10th August 2020
The final day of this leg, and since we didn’t fancy the hotel’s offering of full English we found a nice café in the square for some brekkie. The square reminded me of many towns on the continent, except there it would have been full of cafes. Not so in Alnwick where I suspect the chill Easterly winds discourage outside dining on all but a few days in the year.
And off we set, with a lightness of mind for me, being the last day. Today’s 65km would mean that I had done 8 days of serious exercise in the last 10, so I was feeling a bit weary, but the end was in sight. I did reflect that if I end up doing a 2 week stint I need to build in a couple of rest days, just to recharge the batteries, mentally if nothing else.
The lanes leading up to Morpeth were pleasant cycling territory without too much to report, and after a couple of hours we entered Morpeth itself. You can’t judge a book by its cover, and it appears you also can’t judge a town by its name or location! I had always pictured Morpeth as a run-down northern town, but it was far from that, it was a buzzy lively spot. I guess it’s a middle class commuter town for Newcastle these days but none the worse for that. We had a very pleasant lunch in a back lane before cracking on. I forgot to take any photos though!
We passed this sign for a village called Guyzance, which is completely irrelevant apart from its name and so wasn’t worth the 3km detour. It was first recorded in 1275, it has never expanded much beyond two rows of cottages since. Bit like me and my long awaited growth spurt I guess.
The only other thing of note that we came across were these strange contraptions in the middle of a field. They looked like storage tanks, but there didn’t seem any reason for them being so high or any means of getting stuff up there. They turned out to be water tanks, which had crossed my mind but as they seemed to have roofs it didn’t make sense. They were scheduled for demolition in 2016 but are still there, ripe for some glamping refurbishment?
Onwards to Newcastle and we cycled across the Town Moors, which provide a green traffic route into the city centre, must be a god send to cyclists who live in the city wanting to get out into the countryside. By chance our route took us past St James’ Park and golly but it’s huge!
So into Newcastle. To be honest there were only two things on our minds, the first to get a beer, the second our trains, so we didn’t tour the city or take any pictures. When I restart the ride in Newcastle I’ll make sure to spend an afternoon here before setting off. I’ve had a couple of stag do’s here but never spent time looking round, it looks like a great city.
Defoe wrote about Newcastle at length and was obviously impressed with the trade it had with mainland Europe. He starts with
Newcastle is a spacious, extended, infinitely populous place; ’tis seated upon the River Tyne, which is here a noble, large and deep river, and ships of any reasonable burthen may come safely up to the very town.
and then goes on to discuss the coal trade and other industries. He makes a number of positive comparisons with London, though he does makes some disparaging remarks about the slums. Perhaps more on this fine looking city when I start the next leg.
The train service from Newcastle was excellent, a little over 3 hours and on time. And because of the Covid measures it was not crowded at all which, being selfish, was a bit of a bonus. A quick ride along the Euston Road followed to grab the Met line and then home.
If you have followed me along this week and read this far, thank you ever so much for indulging me. It’s been a great few days but in truth the visual highlights were few and far between, so I hope it hasn’t been too boring. I’ll give it a little while and then write up some reflections of the route.
Circuit of Britain 