This November has ended with a particularly cold snap, which has made getting out cycling problematic. Today’s forecast was for clear, sunny skies, but with the temperature here not likely to rise much above zero, it was a bit too dodgy to venture out on a bike. However, a look on the forecast website showed that Kelso was due to be basking in 4 degrees C, so we hastily planned an outing to take advantage of the better weather down south.
Arriving at Kelso around 10am, we found the temp to be still zero, whereas we were expecting 2 degrees, rising to 4 pretty quickly. So we headed for a coffee first to waste a bit of time, then went off to park near the river, hoping that it might have warmed a little in the meantime.
The path along the river looked a bit icy when we set off, so we took it very warily, but by the time we reached the bridge over the River Tweed, we found the path to be salted and began to feel a bit more relaxed.
We navigated our way to the Burnside road, which heads uphill and southeast from Kelso, where we found lots of ice on the road, though mostly slushy and melting. I felt glad that we were going uphill rather than down at this stage.
By the time we reached the top and turned left, we found ourselves on a well gritted road, with very little in the way of ice. The sun was shining on our backs, the sky was blue and the scenery very pleasant, which made the ice worries begin to gradually dissipate.
After a while, we reached a Northumberland sign, as we crossed the border into England. Later, we took a left turn signed for Cornhill, following a minor road with quite a lot of standing water on the road. It really did seem a little warmer now, and there was no sign of ice in the standing water.
Northumberland cycling, with none of that pesky Scottish ice!
In fact, when we reached the village of East Learmouth, we were confronted with something of a flood. I explored a farm entrance on the right to see if it was possible to find a route round it, but without any luck. I returned to find that Colette had gone ahead, so I hoped for the best and set off into flood water of unknown depth.
When it got deeper, there was no option other than to keep pedalling, even though my feet were going under the water. At least it didn’t get any deeper but by the time I was out the other side, my feet were feeling a little damp, which wasn’t ideal with quite a distance left to go in cold conditions. Colette on the other hand (so to speak) had dry feet, having taken a different route through the flood.
The famous Coldstream Bridge in November sunshine
We pressed on and reached Cornhill, where we turned left onto the A698 and headed for Coldstream. Upon reaching the bridge over the Tweed, we paused for some photos, then we crossed back into Scotland and through the small but surprisingly busy town. On the other side, we turned right into Hirsel Country Park, where we planned to have lunch at the tea room.
As we progressed further along the estate road, the lack of gritting became clear. Once we reached an area that hadn’t seen the sun, the road became dangerously icy. We were also heading downhill at this point, and since pulling on the brakes could have had disasterous consequences, I decided to steer myself off the road and onto the grass verge. I told Colette to do the same, and we ended up pushing our bikes (very carefully) along the verge till we reached the tea shop.
Hirsel Lake was partly frozen
Lunch at the Hirsel tea room was lovely – we both went for hot beef rolls, which were finished way too quickly. All of that ice-related panic must have given us an appetite! I also took the opportunity to let my feet dry off a little under the table with my shoes off, much to Colette’s disapproval! After lunch, we left the tea room and made our way out of the park by the west exit, which took a while, as we again had to push the bikes for a lot of the way.
Once back on proper roads, it seemed like we were in the clear. We went north along the A697 before turning right onto the designated cycle route back to Kelso. However, we hadn’t gone far before we realised this road was pretty well neglected in terms of gritting. Or if it had been gritted, it hadn’t had much effect. The ice was treacherous for quite a long stretch, though cars seemed to have no problem. Our bikes kept slipping from our grasp when walking them along the ice, so to ride them would have been foolhardy.
Eventually we reached tarmac that had been in full sunlight for some time and were able to get back on the bikes. After that, we decided to keep to main roads, so as soon as we reached the A698, we stuck with it all the way back to Kelso, rather than preferring the side-roads as originally planned.
So we made some reasonable progress for the last few miles of our ride and returned to the riverside car park without mishap. It was certainly good to get out in the sunshine and fresh air and get some real cycling in, but if we had known how dicey it was going to be, we wouldn’t have bothered. It was just too risky.