Thursday 24th May

When I set off from Greenhead the next morning it was OK, not too warm but not bad. As I travelled over to Gisland heading for Spadeadam Forest the weather closed in a bit, a mist settled and it got a little damp.

I took a good look at the map because forest riding is dodgy, there aren't any landmarks to use and you have to dead reckon which means watching the distance travelled against known markers like road or path junctions, buildings, bridges, etc. to know where you are.

The route I'd chosen was fairly straight forward apart from a complex of buildings that looked like Forestry buildings but I thought I'd know when I got there and just take it easy, I'd set off early enough so it should be OK.

The road to the complex of buildings was tarmaced all the way and at one stage on the forest trails had a large red sign at its entrance stating that if you went any further you'd be in contravention of the Official Secrets Act, not much further was a CCTV post then as I got to the complex I noticed it was surrounded by wire fencing and the road had bollards across it turning it making it difficult to go any further. The guard house at the gate sort of gave it away that this wasn't Forestry Buildings and the Sergeant came out to talk to me.

Guess what....I'd found RAF Spadeadam, lucky me.

And to cap it all the route I was taking was restricted and shouldn't, by all accounts, be on the map.

So I had to take a detour and off I went over Wiley Spike, an open Moorland used for target practice, how nice. The weather was bleak over the top of Wiley Spike all the way to Horseholme where I headed north east and back into the forest.

You could tell it was a working forest as I travelled along to Butterburn then Birky Shank, around the back of the lodge to Whitehill and past Muckle Samuales Craggs, a small outcrop of stones on the western side of the path. The path was open in places with evidence of tree felling and on I carried, making my way, without too much trouble and with a decent amount of speed to Whickhope Nick past the memorial and coming onto the main road around Kielder Water just before Low Craneclough and the holiday park there.

I tried to venture into the park and there was a signposted route via Stower Hill but they were tree felling and the route was closed so I headed back and on to Leapish Waterside Park where I stopped for some dinner. It had taken me about four hours and would ultimately put an extra 10km onto the ride that day but the ground was so solid that I had flown along.

I set off again to Kielder along the main road and decided to have a pop into the forest so I took a left at the inlet just after Wellhaugh followed the river until I found a bridge, crossed and then came back traversing left and right, meandering along the trails slowly making my way northwards until I came back to the road about a kilometre from Kielder.

Now Kielder is a small place, I thought it would be bigger, and there is no phone signal at any point along the waters edge. Tyne Tees were going to do a spot about me but I had to get that front wheel fixed so i took it to the local hire shop who kindly took it in and offered to fix it for me some time later on in the afternoon (it was about 2pm by this time). I had to walk to the main road to the phone box to call the lad at Tyne Tees and tell him I didn't have the bike so couldn't do the spot. With hindsight I should have offered to do the piece without the bike but I was knackered and not thinking too straight by this stage, I'd reached the point where getting there was the aim now and the days were starting to merge.

I wondered over to my digs at No 27 and got settled in, what a lovely lady, she gave me a discount because I was riding for charity and, as I wasn't having a full breakfast she made me a packed lunch for the next day. If anyone's thinking of going there I would encourage it, she has a washing machine you can use, the pub food is OK and the hire shop are really helpful with routes.

I told them about my problem with the path the day before and we looked over my route for the next day, they advised some routes and were surprised about others as the paths weren't on their maps so I avoided those paths but more of that to come.

No photos while on the journey, I was too damp and it wasn't that good a scenery but I had a wonder up to the castle and that's worth a quick half hour.






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