It was a good day for a ride. The air was cold at first, but soon warmed up and heading southwards a gentle headwind was never much of a problem. Even on a normal wekday the sunny weather had brought out a few other cyclists, and a decent number of pedestrians.
Although I was heading in a different direction this was mostly a route I recognised. The least familiar section was around Bedlington. I'm not sure whether this is because the marked route west of Blyth has been improved, or just because I've discovered a better alternative. Either way, this part of my journey was a more pleasant ride through parkland and riverside. A great improvement over my memories of two previous rides around here, when I was heading in the other direction, alongside busy roads.
I clearly need to improve my route finding, after drifting off the intended route on the edge of Blyth, then again around Willington Dene. But otherwise all went (more or less) to plan.
There are several railway and metro stations close to the route so there were plenty of options if I had wanted to cut things short. However, I was keen to clock up a decent mileage. So after following NCN1 to Tynemouth I used Hadrian's Cycleway (NCN72) through North Tyneside to Newcastle. Then I continued along the Tyne, and out along Scotswood Road. Once I'd had enough I returned to Newcastle Central Station and took the train back to Ashington.
Nobody would claim that this is the prettiest part of Northumberland. However, a combination of a the new Northumberland Line and an established Natonal Cycle Network have opened up a lot of differetn route options, and a variety of interest. There's much more to explore.
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