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We headed north again crossing over the A66 on a handy bridge and headed up on the moors again to reach Middleton in Teesdale, lovely picturesque place with a tea shop.
Alan managed to break a few spokes on the cattle grids but there was no bike shop so we just had to carry on and hope for the best.
Once again we went out on to the moor, there's a definate remote and desolate feeling by now with fewer farm buildings. Upper Teesdale is not the tourist hot spot that the Dales are.
After a quick photo stop in Blanchland we went to the delightful youth hostel at Edmunbyers, now independent and the first hostel Alan and I ever stayed at.
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Trevor and Alan had to leave us today so they headed off east to Shotley Bridge while Calum, Andy and I went back to Blanchland. The 1:6 north out of Blanchland has been relabelled as a 20% but it's definitely not that steep. When I was at school this was a fabled climb as we tackled as often as we could.
The B road down in to Hexham was closed so we had to take a detour but the signs took us back to the closed section so we ended up pushing the bikes past the road closure and gas repairs.
We had lunch in Hexham, weather quite warm by now. We headed north again and had another two road closures with accompanying detours before reaching the excellent Simonburn Tearoom. Lovely tea and a scone with jam and cream.
The weather held out for the rest of the ride up to Bellingham. It's a new hostel which is described as a bunkhouse. The facilities are excellent.
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The forecast for today was pretty poor with most of the rain to fall about 13:00 so we set off with the intention of spending that period in a café in Rothbury. We started well heading through Redesmouth then hit our first climb of the day. Once over that the run through Cambo for a BCQ was pretty easy.
Cambo was a lovely village.
After that the road had severe undulations all the way to Rothbury. We spent an hour and a half in the café until the rain eased off. Headed north to Wittingham (of the fair).
The original title for the song Scarborough Fair is Wittingham Fair and this is the place. Another lovely village and a BCQ. We then used minor roads to reach Alnwick. Lovely modern hostel in an old prison.