Day 7: Durham to Amble – ‘Well there’s only the one pub in Amble..... but it doesn’t do food!’

Miles: 65
Pedalling Time: 6hrs 41mins
Weather: Sunny and Hot
Total distance: 409 miles

We got up early again today to get an early start for what was to be one of our longest days. Alex’s dad, Ray cooked a rather large and very tasty breakfast which was so huge the cooked breakfast had several layers of ingredients on the plate. It was a like a food version of the strata in a rock! After having been re-fuelled to bursting point we were ready to go, except we weren’t as the puncture Alex had received the day before had come back. The original puncture repair patch had come off and so this time three puncture repair patches were used with extra glue to hold them down. Hopefully that would hold for the rest of the journey! So we began day 7 to Amble in Northumberland. Getting there was going to be a problem as there was no easy or direct route. We decided to travel northwards to Chester-le-street then join the National Cycle Network Route 7 to Sunderland and the coast. We would then follow the coast upwards to Amble.

Some nasty hills to get to Chester-le-Street was unwelcome terrain and slowed us down, then to get to the coast we needed to go eastwards rather than northwards and so by about 12.30 we hadn’t travelled that far from Durham and we still had a long long way to go but at least we had finally reached the coast.

Our next problem was the River Tyne and how to cross it. Obviously the people of South Shields hadn’t heard of bridges and so still relied on a ferry to get across the river. However the ferry provided a welcome break from pedalling and allowed us to eat our lunch and consume what must have been the 100th ‘Boost’ bar of the trip. While on the ferry a thick accented Geordie asked us where we were headed. Because Luke couldn’t understand this strange northern language I answered we were travelling to Edinburgh. Obviously hard of hearing the man thought I had said India! I didn’t have the heart to correct him and anyway cycling to India from South Shields sounds much more impressive.

We passed through some rather scummy places and met lots of scummy people on our way to Amble. There was even a ‘rapid response cleansing unit’ to get rid of the scum walking the streets in Blyth. It was cleverly disguised as a rubbish collecting van. Ha! you don’t fool us. Alex fell of his bike today though somehow didn’t get injured. A graceful James Bond style leap over the handlebars as the bike toppled over saved him from any injury.

We arrived in Amble at sunset after having seen some pleasant views of the coast. The Harbour guesthouse is comfy and the rather large owners are friendly enough. Great news - the pub is just over the road from the guesthouse – no walking anywhere to get our dinner. However, the owner of the Harbour guesthouse told us with some satisfaction I might add that and I quote “Well there’s only the one pub in Amble... but it doesn’t serve food!” Our faces dropped; surely a restaurant would save us. We were then told – “Well there’s only one restaurant in Amble.... but it’s so busy you won’t get any food there” Our faces dropped further than any face has done so before. We had resort to the lowest of the low for our dinner - a takeaway that is if there was one. Thankfully there was a fish and chip take away owned by the fattest woman in the world who had about 5 chins! The meal was actually quite tasty. While we ate it in the guesthouse we met two of the other guests – Ida and her husband or later we thought possibly her carer, John. Ida was eccentric to say the least describing the fake flowers in the pots on the tables as fantastic. Worse was to come from Ida, but you’ll have to read the next instalment of our blog to find out what.

We headed to bed to the sound of badly sung karaoke from the pub over the road that didn’t serve food!