Ferries to Holland

Hi! I'm just starting to investigate the likely costs of various ferries to Holland. They vary a little from day to day, but generally P&O Ferries Hull to Rotterdam comes to slightly over £220 return round about the time we want to travel, while DFDS Newcastle to Amsterdam is only a little over £170 return. Another possibility is Stena Harwich to Hook of Holland, which costs anything from £68 to £132.

Ride 2015 Video

A short video of our Northumberland ride (size/resolution reduced to enable upload to blog, so will not look good if expanded to full screen).

A Few Early Thoughts-Northumberland 2015

I have been back 48 hours now, a little tired but satisfied on the completion of another successful Dragon Ride, 450 km over 6 days. The Northumberland Triangle (NCN 72/68/01). The weather was kind, the hills generally gentle (Kielder was challenging though) and the scenery as usual simply stunning.

Congratulations and thanks to all. Clyde, Peter, Maldwyn, Martin & our new and most welcome addition Jim.

Well done us!

Kielder Water (Nippy!)

Seahouses( Warmer)

Craster (Balmy!)

                                       
                                                                 Warkworth (Quaint)

Are These The Bellingham Bell Shaped Hills?

On R68 climbing east out of Bellingham. The British Geological Survey map shows them as an outcrop of sandstone, presumably more weather resistant than the surrounding 300 m year old sandstone bedrock. The BGS soil map gives a shallow soil depth, compared to the deep surrounding glacial till. I would imagine early settlers found it an ideal homstead, a good lookout, easily protected, and close to fertile farmable land; when the river valley was probably still covered in deep forest.
A genealogy website says a prominent family bearing the Bellingham name was descended from  invading Viking foresters ("Give me your trees or we will burn down your houses"). Although use of the Anglo-Saxon name suggests they became integrated into the local community.

Martin's Strategy for Monday 25 May

Cross Country say they hope to run a train every hour from 08.11 to 15.11 between Derby and  Newcastle via Leeds. So presumably the earlier XC trains will not run.
East Midlands Trains have published their special timetable; first train to Sheffield at 06.27.
Northern Rail say they hope to run most of their local services in Yorkshire until mid afternoon.
Virgin East Coast have published a special time table with 2 or 3 trains an hour between Doncaster, York and Newcastle.
First Transpennine have not updated their website yet.
So I will aim for the 06.27 to Sheffield; Northern to Doncaster or Leeds and on to York, East Coast from Doncaster or York to Newcastle. Might be in Newcastle before midday. If all else fails I still have my bus pass, although there may not be many direct buses between York and Newcastle.
Anyway whenever I get to Newcastle, if it's before midday I will cycle to Wylam and stop there for an hour or so before plodding on at my own pace to Hexham. If it's later I will get the train, that Northern say should run, to Hexham.
At Hexham I will stop at the cafe by the golf course, just before the foot crossing over the railway on R72 and review the options; Keilder or North Tyne Valley.
I will update this as and if I find free WiFi anywhere.
Hope to see you all in Bellingham before dark.

Hadrian's Cycleway - NCN 72 - warning

Sustrans have the following advice on their website:
"On Monday 25th May the Northumberland County Show is taking place next to the route at Bywell. 25,000 visitors are expected and a short section of the C252 road that Route 72 runs along will be closed to traffic to allow show visitors to cross between car parks and the show site. The route will be open as normal but please expect increased usage and traffic between Corbridge and Stocksfield, and as you get nearer to the site. Cyclists will be required to dismount to walk through the crowds."

Potential rail strike on Monday 25th May

The Rail Union RMT has just announced that its members (who control the signals, among other things) are planning to strike from 17:00 on 25th May for 24 hours. Hopefully even if this strike goes ahead we should have made our journeys but I shall certainly keep a very close eye on developments.

Acclimatisation and Reconnaisance.

