Day 13: Castle Eden to High Leven (Yarm) : 27 miles, overcast, wet, cold

The main achievement for me today was getting the back wheel sorted - travelling less than 30 miles will simply mean I have more to do tomorrow in order to get to York. Hopefully the weather will improve a little as it was desperately dreary today. 
The street lights were still on in Blackhall Colliery on the Durham coast at 10.00 this morning as I travelled to an industrial estate alongside Peterlee. Unfortunately the bright lights and sounds of Strawberry Cycles here weren't able to help - they specialise in MTB (mountain bikes) with either much longer or shorter spokes than mine.
After limping down to Stockton on Tees, I eventually managed to get the bike back to normally with the input of Doug at Halfords; Doug was also a great source of knowledge on cycling in the North Yorkshire Moors. At least getting to Stockton enabled me to have a look at the Infinity Bridge that I saw win the Supreme Award at the Structural Awards (designed by Expedition Engineering - I love the graphics for the people on their website- led team) in the National History Museum last year.
On the positive side of things in Stockton the cycle routes were well marked and plentiful - it is a little unfortunate that the northern end of the bridge approach paths are incomplete and some of the light fittings are already corroding.

Infinity Bridge in Stockton-on-Tees opened 2009 and cost £15m to build. It is for pedestrian and cycling use. The bridge is a dual, tied arch bridge or bowstring bridge. It has a pair of continuous, differently-sized structural steel arches with suspended precast concrete decking and one asymmetrically placed river pier. The tapering arches are fabricated from weathering steel plate box sections. The arches both bifurcate within the spans to form a double rib over the river pier. A reflex piece between the two arches holds them together making the two arches one continuous curve. No other bridge is known to have quite the same design. 

From Wikipedia... There were more than 1,000 entries to the competition but this was slimmed down to a shortlist of five. The successful competition design was by Expedition Engineering and Spence Associates.

The subsequent design was led by Expedition Engineering assisted by Arup Materials, Balfour Beatty Regional Civil Engineering, Black and Veatch, Bridon, Cambridge University,Cleveland Bridge UK, Dorman Long Technology, Flint & Neill (checkers), Formfab, GCG, GERB, Imperial College, RWDI, Spence Associates, Speirs & Major, Stainton, and William Cook while White Young Green were project managers.

 Apparently the Old Mill B&B that I'm staying at tonight has a hot tub outside - I'm going to pass on that!

Day 12: Hexham to Castle Eden : 56 miles, overcast, dry(-ish!)

I was joined for my ride today by my brother Major (retired) Angus and nephew Robert, who is studying Civil Engineering at University. Before heading off on route 72, or Hadrian's Cycleway, we had a hearty breakfast in Hexham. I also took an opportunity to look around Angus's hard work in the garden - although there didn't appear to be any gooseberries left. The weather today remained fine but slightly overcast - so no need for waterproofs again..

Angus and Robert in Corbridge market square. Corbridge is a jewel in the crown of Northumberland. It grew from the Roman town of Corstopitum, a supply town for the troops on Hadrian's Wall. In the thirteenth century Corbridge was second only to Newcastle in wealth and its citizens were heavily taxed to help pay for Edward 1's Scottish wars and its mediaeval street plan is much the same today. The bridge at Corbridge is the oldest of the mediaeval bridges which became derelict by the 17th century, and was finally replaced in 1674.

The section of route 72 we followed follows the River Tyne through Corbridge, Bywell and Ovingham and Prudhoe - we decided to ride up on a short diversion to near the course of Hadrian's Wall high above Corbridge. The view was well worth it and we returned to the main trace through Newton to Bywell. 

We had some good fun although Robert did particularly well given the number of gears available on his bike was restricted to just a couple of high ones - in the above photo there are a couple of horses being caught up. After a good 12 miles or so we said farewell at Prudhoe where the cycle route becomes traffic free right along to South Shields. 
From Wylam to Newburn, the route follows the old North Wylam Branch Railway.

The wrought iron Wylam Railway Bridge (1876), also known locally as Points Bridge, Half-moon Bridge, Hagg Bank Bridge, Bird Cage Bridge, or The Tin Bridge, is a footbridge and former railway bridge crossing the River Tyne at Hagg Bank. I recall cycling over this 28 years ago when I used to spend too much time in and around the Boathouse Pub in Wylam.

The 18th century stone cottage was the birthplace (June 1781) and home of rail pioneer George Stephenson. It is owned by the National Trust and is situated along the waggonway (correct spelling) some 0.5 miles east of Wylam Railway Bridge.

