Bede's Way

We were warned. Fionna from South Shields Tourism did say "that some parts of the route can get quite waterlogged when we have a lot of rain so you might want to wait for a drier spell before you try that route, but we do have some lovely seafront trails."And she was right. Mud, mud, glorious mud, at least on the first half of the 13 mile ride.We decided on a short shake down ride after our cold and snowy winter and Easter presented a great opportunity to stretch our biking legs.

Bede's Way is not for the directionally challenged as the vandals and toe rags arould Jarrow and Bolden have done their best to obliterate all the route signs, which makes things a little difficult. Combine that with poor maintenance of the route, the aforsaid standing water and mud, routing through estates where the nearest rubbish bin seems to be over the fence and onto the rights of way, and you get a pretty good picture of the first half of the ride starting from St Pauls in Jarrow.

Around Whiteleas, about 5 miles into the ride, Sylvia picked up a thorn in the front tyre and our first puncture after all the cycling we have done over the last three years.



Quick release wheels, spare inner tube, pump and the obligatory rain, we were soon on our way after the repair and broke out onto the South Tyneside coast at Marsden Rock.
The sun broke through the scattered cumulus as we headed down the coast on national route 1 towards Sunderland and our finish at St Peters.If you are thinking of cycling this route then this is probably the best way to do it, Jarrow to Sunderland and ending the ride with beautiful views on the north east coast line.


Take a number 9 from Sunderland bus station back to Jarrow then a 57 back to the start at St Pauls. All in all a great day out.





Finally ... there is a really good way of travelling to the starting point at Jarrow. Take the number 57 bus from Newcastle to Shouth Shields and it stops right outside St Pauls. Couldn't be better.

Visit to Mary's House

On the English Heritage site, under family events at Easter, Carlisle Castle offered to take us on a tour of the castle to show what it was like all those years ago. What I had not realised is, that this was the place where Mary Queen of Scots surrendered herself to imprisonment at the start of a long and tormented appointment with her executioner.

Armed with our bus passes and English heritage membership we set off on the Go NorthEast 685 to Carlisle, after nearly missing the bus at Hexham bus station. Wrong bus stand and not paying attention while gossiping to fellow travelers.

Carlisle is a super little city sitting astride the main west coast train line from London to Glasgow and is now firmly English after being somewhat undecided with the Scots over the past centuries.
Many think that it is the most northerly city in England but that is not true by 4 minutes north. Newcastle upon Tyne wins the northerly cities race at 54 58 to Carlisle's 54 54.
What Carlisle does have however, is a wonderful castle which dates from Roman times and when rebuilt in stone after the Norman conquest, much of it was built from plundered Hadians Wall.
When you view the topography around the City, it is hard to imagine being surrounded by dense forrest where no trees stand today.
The wonder of England is, that it survived and flourished, despite the brutal de-forestation in the name of progress all those years ago.

Our tour of the Castle was lead by a suitably attired gentleman who brought life into those aged walls and provided tasty morsels of knowledge, shared by a man who clearly loved his work.
I've often wondered why the backers of King James were called Jacobites, well now I know.


Apparently Jacob is latin for James so his followers became known as Jacobites.

The afternoon spent warning up in the Lanes indoor shopping centre, then the pleasant bus ride over the Penines back to Hexham.
A very good day out.