My son is running a half marathon on the High Peak trail from Friden to Cromford this coming Saturday and, in a moment of parental madness, I agreed to be his club's drink dispenser and cheerleader. My chosen location was Longcliffe, about half way on his run and I decided to do a trial run this last Saturday past to see how long it would take to cycle there and to find a suitable spot to hand out the drinks. I went via Kirk Langley, Mercaston, Hulland and Brassington. Most of the hills were not too bad although there was a depressing tendency for several kilometres of steady climbing to be negated by a short steep downhill, often with a sharp turn at the bottom prior to the next climb. The quite strong wind was against until I turned east after climbing up past Carsington reservoir. The final climb up through Brassington to Longcliffe is a granny gear slog. As the trail would be likely to be busy with runners on the day I decided to try the road which runs alongside the trail past Hopton before joining the B road leading down to Cromford. That, I discovered, is a switchback with several short sharp uphill bits.
On Monday the tides for Holy Island were favourable so I went by train to Berwick to re-familiarise myself with NCN1 along the coast. My last experience of the section just south of Berwick was that it was a mudbath so I diverted via Scremerston before rejoining the route at Cocklawburn. I also took the old route as marked on the Sustrans Coasts and Castles map between Goswick and Beal. The new route goes round Beal Point and is narrow and rutted and a bit longer.
Having located the entrance to the (long) drive to our B&B I set off for the village of Lindisfarne but having reached somewhere about half way across the causeway I saw that there was a layer of water on the road ahead of me and passing cars were creating a bow wave. The road is narrow and I anticipated a soaking if I continued so I turned around. At this point I realised just how strong the wind had become. I was barely holding 10kph on a flat road - not appreciated by the following motorists. Having thus some spare time I went past Beal to the A1 and had a quick look at the Lindisfarne Inn in case we found we could not get to Holy island for a meal. It looks OK. From there I continued west to Lowick Mill to join the western leg of NCN1 back to Berwick. This time, at Cocklawburn, I took the coast path and found that it looks worse than it turned out to be. There was a section where the route was so rutted that riding a small wheel bike was impossible but most of it was passable. It is only about 2 km anyway. The only snag was that, by now, the wind was VERY strong and gusty and I was being blown towards the edge of the cliff. The final ride along the sea front at Tweedmouth was unpleasant - sand being propelled across the path at speeds enough to make it feel like being shot blasted. I was grateful to board the train for my homeward journey.
I look forward to riding here again in a couple of weeks but I shall choose my route according to the current and preceding days' weather - if it is wet or has been so I shall again avoid the coast paths.   

I had a diary malfunction (that's my excuse) for the 16th, so the meeting passed me by! I will be taking the Caravan and stopping at Nunnykirk, so will meet you all at the Bellingham Bunkhouse.

Meeting Places

Since we are all arriving in Newcastle at different times it might be sensible to nominate possible meeting places on the way to Bellingham. George Stephenson's Cottage is about an hour out of Newcastle along Route 72/Hadrian's Way, half a mile before Wylam. National Trust, £2.35 to see his birthplace, no charge to go in the cafe.

There is a cafe at the golf club on the way out of Hexham, just before R72 crosses the railway line.

There will be plenty of opportunity to see each other on the long, 10 mile, 200m, climb from Fourstones to Vindolanda.

This really is the summit

The cafe at Vindolanda would be a nice place to stop, but there doesn't seem to be any way in without paying the £8 or so entrance fee.

Beyond the pubs at Once Brewed/Twice Brewed there does not seem to be anywhere to stop before Kielder forest and Bellingham.

Incidentally, I have fitted a larger rear sproket (15 instead or 14 teeth) to my Brompton and stress-tested it along R72 between Carlisle and Newcastle. I also found out the hard way that too much faith should not be placed in Sustrans routing or Ordnance Survey gradient arrows.

For example the route via Bardon Mill drops 50m from Henshaw, which means an extra 50m climbing to get to Vindolanda. And the black arrow on the climb from Henshaw may be 14% but it is a very short distance to walk. The direct route does mean crossing the busy A69. but it is no worse than main roads in Derby. Anyway, I avoided the long uphill Sustrans loop before Hexham, between Fourstones and Bridge End.