I enjoyed the rest of the journey into the heart of the Quayside districts of Newcastle and Gateshead. There were a lot of people out on their bikes and enjoying the sunshine and the market in and around the many bridges.

Gateshead Millemium Bridge opened September 2001 and cost £22m to build by Volker Stevin. It was conceived and designed by architects Wilkinson Eyre and structural engineers Gifford. The bridge is sometimes referred to as the 'Blinking Eye Bridge'.

I continued to follow route 72 towards the coast, seeing the huge Duco and Shepherd offshore facilities down towards Swan Hunters and other famous names of the past ship building heritage of the lower Tyne. It also looks like good progress has been made in constructing the new and second Tyne Tunnel at Jarrow.
At this point I turned to the south and headed towards a place near Castle Eden south of Peterlee. The old Caste Eden brewery is now an Italian restaurant although I didn't stop to see if the food was a good as the beer.
The quality of the signage and paths of cycle ways deteriorated significantly near to Hetton-le-Hole. Unfortunately it was around this time that I lost a spoke on the rear wheel, just next to the chain block for those who know, and I couldn't fix it my the side of the road. In the end I limped in to my accommodation, near to the sea, rather tired and exhausted at 18.30 after a great ride earlier in the day. Tomorrow I'll need to sort it all out and perhaps lose some weight from the bike (thanks Angus for the observations and advice - you were right!). 

Day 9 : Aberdour to Tweedsmuir : 57 miles, overcast with 2 hours rain

This morning I set off a little later than I have previously - to see if the rain would ease off at all and was fortunate to have a short hour or so of heavy rain.

Stewart Fairley, Winchburgh

Overnight I had received some free advice, from my sister and niece, that I should be wearing a cycle helmet on this trip and also told of some examples of where people had suffered from not doing so. Although I have a helmet in Kent, I had decided I could do without. So it was a little to my surprise when, not ten hours later, Stewart Fairley approached me in  Inverkeithing High Street and told me his story about how he believes his helmet saved his life a few weeks ago. I was so struck by this that I did say that I would buy a helmet at the next cycle store I passed by. 'That's great' said Stewart, 'as there is one not 200 yards down the road.'  I am now the proud owner of a £30 helmet which I bought from that Sandy Wallace Cycles and very grateful to Stewart and others for getting me see some sense. Thank you.


Crossing the Firth of Forth was always going to have to mention the bridges. These, despite the dull weather, looked elegant and dramatic.

First view of the Forth rail and road bridges from the cycle route along the northern coastline near Dalgety Bay

Cycle path - maximum speed 15 mph! - along the western side of the Forth road bridge; the bridge construction started in September 1958 and it opened in September 1964. It is 2,512m long and carries circa 32,000 vehicles daily (2004).

The actual cycle route is presently only on the western side of the road bridge (thank you Stewart again) and after a short steep section affords good views up to the estuary to the west towards amongst other place Longannet coal fired power station. This was the largest coal fired station in Europe when it was fully operational and it began generating in 1970  and is now capable of co-firing biomass, natural gas and sludge. Its generating capacity of 2,400 megawatts is the highest of any power station in Scotland. and is now the third largest, after Bełchatów in Poland and Drax in England. The reason I have written about it is because ScottishPower, and others, are seeking to prove Carbon Capture and Storage technology at this site supported by the UK government by 2014. 


Looking the other way the Forth Bridge can be seen - still being painted!

The Forth Bridge, opened on 4 March 1890, was until 1917, when the Quebec Bridge was completed, the longest cantilever bridge in the world; the Forth Bridge remains the second longest. The bridge was built in steel alone, the first bridge in Britain to use that material. It was the first major structure in Britain to be constructed of steel. Its contemporary, the Eiffel Tower was built of wrought iron. Construction started in 1883 and over 4,500 people were employed at the peak; over 450 workers were injured and 98 lost their lives.

There is a great cycle route (NCN1) that goes into the heart of Edinburgh following along the coast. I followed this as far as the A902. From there I decided to follow the signed green 'RR' route which guides cyclists around the city to the eastwards exiting on the Biggar Road (A702). This route took me within a mile of Rosslyn Chapel that was a major feature in the last part of Dan Brown's 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code.
Further up the road, I joined the upper tweed valley after Broughton just short of my final destination. I was very happy to arrive, somewhat cold, at 18.30. A fairly long ride for only 57 miles I feel.

The Tweed valley upstream from Broughton. The temporary railway used in the  construction of Megget and Talla dams can be seen in the foreground at the base of the A701 embankment.

I have written about this previously.