All things Selfsufficientish

Bycycle diaries – day 4 and 5. Midlands to the North

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 14/11/08 at 01:11:59 pm

Day 4 Northampton – Redmile

What I thought was route 6

Awoke early in the Morning, having moved out of my parents house in my early twenties it seems odd to get up before them having drank less than them. I was full of energy and decided to nip over the road to see my Nan. She seemed pretty pleased to see me and I stayed chatting to her for longer than I should have, got to know a bit more about the family history. I am glad that I never met my Great-Grandad (on my Dad’s, Dad’s side) as he sounds like a right nasty piece of work. He used to chauffer for the Rothschilds and it seems that he was rather envious of their money. He tried to get money from relatives going back to the Irish Hamiltons in County Cork but they told him where to stick it.

Anyway, it was odd to follow the first bit of the route through Northampton as, at one point, I used to cycle this way to work every morning. I then had to turn off and find the cycle route 6. I got to the point on the map where I thought this was and ended up cycling through Kingsthorpe Village, (made famous as the tarty one from Birds of a Feather used to live there).

This route did not seem one of the greatest I thought as I pulled my bike over a fence. It got worse as the path seemed to follow the quagmire that had built up under a bridge and I had to maneuver my bike across thick sticky mud with a fast flowing River Nene only inches away. Then I crossed shoulder high nettles and stumbled through massive ditches before finally getting to the end of this bit of the path. Then I discovered the real route 6, a pristine tarmaced, level cycle track. This must have added a further hour onto my time I thought and felt a little daft.

Now on the Brampton way I was making good time, this bit of the route from Northampton to Market Harborough is all off road. This I find has it’s plus and minus points, you don’t have huge trucks passing you by or have boy racers trying to knock you off the road. What you do have is people and close to ‘places of interest’, you can have lots of them. People cause you to slow down more then anything else. I urge anyone reading this to please spare a thought for us cyclists, we don’t want to run you over so when walking on a cycle path please keep to one side, either side will do and please keep your dog and kids under a watchful eye as we don’t really want them running under our wheels either.

I carried on this path, this long straight path with bushes either side of it for ages. After cycling through villages and next to open fields with game birds flying over your head this was a little different. As I cycled it started to become hard work, I puzzled as to why. I was rested, well fed and was only a few days in. I puzzled for a little longer then it dawned on me, “It’s because I am bored”. This was not what expect when I started this journey, there was nothing to see other than the odd dog walker or rambler and to be frank I was getting fed up of them, they might see the odd cyclist but I was saying hello every 2 minutes (god, I can be a miserable bastard sometimes).

The bordom of this path was briefly interupted by Kelmash Tunnel a long dark tunnel with an uneven path. I cycled through slowly, bouncing around as I went. I could hear a scurrying noise which I can only attribute to rats. I got through the tunnel and looked at the otherside to see a sign that stated “Cyclists dissmount and push”, ah well always liked being a bit of a rebel.

A bit further on was a slightly shorter tunnel, I could see a light inside this one it looked like a bike light and was travelling very, slowly towards me. I reached it and saw a women stairing at the floor pushing her bike. I said hello to her and got a mutter back, I had the distinct feeling she highly dissaproved of me cycling through the tunnel and not getting off and pushing. It is odd how you can put a sign up in places and people will immediately comply to such an extent that they will try and get others to comply too.

I did want to get to Newark today, but I think due to the wrong turn at the start of the day I had run out of light and it was starting to rain. I decided that I would stay at the first place I found, unluckily this was a posh ‘Inn’ in Redmile 10 miles south of Newark and was to cost me £55, plus a further £10 for my meal. This was the first time I felt a little lonley, it is fine being on your own I don’t mind that at all. In fact I often prefer it, but being on your own with other people around I am not a big fan of. I wolfed my dinner down and and had an early night.

Day 5 – Redmile – Great Limber

Set off the earliest I have done far, quite happy to get back on the road. The first noteworthy thing on this route was the crows/ravens or whatever they were. I looked up at one point and hundreds of them were circling me after cycling for a bit I saw a dead one on the ground, it seemed that they were circling their dead. I thought that they were plotting their revenge against humans up there, away from us. Then I remembered I had been on my own for quite a while now and no doubt my mind was starting to make a few things up for me.

It was not just my over active imagination that was keeping me entertained it was myself, realising that I was out of earshot I decided to start shouting and singing to myself. It felt rather freeing as here in Bristol I am normal only ever a few feet away from someone and therefore it is not easy to really shout without causing a bit of a stir, I am sure my neighbours already think I am not quite right in the head.

I did not see much of Newark, someone had written on the cycle path just outside Newark “Tramps this way”. I think it was supposed to be a statement rather than an instruction. I passed through Newark, I pondered for a little while as to if it was worth a look around and decided to crack on. I could always return here when I had more time.

Onwards and upwards, I got to Lincoln and that looked pretty amazing. I amazed myself when I cycled up the hill that Lincoln sits on without feeling it. It must be that I was starting to get fit. I liked the look of Lincoln and thought to myself that it would be worth a visit in the future.

One thing I noted was just how stunning it was, old buildings nestled in with the new and even parts of the town wall were still intact. There also seemed to be a vibrant art scene (yes I noticed all this from my bike). Well when I say that what I really mean is I saw this big sculpture on the side of a building and thought that it looked pretty cool.

The downside of Lincolnshire is the driving, it was here that I felt the most vunerable on a bike. I again got a little lost coming out of Lincoln and realised that towns and cities add an extra hour onto your journey time as they are so fiddly to navigate. When I got to the main road heading north from Lincoln I could almost taste the danger, cars were shooting past me at speed and were not keeping their distance nor for that matter were the massive articulated lorries. Saying to myself this is very dangerous being on this road, I have to get off it as quickly as possible. To set my mind at rest I saw a sign telling me how many accidents their had been on this stretch of the road in the last month, one a day, great!

I carried on and cycled past a church with a flat spire aparently one of only a handful in the country. Round here were some real free range chickens too, wandering into the middle of the road and they were absolutely everywhere. There did not seem to be a chicken shed in the vacinity either, I thought about looking for eggs as that would be a great thing to say I had foraged but then remembered the logisics of carrying single eggs; especially whilst on a bike.

I really wanted to get as far as the Humber Bridge and thought that I could even see it from some areas, well the humber river anyway all lit up. In hindsight I think it was a road. Realising that I had done around 80 miles this day I decided that crossing the Humber was to be for another day, well the next day any road.

I stopped at another Inn, really I was looking for a B & B as more often than not the people that run them like people and will chat to you. Although I was too knackered to talk, and was again a little freaked out by people having fun around me. Not great having to eat on your own on a Saturday night, I think the waitress thought I had crawled out of a pond too. Mind you I had not showered and my beard was coming on so she might not have been far wrong.