I didn't rush off this morning, but was still underway just after 8.

I felt a bit better today - still not 100%, but getting there. I was really dehydrated - I could tell that from the colour of my wee! So plenty of water was the order of the day.

It was a fairly murky start, but the forecast promised improvements later on. To be honest, I was glad about the lack of sun!

The first thing I needed to do was cross the river Tweed into England. The most obvious place to do this would be in Berwick. But I'd decided I was going to cross a few miles upstream using the Union Chain Bridge. I'd read about this bridge a while ago - it was closed for a number of years whilst essential repairs were carried out. Now that's all done, it looks as good as it did 200 years ago. Only one vehicle is allowed on at a time, but that wasn't a problem as the place was deserted!

Once across the other side, the route I'd planned turned out to be pleasant, but not great for smashing out miles. It was very up and down meaning you spend several minutes climbing, then come down the other side in seconds, then it's back to climbing again. In other words you're climbing about 90% of the time.

The route was actually part of the North Pennines cycle route, so of course Sustrans being Sustrans send you off down ridiculous off road tracks that just waste a ton of time. Nice if you want to ride that stuff, useless if you're trying to get anywhere!

In the end I ditched that route at Alnwick to head for the coast. I went the wrong way to start with and of course it was up a massive hill!

Once corrected, I headed for a campsite I'd called earlier. Ideally, it would have been 10 or 20 miles further on, but there was nothing at that sort of distance other than hideous caravan parks and motorhome places.

Anyway, the site is very nice with really good facilities. Shame about the incessant nattering from the Brummies on the next pitch over!

I'll probably follow NCN1 (although not exactly) tomorrow and see how far I get.