Today marks another significant turn in the road for this year’s tour, or maybe a bending of the arc. With just under four months left and as we approach the midpoint of summer, it’s finally time to head south and start biking into the sun instead of feeling its warmth on our backs.
The view from our window looks like we’ve got a fair day ahead. It’s a look that won’t last long this morning.
We’ll have to wait awhile for that sun though because it’s off and on raining this morning. The forecast is steadily improving fortunately and now it looks like things could dry out in early afternoon, which is a huge improvement over last night when it looked like that wouldn’t occur until evening - a situation that led Rachael to research whether we could take bikes on the bus to Alston, our next stop.
The bus is still there as a last ditch solution but if it’s going to dry out in time for us to fit in the short ride ahead, waiting it out here at the Bridge Hotel feels like a better plan. Over breakfast we confirm with our host that we can just hang around in their lounge once we’ve cleared out of our room, and when the time comes we relocate ourselves and settle in to wait for improvements.
The comfortable Green Room makes a pleasant refuge to hang out and wait for improvements.
The rains continue throughout the morning, alternating between a minor drizzle and a downpour. It’s anyone’s guess whether the break when it finally comes in will hold us until Alston or not, but by a little after one it looks reasonable enough that we decide to chance it. If it turns out that it turns foul immediately, there’s still time for us to test out the bus option when we pass through Haltwhistle.
Looks promising for the moment at least. Look at all that blue in the upper left!
With our uncertain situation it doesn’t go down well when we get a half mile into the ride and find that I mismapped the route and now here it wants us to bike across a long stretch of rough footpath. Not knowing how long it might go on like that we decide the safest is just to turn back to the hotel and drop down to Haltwhistle on the paved road we’d climbed up in two days earlier. A volley of Rockydarts®️ is certainly deserved but I give partner high marks for holding her fire and keeping her thoughts to herself.
After that though we experience a surprisingly enjoyable ride as we follow the course of the South Tyne through its narrow valley called the Tyne Gap the whole way, climbing over low ridges and then dropping back to the river again. The weather holds up for us and improves as we ride, and we pull in to our pub hotel in Alston at around four. Another win for our plan of short travel days!
West of Haltwhistle we enjoyed several pleasant miles on NCN 68 (the Pennine Cycleway), sticking to it until the pavement ended and we exited it for a farm road up into the hills.
The North Pennines aren’t all that high, but their barren fells are visually striking. I think that’s the Grey Nag ahead on the other side of the river.
Video sound track: Once in a While, by Clifford Brown & Art Blakey
We’re booked in the Cumberland Inn, a place with a nice enough and popular restaurant but that basically just serves up the standard pub offerings. Instead we walk across the street to the classier, 4 star Alston House Hotel, and both enjoy their salmon special of the day.
Afterwards Rachael heads back to the room while I take the camera on a short tour of the place. A modest place, Alston (elev 1000’) claims the honors for being the highest situated market town in England. There’s not a great deal to it, but its small center is attractive and just right for an after dinner wander. And if we had to do it again and knowing what we know now, I wish we’d stayed for two nights. It looks like there’s a good choice of hikes for Rachael, and I’d have enjoyed a loop up to Ashton Moor for some birding and to wander through the heights where both the Tyne and Wear (Durham’s River, in case you forgot also) originate.
