which turns out to be a very nice place with an old friary for a youth hostel - top gear! Once the group which peeled off into the local supermarket made it back to the hostel, another stunning meal was prepared (pasta, veggies, garlic bread of two kinds, wine) and despatched with ease. Thanks again guys.

Mon 19 May 2003

Another pretty flat day really. Just the hint of some inclines as we approached the end, and with the wind behind us. No complaints there. We even had a fair bit of sun.

Last night, our arrival at the B&B (a very large B&B to hold all of us) descended into locker-room mayhem as we four boys (in the "boys" room, away from the other rooms which shared a "wife-swapping" corridor) ran the shower continuously and took rapid turns to be ready in time for the 8pm deadline for us all to be out. The Chinese meal we found was excellent and it was back for final website updates before bed. I hope you got them all!

After a huge breakfast, we started to tick off the miles on our "rest" day. All fairly uneventful really - the usual bad jokes and a new fetish for limericks and haikus seems to have grown up. When the country's only eight-sail windmill is the highlight of the day, you have to wonder what they do for fun round here :-). The sun was mostly in our favour, but when we stopped at Ruskington for lunch an impressive downpour forced us (oh so reluctantly) into the coffee shop, where we overloaded the very nice ladies almost to the point of rebellion with demands for coffee, cake and toasties. Everything was delicious and home-made, but we had to leave eventually and head on out. From then on the rain was always hovering on the horizon but it gradually became an enormous black curtain of inevitability and when it finally hit us we had hailstones to the point of pain. I dived into a hedge just in time and was soon joined by Gary and Noelie where we sat out the downpour, wondering what other holes the rest of the slipstreamers had secreted themselves in. The final run into Lincoln lacked the promised enormous hill (we must have come in on a ridge). Peace, tranquillity and my smelly shorts reign in the YHA while the others have gone out for a walk round Lincoln (and another rainstorm passed, hee hee).

I'm still not totally back in the road-riding groove yet - where I would normally have spare energy to slipstream with the boys just for fun, I instead have to hold back and live within my fat-boy low-stamina limits. Let that be a lesson to me (oh..is that a biscuit..)

Sun 18 May 2003

First of all, last nights meal. Can't recommend the Boulevard Restuarant in Cambridge highly enough. Sammy made us feel totally at home and didn't bat an eyelid when Mark and I managed to smash a serving dish. The food was fantastic (although a bit hard to fit on a table for 13) and the new experience of carrots cooked with Fennel made it for me (sorry Kirsty). A trip to the gents is highly recommended (for gents, of course). Nuff said.

The Youth Hostel was as good as ever, and we were all up and out roughly at the arranged time for a day of - wait for it - unremitting flatness. Oh joy! Ok there were regular bouts of rain and quite lot of wind (mostly behind though and mostly warm). Good roads and no real hills made the miles fly by. Highlights were the vintage car run which was passing the opposite way, overtaking (yes, OVERTAKING) a steam traction engine on the way home from a rally.

And then there was Julie's shortcut. Having planned the route from the map, she couldn't really have known, but it took a fair bit of determination on various people's parts to slither topheavy bikes through a slippery ruts for a mile or so. For those of us who forgot their mudguards (like Mark), the clogged wheels weren't too bad, but for the rest of us concentration was the order of the day. Most of the group defected to a road before the last quarter mile, but once I was in I just had to stick with Kev, Col and Bernie for the last bit, crossing the bike up completely in spectacular muddy rut-slides at 3mph. Well, you had to be there..

Lowlights came in a flash of near-disasters. Within a few minutes we'd nearly managed a peloton pile-up which left Anne examining the ditch she didn't quite end up in, followed by Kev dropping the all-important digi on his own crossbar. A certain amount of bloke-fiddling and discussion restored the camera some level of operation, but only on a fixed long zoom. Crisis, and still over 20 miles to go. Still we formed up and carried on, and lots of disciplined riding later, we settled into our B and B.

For the enquiring minds of Sal and Bryn, yes my behind does hurt, but I expect to be recovered tomorrow. So there!

Sat 17 May 2003

Taking the train over to Buckhurst Hill last night I was a trifle worried. It was horrible and wet of course, but I also wasn't really fit enough. Running the scary gauntlet of central London (well it is on an overloaded touring bike), I made it out of Liverpool St at the prescribed time only to find much of the rest of the team blocking the other carriage doors of the train (no cycle provision) with their own bikes. Great, we're a team again!

Only one way to get fit now, beer and curry, and Terry kindly obliged with a surreal but very good Indian restaurant. Terrifyingly bad wine but great lime pickle. This morning it was still wet, but really only drizzle, and we all made pretty good progress for a team of 10. Testing out my legs and lungs on the hills, the news is bad. Any long steep stuff and I'd be in trouble. The Ivor the Engine impressions are kicking in far too early. Fortunately the day was mostly rolling southern shandy-drinking country, pretty villages, the odd view of the M11 and the odd pastie shop (oops - well it's traditional). Once we were outside the M25 and the struggle with too much traffic, things calmed down a lot more and we could actually hear ourselves cycle. Lunch was the traditonal "cheese sandwich in a field" job, livened by the enormous (think loaf) but delicious cake donated by Rosie. Guess you can't go too far wrong when you start with a chocolate base.

Tomorrow is a bigger day. As long as the hills stay off for another day or two I should be OK, but who can guess what our routemeisters have in store..

14 May 2003

No let-up with work and no real progress. Not even a run or a cycle. Looks like I'll be packing tomorrow night and just winging it in true pie-artist style. It doesn't do to over-prepare, you know.

10 May 2003

Bonus! BMI are doing flights back from Edinburgh to Heathrow on the Monday Bank Holiday morning at £11.00 plus taxes! Snapped that up right away. I hope I get to use it!

09 May 2003

Well I finally got these diary pages together, so now we can begin. Things are dire on the preparation front - the bike has a new rack and that's about it. A training weekend in Wales was painful but worthwhile. I'm going to be living on a wing and a prayer for this trip! Strange stories of intense training are filtering through, so I guess it's my role to stand up for pie-eaters everywhere and be unprepared.

I was unlucky enough to miss out on the Dover-London warmup weekend, which looked quite eventful from the photos. I'm looking forward to hearing an account of exactly who broke the axle and how.