A day trip to Berwick
I am actually rather overdue in writing this up since it is more than three and a half years since Pete and I did this trip - however better late than never! I had just taken delivery of my shiny new Focus Cayo. I had ridden it just a couple of times before so this was its first proper outing. It still had standard pedals on it - I hadn't quite gotten the confidence to go clipless yet.
I had planned a route some time before - we had decided to take in a visit to Hutton's Unconformity at Siccar Point en route. This is a geological feature on the coast which James Hutton used to argue in the 18th century that the earth was "immeasurably old". You can find reference to it here. This of course was highly controversial at the time! A biography of Hutton can be bought from Amazon. There is also a small memorial garden to him in Edinburgh near the site of the house where he died just off the Pleasance, although it is well hidden.
The following two graphics show the route and profile captured on my GPS
We made a reasonably early start - I cycled up to Pete's house in Polton for about 7.30 and we set off by 8. The weather for the whole day turned out to be glorious and we made good progress.
A couple of steep hills around Spott at the edge of the Lammermuirs tested us a bit, but no big problem. (We encountered one of these going the other way a couple of years later in our Lammermuirs trip.)
The plan had been to find a pub for lunch - but as we trolled through the various villages in East Lothian it became apparent that here is a serious shortage of such establishments in that part of the world. We eventually came to Cockburnspath where we thought we would find a shop with food - but even there we were struggling to find much sustenance. Fortunately Pete had had the presence of mind to make up a large roll, which with a few bits and pieces, was enough to keep us going.
From there we made our way to the Unconformity, leaving our bikes in a curious farm/slurry yard while we made our way by foot over the headland. It was quite a scramble down - which we had learned from reading about it on the various websites. Siccar Point is also the end of the Southern Upland Way. The point of the unconformity is that it shows sedimentary rock on top of other sedimentary rock that has been tipped through 90 degrees. Hutton argued that this process must have taken a long time - far more than the 6000 years suggested by those analysing biblical sources. There is also a geocache here that I wasn't aware of at the time!
After leaving Siccar Point we climbed up a very steep hill out of Pease Bay and continued on our way towards Berwick. Progress was steady, although at one point (Reston) we came across a tractor towing a load of pallets that had managed to become wedged under a bridge. The farm workers were taking a chainsaw to the pallets in an effort to free it.
The only minor challenge was when we got to the A1 - the road that used to cross here was blocked off, so we had to carry our bikes a short distance and over a fence before rejoining the road.
We arrived in Berwick in plenty of time to catch our pre-booked train home, so took the time to visit one of the local hostelries to partake of a couple of thirst quenching beers. As we were waiting at the station the har started to roll in - it was distinctly chilly by the time we got on the train.
The ride here had taken about 8 hours in total including our stops. The train ride home took just 45 minutes. All in all an excellent day out - although the new saddle turned out to not be a great fit!