After a full English breakfast we take the bikes out of the stable where they had spent the night and are ready for the run along the beautiful coastline up to Bamburgh.....only to immediately discover my back tyre was completely flat. :-(
30 minutes later I had fitted a new inner tube and away we went. 2 miles on decided the back tyre needed a bit more air. Pumped it up a bit, unscrewed the tube on the pump, the valve on the tyre unscrews with it and the whole tyre instantly deflates.....along with my optimism! Refit the valve, pump up the tyre again and set off again (having now lost about an hour).
Few miles along, after a quick look round Warkworth Castle (5th castle so far) Thomas starts to lag behind and eventually tells me he has a sore stomach (most likely a result of the amount of breakfast consumed). Starting to have a bad feeling about today!
So I reduce the pace and gently encourage Thomas to keep going. Again we are running along a beautiful cycle track parallel to sea, with frequent glimpses of deserted golden beaches. By the time we reach Longhoughton the bacon and sausage has reduced below danger levels and Thomas is starting to feel better. After this we are cycling more in land through quiet scenic villages and along almost deserted country lanes. On the way we pass an RAF base with a phantom jet displayed outside the main gate. Well that got Thomas' attention and several photos of him posing in front of it were taken.
By lunchtime we had reached Seahouses and made one of our now frequent visits to a Co-operative supermarket (they do seem to have a strong foothold in Northumbria) to buy some lunch. This was consumed sitting on the beach at Seahouses in glorious sunshine. The weather has been great so far with dry, cloudy mornings followed by clear blue skies in the afternoon. Bit too hot for cycling really and by now I'm starting to look like a lightly boiled lobster, but we're not going to tempt fate and complain.
Pretty soon we spot a magnificent castle on the horizon which turns out to Bamburgh castle (our 7th castle so far on the route). We have an ice cream in Bamburgh and spend a little time in the beautiful gardens below the castle. Didn't remember that the Bamburgh castle was so big which is nearly as
large as Windsor castle (shame we don't have time to visit).
A few more miles and we arrive in Belford and find our B&B for the night. Belford is a very small market town with only a couple of pubs. The B&B is very good ("Best so far" according to Thomas).
Go through the daily routine of washing the cycling gear, followed by an enjoyable pub meal and watching the Olympic closing ceremony before going to bed later than planned.
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