Boroughbridge Bimble

I am borrowing the word “bimble” from Ilona aka MeanQueen ( Life after Money) , who uses the word to describe a gentle , wandering around. So on Thursday morning , about 10.00am,   we set off to cycle to Boroughbridge loaded up with our cold weather camping kit. We used our usual route through Yarm, Kirklevington, Deighton and Brompton before stopping for a brief lunch sitting on a bench outside a supermarket in Northallerton. Although it was sunnyish, the wind was still cold but fortunately not blowing as hard it has been in recent days. Indeed , looking west , we could see snow on the tops of the Pennines.

Then we were off again heading along the A167 to Topcliffe and then stopping again in the little village of Asenby for another short break .  Off again , we crossed the bridge over the dual carriageway and on climbing up to Cundall and then turning off to Boroughbridge.

The hedgerow bottoms are awash with “Easter lilies” aka daffodils and they shone so brightly in the afternoon sunshine.

riding through Cundall

We were so pleased to see that some of the really bad road surfaces from last year have been replaced but there are still potholes to be avoided.

It was lovely to arrive at the campsite just outside of Broughbridge and to get the tents pitched in the dry. One of the chaps, Simon, who we camped with last Easter, had ridden over on Wednesday and had a tough time into really strong headwinds. The campsite manager put us near him , up near the river bank which is one of my favourites spot.

I bought this small Vaude tent a couple of weeks ago.  It is a little lighter than our usual home made one , but a bit cramped although it says 3 persons. We were very pleased to have taken a tarp as well. We used it to cook under and also to store the bikes  during the night.

I was awoken by rain about 1.30am and thought that the weather forecast was proving correct. We had a bit of a lie in and hoped the rain would stop. Well it did- sort of. There was a bit of mizzle in the air so decided that we could still ride up to Ripon. We passed through the villages of Bishop Monkton and Littlethorpe before arriving in Ripon. We went up to the market square  where people were gathering for a Good Friday open air service.

We were sitting listening and I saw that they were giving out hot cross buns that are a popular Easter treat. They were provided freely to everyone who wanted them by the churches in the area. I also met an old colleague who I haven’t seen since she retired 15 years ago which was really lovely.

By now the rain, had started falling steadily , so it was time to don the waterproof trousers before setting off back. We followed the Way of the Roses cycling route back to Littlethorpe but followed the road back around towards the racecourse. We crossed the canal on a footbridge and got onto the road to Skelton on Ure.

I stopped to take photos of sheep and lambs thinking of the Saviour’s admonition to feed my sheep.

I then saw my DH helping our son up the hill and it reminded me that God our Heavenly Father is always there to give us a  helping hand.

Back at camp we met some newly arrived campers who were struggling with unfamiliar equipment and so pitched in to help them . Boroughbridge  site has a recreation room and so we spent the evening in there playing table tennis and watching the TV. It was warm and dry , so welcome on a cold damp night. It is one of the things I like about this site.

Saturday dawned dry and cloudy and it didn’t seem like it would allow a dry pack , so we just got on with it. So it was a 10.00am start reversing our route back home. We were lucky that it became sunny. As another cyclist said, Northallerton was like a scene out of Wacky Racers with car drivers  trying to bully their way through at roundabouts. We were careful in the traffic and decided to stop in Brompton instead. Despite a bit of a headwind we were home in about the same time having covered 107 miles.