It's a 200 mile ride from Newcastle to Edinburgh. There is a slightly shorter route (starting and ending in the same place) but stays on the coast and that comes in at 170 miles.
I did the ride with my two intrepid travelling buddies Davey Blackmore and Andy McIntyre. Andy wasn't looking like making it after suffering a severe case of man flu but he pulled through the night before.
So Davey (hither to known as "the Organiser") organised the details of the trip getting stops booked and train costs/times.
The ride was starting on August 22nd in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and finishing in Edinburgh on the 24th August - in time for the closing stage of the Edinburgh Festival.
Accommodation was booked. It was...
Premier Inn, Newcastle on the 21st
http://www.premierinn.com/en/hotel/NEWPTI/newcastle-quayside
Grey's Inn, Embleton on the 22nd
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g504032-d951079-Reviews-The_Grey_s_Inn-Alnwick_Northumberland_England.html
Fiorlin, Melrose on the 23rd
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186506-d3224796-Reviews-Fiorlin_Bed_Breakfast-Melrose_Scottish_Borders_Scotland.html
Haymarket Premier Inn on the 24th
http://www.premierinn.com/en/hotel/EDIMTI/edinburgh-city-haymarket
Day 1 - Newcastle to Embleton at 62 miles
Day 2 - Embleton to Melrose at 81 miles
Day 3 - Melrose to Edinburgh at 56 miles
Day 1 looked pretty simple whilst day 2 was going to be hard because of the distance and there was an ominous looking climb before Edinburgh on day 3.
We booked our baggage to be transferred again. This time we used Carrylite. Quite expensive because it was the same price for a group of more than the 3 of us. So a larger group would have the costs split further...but what price to have your bags transferred instead of hiking them on your back! You can find them here http://www.carrylite.co.uk/index.php
I had booked my train journey from Ipswich to Peterborough to Newcastle. My wife would be taking me to Ipswich. Davey and Andy were coming in from Glasgow.
I spent the 21st getting all my gear together and I mapped the ride onto my Garmin Edge 500 for some directional assistance. I had also bought the map and I had watched many videos and read some blogs to get into the mood.
I was really looking forward to this one - I had stayed at a place (what I remember as a boarding school) in Berwick Upon Tweed when I was a kid (some kind of school trip) and we had done loads of walking round the area...including seeing the mighty River Tweed. We were also staying in the same place we stayed when we had finished our C2C ride in 2012.
So a train journey up saw me in Newcastle considerably earlier than my two travelling partners...so I enjoyed the beverages on offer and waited.
The train journey up
Some pics from the Premier Inn in Newcastle
Dining out
No comments:
Post a Comment