2012 04 20 Friday
TPT Day 5 Photographs
The first is the monumentally superb Humber Bridge, a design icon
then, here we are at the finish on Hornsea Promenade. At both ends of the Trans Pennine Trail the specially designed seamark masts mark the spot. On top is a logo for the route representing the waves at each coast which are repeated on the waymarkers, only on these tall masts they are weather vanes as well explaining why they aren't facing the camera!
OK back to the penultimate blog.
2012 04 22 Sunday
TPT link Day 7
Today started with a lie-in. Oooh, the joy of not having to respond to an alarm call. But it wasn't out of choice, believe it or not. When we looked at the timetable for the train times to get me back to York station where I left off yesterday the first train wasn't until 11:30! I know! I couldn't believe it either but there it was. I was forced to have the aforesaid lie-in! Of course, the reality was different. There were preparations including another much needed bike wash and rucsac weight reduction. The ride today was the shortest of the trip so the late start wouldn't be a disadvantage.
The train trip gave me some time to start writing the blog for Saturday but at an average of three hours a time for a blog on the smartphone thirty minutes was glaringly inadequate. All too soon we were in York disgorging from the station with the masses simultaneously leaving an inter-city train. A short trip on the west river bank and lifting the bike onto the Scarborough Railway Bridge placed me back on the Way of the Roses NCN65 on the east bank heading for Beningbrough. This route is now entirely familiar having ridden it as the WotR and used it for access into York City Centre to go sightseeing and shopping.
Leisure cyclists joined dog walkers today making the cycleway busier than usual but with careful use of the bike bell there's rarely a problem. That's ignoring the loose dog that diced Dave off his bike at Altcar on the first day injuring him and causing his retirement on Thursday!
The ride was a slog. The gentle wind was a factor but I think the bike's need of a serious service was growing. A little bit of inefficiency here and there all adds up and means, unless it's downhill, more rider effort is required. By the time I got to Beningbrough I needed a serious service myself. I should have eaten more for breakfast. Constant cycling every day means we burn twice as many calories as normal, around 5000 per day! The question was, NT cafe or Farm Shop cafe? In the circumstances the Farm Shop was nearest and that made the decision for me. It also meant I could sit outside with my bait and enjoy the watery sunshine with the other cyclists. The number included a tandem couple on a very nice modern bike. Well, a boy can dream!
Once refuelled things seemed a little better. The entrance to Beningborough is at the village of Newton-on-Ouse but the one-way system means it's a long way to get to the other end of the village. No sooner had I left on the road out to Linton-on-Ouse I spotted some more roadkill. Having successfully cooked a roadkill pheasant in the recent past I see the roadside as part of nature's larder. Yesterday I'd had to cycle past a well-preserved dead wood pigeon and pheasant. That was bad enough but today it was a deer, a whole small deer. It would have been magnificent. Oh for that tandem. I could have brought it home on the back!
Past Linton's RAF jet trainer airfield to Aldwark Toll Bridge. This single track bridge is an anachronism in this day and age but it's the only Ouse crossing in the 20 miles between Boroughbridge and York. It's very rickety so drivers must percieve a lack of maintenance and begrudge their tolls. Cyclists go free! Over on the west bank there are few route choices to Knaresborough so first port of call was Great Ouseburn. These Yorkshire villages are quite pretty usually with some sort of village green with a memorial, honey coloured stone cottages and houses around it and on the main street and usually of some age, with archetypal roofs of red pantile imported over the centuries from across the North Sea. A very pretty sight. particularly when there's a pub nestled among the buildings. Even though we can't make proper use of them it's sad to see them closed down and boarded up or converted to other use. Not so in the next village of Marton-cum-Grafton.
Ye Olde Punch Bowl was the subject of a tv documentary when actor Neil Morrisey and restauranteur Richard Fox took the lease and made the place over. They also installed a micro brewery in the outbuilding. Their tenure lasted no more than a year before it went belly up about three years ago and, as the local sage informed me tapping his way home on his stick to a roast dinner, the village is on its second tenant since then and now "it's a bit pricey. T'John Smith's is £3.30". I take your point lad!! "Sam Smith's is less 'an two quid tha knaws!". And there you have it. It's a no-brainer.
Marton is on a brow giving distant views of the North York Moors, York Minster and Menwith Hill golf balls. I know that because my friend told me. Also, the bus pass is the best thing since . . . . you know what. I know that because I have one!!
Onwards and upwards, well more acrosswards to the west really with a big sweep south into Knaresborough to cross the Nidd Gorge. Home was in sight now and I was on very familiar territory as we use the Harrogate to Knaresborough cycleway along Bilton lane to spend the day out in this beautiful, historic almost forgotten town. Not today though. Straight through at a rate of knots and up the hill to Bilton. I do like the downhill bits best! Finally on yet another railway cycleway almost to Chrissie's door and the promise of a hot bath (technically wrong I gather but very nice) and refuelling on risotto. Lucky me.
Trans Pennine Trail for Rosa Day 7
Route: York to Harrogate
Distance: 31miles
Height gain: 840feet
Time: 3hrs10
Av.speed: 10mph
Weather: sunny spells, cool, light shower
Wind: W 10mph
Route features: York, Way of the Roses to Beningbrough, Newton-on-Ouse, Linton-on-Ouse, Aldwark Bridge, Great Ouseburn,(leave WOTR) Marton-cum-Grafton, Arkendale, Ferrensby, Farnham, Knaresborough, Harrogate.
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