Day 6

Day 6 Beverley to Sutton on Derwent

Lots of rain and a good strong headwind thrown in for good measure. Yuk! The car journey back to Beverley on the 1079 convinced me that I should take the safer option of the cycle route on the disused railway line slightly to the north of the busy road. In particular it was the sight of a lorry carrying a large pretend log cabin which jutted out just at cyclist's head height on one of the narrowest bends in the road that convinced me. Even though I was sure that Walter Wilkinson would have made the same decision rather than dice with death on this road, it did seem a shame to miss out on the exhilarating views which he described.

"All day I had been pulling up those sort of hills, which, when you reach the crest of one, you simply see another before you ....... just after Arras I did really come to the last hill top , from where, suddenly and dramatically, I was confronted with the greatest plain I ever saw, an immense & limitless plain dissolving far away into mist and cloud and sky. The air was glittering with sunbeams and the larks were singing....."


There wasn't much glittering on the old railway track which, for much of the way was so overgrown that I was travelling over briars, getting my hands caught up in nettles & sodden willow herb and being slapped around the face & head by brambles, hawthorn & dog roses. And, on top of the general misery was a vague feeling of guilt that I'd taken the 'easy' route!

One farmer en route was out with the combined harvester, still trying to harvest a moisture laden wheat crop while in another field I passed, the potato harvester was at work. It really did seem like autumn had arrived.

Market Weighton was just awash & I had a short dash, (or should that be, 'splash'), along the treacherous 1079 before turning onto the by-roads where the headwind really made itself felt. At one point I thought that I'd use the high visibility cycling cape - it turned out to be like a spinnaker on yacht which was determined to propel me in the opposite direction to which I wanted to travel.
 

Not a great day - but at least a few more miles were ticked off.




Up hill struggle


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