Day 13 - Sunderland to Kielder

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I had a few days rest, watched Sunderland's last game of the season v Swansea caught the train back to Wootton Bassett, saw my family and then caught the train back up yesterday. I then checked back into the Roker Hotel and got a late ticket to see ''Warhorse'' at the Sunderland Empire - a great old theatre and the play was great.

My room in the Roker Hotel was huge and looked straight out across the North Sea which today was calm and blue and everything was good with the world. After breakfast I collected my bike which I had left here and then by about 10am I was heading north from Sunderland along the cycle route that goes along the coast to Newcastle and cuts in through Newcastle into the very empty county that is Northumberland.

The weather the whole day was top notch - sunny and warm. The stretch up to Newcastle was breath-taking - looking out to sea was beautiful. The Roker beach at Sunderland is good and large and quite long with nice sand on it. In fact the view was so good and I was looking out at it that a cyclist shouted at me ''look where you are going''. Ferry across the Tyne at Newcastle - through some rough looking parts of Newcastle (including Wallsend where Sting is from) through the middle of Newcastle all on cycle paths, and then out the other side into Northumberland.

I stayed as much to the cycle path as I could but after a while realised it wasn't taking me on the most direct route so came off and took the roads. At about 4pm I realised as well I still had a fair distance to cover before I got to tonight's destination. Northumberland is lovely but pretty lonely and not much around.



Sun is shining, everything's fine

Makes you want to move your dancing feet

To the rescue here I am

Want you to know I'm a rainbow too

I'm a rainbow too

I'm a rainbow too

I'm a rainbow too

It all echoes through my lonely head

Each night brings a stranger bed

Each day is a new exciting place

Am I looking for too much space?

I am missing the regular, the humdrum

'morning dad', 'alright mum'

But I will see you all soon

Love you to the back of the moon



Still on the road at 7.30pm and I don't think I arrived until about 8.30pm - the last few miles was past a lovely reservoir but in all honesty I was too tired to really soak it all in. The road as well was long and in perfect condition so whilst there wasn't much traffic at all on it every now again you would here a distant whine and then a motorbike or 2 would zoom past doing lord knows what mph. Again though the view was lovely - tall pines, a lovely lake and hardly anybody around - I had been going for too long though and so just wanted to arrive at my destination.

My destination was a YHA hostel in a small town in the North of Northumberland. What I couldn't believe was, in England, how remote it was - no phone signal which was to be expected but also no TV signal. The hostel was almost empty as well so I sat in the lounge listening to the radio (I just managed to pick up a signal) eating a pie I had bought earlier for my tea and then to bed it was.

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