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.