Look forward to seeing you all Thursday, 7.30pm in the Brunswick.

Just to confirm

See my comment in the previous post about Wooler now just for one night. This should mean we are booked as follows:


Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th May at Bellingham booked by Shawn
Wednesday 27th May at Wooler booked by me
Thursday 28th May at Beal booked by Clyde
Friday 29th May at Amble booked by Maldwyn.


Logistics for travel and rendez-vous have yet to be arranged as the window for advanced rail bookings is not yet open. Perhaps one more meeting would be an idea to finalise arrangements (and maybe have a drink??). Clyde has suggested that he will be in UK on Thursday 16th April. Would that be convenient? - we could use the Brunswick again as it was OK last time and is near to bus and train stations.

Anybody fancy a variation on our planned trip?

I wonder if this cunning plan will find favour with any of you. After staying just one night at Wooler, we could continue on NCR68 up to Berwick (47.63 km according to Mapometer), and then ride 24.06 km on NCR1 down to Holy Island. There are (in principle - I haven't checked availability yet) some B&Bs and a pub in a village called Lowick, which is very close to the island. Prices of singles and twins work out at £27, £30 or £35 pp, depending on the place. The next day's ride would be 75.04 km to Amble. This leaves all the distances at much the same as they are with a Woller-HI-Wooler return trip, ie at about 75 km or less. The island itself could be accessed at the end of the ride from Berwick (up till late evening, or sunset to be realistic! - we could have a drink or a meal there before going back to the mainland and turning in at our hostelry) or in the morning of 29 May (up till 11:00 according to the table). What do you think? I will make tentative enquiries at the Lowick places - it could be they are booked!

Holy Island safe crossing times

This comes from the Northumberland CC website:

Mon	25	11:05 until 19:35	19:35 until 23:20	23:20 until 08:00 (Tue)	08:00 (Tue) until 11:45 (Tue)
Tue	26	11:45 until 20:35	20:35 until 00:05 (Wed)	00:05 (Wed) until 09:00 (Wed)	09:00 (Wed) until 12:40 (Wed)
Wed	27	00:05 until 09:00	09:00 until 12:40	12:40 until 21:35	21:35 until 01:10 (Thu)
Thu	28	01:10 until 10:00	10:00 until 13:45	13:45 until 22:35	22:35 until 02:20 (Fri)
Fri	29	02:20 until 11:00	11:00 until 15:00	15:00 until 23:25	23:25 until 03:35 (Sat)
Sat	30	03:35 until 11:50	11:50 until 16:10	16:10 until 00:00 (Sun)	00:00 (Sun) until 04:40 (Sun)
Sun	31	04:40 until 12:25	12:25 until 17:15	17:15 until 00:35 (Mon)	00:35 (Mon) until 05:40 (Mon)

Green is safe, red unsafe (as you'd expect)

Trains to Carlisle

Shawn:

The May Bank Holiday Monday, 4 May, timetable is now available.
Not looking good if similar engineering work is repeated on the Spring Bank Holiday Monday.
No through trains from Crewe apart from a 7.32, price has gone up as well
No trains from Crewe on the Sunday other than via Manchester.
East Coast route to Newcastle seems unaffected and may be cheaper.

If all else fails we could still leave early Saturday morning and be in Carlisle by Sunday night, only 200 miles?

Just 3 weeks to find out what adventures the 25 May timetable offers!

Garmin Connect - Bellingham to Keilder and back

Garmin Connect - Bellingham to Keilder and back

How does this look guys? I am just trying out drawing a route on Garmin Connect. Can you see it? Try clicking on Garmin Connect. Can you  transfer it to your Garmin Device? Let me know and try a route or two of your own to share and comment on.

 I cannot upload Mapometer files to the Garmin so writing routes on Garmin connect might be easier for sharing. What does everyone think?

Summer rail timetables

The current timetables finish on the 16th of May; I don't think the summer ones are out yet.
Does anyone know

• when the summer ones become available?
• will trains operate to a normal weekday service on the Bank Holiday Monday 25th May?
• are either East or West Coast Mainline services likely to be affected by engineering works/diversions/rail replacement buses over the Bank Holiday weekend?

