Pedalling Time: 6hrs 52mins
Weather: Cold, windy and rainy
Total distance: 474 miles
Having been ‘soothed’ to sleep by raucous karaoke we were woken by a rather strange alarm clock. Ida who we had met the night before had forgotten where John’s room was and thinking he was in our room stood outside and shouted in a posh voice “Jawn......Jawn......, I can’t remember how to work the shower.....Jawn! This lasted for about 5 minutes with Ida even trying her key in our door. We went down to breakfast which was a decent cooked breakfast but nothing to shout about. We left to the sound of Ida telling John how amazing the orange fruit juice was.
It is very very cold today and extremely windy, extra layers of clothes have been adorned to keep us from freezing to death on our bikes. We both rubbed a ‘good luck stone’ in the yard of the Harbour Guesthouse to keep the rain away. It obviously wasn’t a very powerful lucky rock as the rain begun almost as soon as we had finished rubbing it. So for the first time we got out our waterproofs, Luke’s a bright blue and Alex’s a shade of yellow brighter than the sun. We certainly wouldn’t be missed by drivers on the road.
The wind does not help our cycling, making us extremely slow and tiring us out very fast. It is not what we want after having done over 400 miles but we battled on through the elements until finally the rain subsided. The wind continued however. Today we both laughed hysterically at the passing of the most average lorry in the world - I think we may have cracked at last!
We reached Bamburgh for lunch making good progress despite the weather. Whilst sitting near a pavilion for shelter we were approached by the people within the pavilion (all of whom were at a harp playing convention) and were offered food and shelter. We were given several sausage rolls, some quiche, gingerbread men and a newspaper to check the weather. Needless to say we were extremely grateful to those harp playing folk.
After short stops at Seahouses (where we saw the lifeboat being launched) and the Holy Island causeway we reached Berwick-Upon-Tweed. However, the weather was not to be desired and neither was the route, which was un-paved consisting of hummocky grass and sheep poo which Luke’s bike had some difficulty in passing over. At Berwick we met another odd lady who we have nicknamed ‘The Wasp Lady’. She approached the bench we were sitting on and without introducing herself began her sentence by saying “The beasts, the beasts!”. We seem to attract all the odd people in all the places we go to. She regaled us with her story of how she had been stung by a wasp and had had to go to hospital where she had, in her opinion, not been looked after properly by the doctors and that she would probably die now because of it. Hoisting her skirt up to show us her plasters on her leg she then told us how best to deal with a wasp sting yourself, apparently you must use brown vinegar on the sting but by no means must you use white vinegar. This advice she told us to remember, and then she was on her way. We tried to look concerned as she was telling us about her experience but it was hard not to smile.
Onwards and upwards to Eyemouth we passed the English-Scottish border and a strange no-mans land in between. Photos were taken at both sides and we hastily got on our bikes. It was beginning to get dark and we had a bleak looking moor to cross.
Luke and I joked about possibly being got by one of the rumoured panthers that roam the moors of Scotland, though we soon wished we hadn’t joked about it as our imaginations soon turned into something quite real in what was the singularly the most frightening and serious event that has happened on our ride so far.
As we approached a desolate farm 3 mangy looking dogs appeared from one of the entrances, teeth bared, barking and growling they slunk onto the road blocking our way. We were blocked by two walls on either side of us and so had no choice but to go past the vicious dogs. As we did so they pounced at our bikes and legs. Fearing a nasty bite from one of them Luke jumped off his bike and used it as a shield whilst I pedalled so fast to get out of there I almost came off my bike. Thankfully the dogs didn’t chase us though it was a close shave and not a fond memory. It certainly could have been worse but we are going to report the farm to Sustrans.
We finally arrived at the outskirts of Eyemouth and Redhall Cottage guesthouse at about 8.00pm and found that pre-booking was required for evening meals and so were again left in the lurch in terms of food. We have not been lucky with our food on this trip. Being late we feared we might not get anything to eat as the centre of Eyemouth was about 30 minutes walk from the guesthouse and we did not feel like cycling in the dark again to get there. Thankfully a friendly taxi driver named Chris was our saviour who took us in and back from Eyemouth centre for a reasonable price and in time to get to a nice and very sophisticated bistro called Oblos which served very tasty if not some what pricey food.
The end is in sight now. Our epic journey will soon be over!
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