Burton Upon Stather (Scunthorpe) to York - 108k - Sun 24 June

I think the last Blog finished when we had reached Scunthorpe. Scunthorpe is not the place to come to for holidays. It was a stop off point for us on the fional run to our campsite at Burton Upon Stather, a beautiful old village from almost Norman times, just north of 'Scunt', and a mile or so from the ancient village of Normanby.

Anyhow, before I go further, Julie has absolutely insisted that I tell you that I fell off my bike in one of the main streets of Scunthorpe! We arrived looking like drowned rats. I think I have told you about the very wet run from Lincoln during the morning. Once we hit the city centre of Scunthorpe, outside the library of all places, the sun broke through and it was quite hot. So we took coats off and dried out in little time, changed the socks using the entry to the library as our change room! I hung my gloves on the bike, chianed them up and went for a 'pie and chips' at the local market, and by the time we came back, the gloves were dry, as were the bikes, panniers etc.

We headed up the long street of shops for a grocery store to buy the few supplies for the night, not knowing we had passed into a strongly ethnic part of town. The one gracery store we found was all in arabic, so we kept looking. I think the next one was polish, and when Julie came to the counter with what she thought was milk, the man said @I suspect you want milk - but that isn't milk!' So she was shown the 'taciate' - should have known all the time - from a polish speaking cow of course!

Then we tried to find our way out of town. Becasue the sun was shining, we knew where north was, so we went the way the shadows indicated and came to the 'corner fatale'. Instead of stopping to check traffic both ways, I simply tried to balance the bike for longer than a brief pause and stationary speed, and overbalanced the wrong way (ie the side with the shoe still clipped to the pedal). Julie really was concerned for a few seconds, thinking what next could he break, but when I bounced up like a youth she kept insisting from that instant that it had to be recorded for all to know - that the cycling legend fell off his bike, once again. Only pride was injured I am glad to say.

The camp at Burton Upon Stather is the best we have encountered. It is five star, with just a few people there. The amenities are far better than most homes, and it was a lovely night, and a sadness to have to make the long hard climb up to the village from the river where we were next morning on our long haul to York.

For the next 20k we wandered across north Lincolnshire countryside, and then looming into view was the magnificent Humber Bridge across the Humber River at Hull. It is 3k across, and froma distance looks like a mirror of the Golden Gate. It is a magnificent sight, and it was in view for miles and miles.

We hit the bridge at the same time as the Hull half marathon which was coming from the north as we crossed from the south. We stopped briefly at the TIC at the northern end, and got final instructions on the NCN 65 (National Cycle Network) which was to take us the final 80k to York, mostly by off road means.

Then it started to rain, and as I write 24 hours later, it has NOT STOPPED RAINING HEAVILY CONTINUOUSLY (emphasis mine!). We rode all day in the rain. I had a flimsy photocopy of the page from Lonely Planet of the NCN 65, and we had small occasional signposts to follow. We did just about every village between the Humber and York, and a lot of it off track. At one point we were so wet and cold we stopped at a church to eat. The doors were unlocked so we went in and sat in the back pew to have sandwiches and bananas and apple. We left a note of gratitude. Then back into the rain again. We cut through sheep paddocks, along river banks on single dirt tracks (all NCN 65), we had thistles and nettles brushing our bare legs as we negotiated this thing called a Cycleway. We rode through mud tracks, avoided cows in our path, over riverways and through endless gates, and then finally got totally lost near Selby, still some 39k to York.

I wanted to hit the main highway and get out of this mess, but we met two nice english cyclists who had just come from York on the NCN 65 and said it was really worth doing (apparently we had been through the worst). So we gave in to it, and with a minimum of further fuss, found ourselves on a normal bike path alongside the highway, which then diverted across lovely country on a rail trail all the way to York. There were no hills today after the Humber, but half the rail trail was dirt (mud in our conditions) until near York where it became bitumen.

We arrived after some 108k of mostly wet weather. It was 6pm, and we had ridden well all day despite the conditions. Julie especially did it 'in her stride' and was riding well right into York. We were though, like frozen, wet chickens. The final route took us right across the York race track, and into the old walled city whose origen dates back to AD71 and Roman occupation.

We set up the tent in the rain, and after showers etc walked the 1k into town. The rain eased a bit. But overnight it dumped with a vengeance. The tent (praise the Lord) is very dry and warm inside, so we and the gear are fine. It rained all night, and the talk this morning is of the river rising and flodding the camping ground. It has rained all through the day.

We slept in despite this, and got up about 9\;30am this morning (our day off). At about 11am we said 'blow it' we are going out, so we have cruised the inner old city despite the rain. We will attend evensong at the great Cathedral tonight. We are praying for the Sovereign God to influence the weather sufficiently overnight to give us a dry track tomorrow.

Mum - tomorrow we hit County Durham (my mother's birthplace) and expect to check out the little village of Spennymoor where you were born.

Thats more than enough from me this time. York is great despite the rain. We hit over 1800k yesterday, just more than 50% of the total k's we will do. We have done 3 weeks, and have 4 to go. We are in great shape and high spirits. We laugh a lot. We send our love to all at home. With love....k & J