Bellingham Bunk House Confirmed Booking

I have BOOKED and paid for the bunkhouse at Bellingham for 2 nights (25/5 - 27/5)at total cost of  £216 (£36 per person). If anyone has to cancel for any reason then let me know and I can adjust the booking by contacting YHA.

Wooler accomodation - 27th and 28th May

Wooler YH is fully booked all of the week including our 2 days. I have been given an alternative of the Black Bull pub in the centre of Wooler but the cost each for the two days will be £55. Can I go ahead??


UPDATE 5th February


3 twin rooms booked - £27.50pppn including breakfast.


I have paid a small deposit to confirm each room - we can sort the finances in May.

Accommodation 29th May

I have booked Harbour Guest House (Amble) for the Friday 29th (£10 per head deposit paid).

I had a trawl  around Amble/Warkworth and most places are booked or do not have rooms available  suitable for our requirements, fortunately HGH can accommodate all of us at £35 per person.

Dragonride 2015 - Northumberland

It was good to see everyone last night and to welcome Jim to the group. Although one or two alternatives were submitted it was quickly agreed that the tour focus this year would be Northumberland and after some discussion a basically triangular loop to/from Newcastle was settled on. This would comprise two nights at Bellingham YH to allow a tour of Kielder Water and two at Wooler for a visit to Holy Island (Lindisfarne). NCN68 runs between Bellingham and Wooler. By good fortune the Lindisfarne causeway opening times are favourable for a late morning arrival/afternoon departure in that week. From Wooler we would return to Newcastle using the "Coasts and Castles" route NCN1 over 2 days. We all agreed to try to find suitable accommodation in the Warkworth/Amble area. The question of the starting date was left open for all to consult diaries/wives etc but would be Sunday May 24th, Monday 25th or Tuesday 26th. An early decision on this would be good to allow maximum time to book the Hostel at Bellingham which has only 15 beds. Responses in the form of comments would be appreciated.


UPDATE Sun 1st February.


Thanks for all the comments which I summarise:


Bellingham for the nights of May 25th and 26th - Shawn to book.


Wooler for the nights of May 27th and 28th - Peter to book.


Warkworth/Amble area for the night of 29th May - Maldwyn to find and book.


Those returning home by train can either take an early evening train from Newcastle on 30th or stay over in Newcastle. All to make their own arrangements for this.

Dates

Could we re-confirm dates for accommodation and rides.

My understanding is:

Bellingham 2N Mon 25th and Tues 26th

- Kielder ride on the 26th
-Depart and ride to Wooler on the 27th

Wooler 2N Wed 27th and Thurs 28th

- Ride to Holy Island and back to Wooler on the 28th
- Depart Wooler on the 29th and ride to Amble via Seahouses and along coast (approx 40 miles)

Amble 1N Fri 29th

- Depart for Newcastle Sat 30th

If I have got this right, I could go ahead and check Amble accommodation availability and book.

I will not need accommodation in Newcastle - Karen will pick me up.

Bellingham Bunkhouse Booking for Monday 25th May 2015(2 nights)

Accomodation for 2 nights @ Bellingham Bunkhouse  ie   mon 25/5/2015 - wed 27/5/2015    for 6 of us
= £216 (£36 each for 2 nights)

No discount for members, book up front, 90% refund if cancelled more than 24 hours in advance. 

I will book and pay(for now!) for this hostel if all confirm they are OK by commenting below. 

Peter will you look into the options for wednesday and thursday night's accomodation? I believe Maldwyn already has an idea for friday night in Amble to look into further?

Check out  the link for a  Guest House in Amble.

harbourguesthouseamble.co.uk

Comments Field

Removed the member element but still fails to publish comments. I can still publish a new post ok.

Northumberland 2015

For some reason I am unable to add to the comments field on the Blog - fails to publish. Anyway a new post seems to work.

Sun 24th/Mon 25th are ok for me.