Tuesday 

After yesterday’s riding and weather bliss, today was a little disappointing. It was not a sunny day.

I put together a ride made up partly of the Biker’s Britain route up to the coast. And for sure, I rode through some beautiful lanes and stopped by this ruinous religious building. I was hoping to ride through Ampleforth where there is an abbey and a Benedictine school that, way back in the 1960s and 70s my old school in west London with a besmirched reputation used to play rugby against. Somehow the road I was on did not go through it. The first part of the ride was beautiful and enjoyable.

Once on to one of the Bike routes, coupled with greying skies and not quite so nice scenery, the enjoyment of the riding faded a little though I can see that the route was chosen because the riding, the sweep of the roads, was fun. I have a memory that the roads and everywhere I stopped, including a large lay-by with a catering truck was crowded with staycationers like me.

I headed toward a small seaside town, Saltburn by the Sea, but every single parking place was full so I rode back up the hill to the main road envying the people sitting by the sea eating ice cream. Likewise a smaller place, Sandend, very close to Whitby up the coast.  I remember, earlier in the journey, telling myself a joke that I thought I could try out on a carefully selected person in Whitby or close to it. ‘Am I on the right road to Whitby? I’ve come for the synod and am afraid I might be late.’ The comic answer would be ‘You’re fourteen hundred years late, mate.’

On the edge of Whitby the traffic was heavy so I headed inland back into a new route that would take me back to Baxby hopefully through some less busy and beautiful roads. There were very steep climbs on this road for one of them and I, and a dozen cars in front of me, were stuck behind a very slow moving truck carrying a house on the back. Moving was so slow that it involved clutch slipping to keep moving at all. No good so I pulled off down a narrow lane and set coordinates back to the campsite. I was proud of the steep and narrow turn I had to make to get back out onto the road. I know I keep saying it, but on the Beamer with its metal panniers that would be a really pulse-quickening manoevre. The ride from there in was much better.

This campsite is a joy to return to. I had deliberately held off buying food intending to try their much talked about pizza but that night the promised pizza van did not open so I finished my supply of yesterday’s vegetables and noodles instead of throwing them out which is good. 

Here’s the GPX route: (woops I need to replace the plugin)