The moment where we saw the hill to the borders pretty much describes the whole day.
Today was long and very heavy. Our first session took us to the borders where Ted experienced his first puncture on the trip. Thankfully this happened seconds short of the border mark. Would have been quite an experience to have had the puncture on that hill. The climb was roughly 5km, maybe more. It felt like we had won the lottery when we made it to the top mainly cause we had reached our first 'major' milestone...yeah we know it was only day 2 but regardless we were ahead of our revised schedule at this point.
It was fairly emotional as well as we reached the Scottish/English Border viewpoint. As you can see in the images/videos it was stunning. Bagpipes in the background, with the sun in our eyes we enjoyed a good break before making our way through the Northumberland National Park. The downhill here was magical and well deserved. After powering through a couple hours our next solid break was at a café in the middle of nowhere, hence the extortionate prices! £6 for a soup and a small sandwich!
We followed the A68 and eventually made it to Corbridge. Our route has obviously changed and we believe this was more sensible than going through Newcastle. The rest of our trip from the café to Corbridge consisted of hills, hills, and more hills. We stopped over in a tiny town where we met Jimmy & Helen who offered us ice cold water, refilled our bottles and after a small chat and an ice cream we were on our way. More hills, more climbing but we managed to stay on the bikes! At this point we were rocking some 2 min breaks in between 5km intervals, taking in fruits, bananas, and nuts. Lots and lots of water! The sun has already taken its toll as you can see by Oskars arms. (See video)
Oskar and Ted go for a swim!
The lads had a quick dip (Oskar went full out) in a nearby lake near the main road as we were not expecting to shower that night! Good decision! In a couple words the water was ... Refreshing ;)
The good news was the downhill that followed at the end of the day! A good 15mins of flat roads and some downhill cycling helped seal off the day. Fresh air and cool breezes after a day of climbing was fantastic!
Setting up camp was hard as it took a while to find a spot. 10 mins after arriving in the city we battled to find a shop let alone a camping spot, so we set up camp at a nearby sporting club and stuck our tent right under the rugby poles, and we hoped no one had a game the next morning!
We organised some food, got ready for bed and looked forward to the following day where we expected more climbing, heavier hills and bad weather. We were in bed by 10pm, later than we'd prefer but all in all a successful day of biking. Loving the journey, loving the route and embracing the challenge. Sleep was needed:
"No wifi, no energy, no worries!" - Ted
Dear mom, send spare legs! We are feeling the burn and will probably have a rest day after Day 3 when we make our way to Darlington!
Loving life at the moment! Thanks for following! Love yas!
Day 2 - Link to video: http://youtu.be/DLDG60-BasA
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