I hope you enjoy the routes and description I provide which will commence in Northumberland and eventually spread to cover "The North".

I would love to receive your feedback and suggestions of routes that you enjoy. I can't promise to mention all those who contribute but I will endeavour to include those who insult me the least.

Ride 1- A Taste of Northumberland

Bike ride from Wark to Reedsmouth then Bellingham and return to Wark (with a longer return opportunity)

Distance - I prefer to talk in time it will take. This way you can in all honesty tell friends it was about ish miles.
Time Taken - Anything from 3 - 5 hours depending on fitness, picnics, cafes or shortcuts.
Special features - Northumberland at its finest from the fabulous North Tyne to the open fells.
Difficulty - Not very. Lots of rolling hills mostly gentle but very quiet roads so you can always get off and push if you disagree with my description as gentle.
Track - All tarmac, although many roads are gated.

Park in Wark village near the green

History Lesson

Wark, pronounced as in Ark, was in the 13th Century part of Scotland. Interestingly the naturalist Abel Chapman retired here where he created his own nature reserve.

However he was more famous for his saving of the Spanish Ibex and the setting up of the Sabi game reserve in 1900, which now forms an integral part of the Kruger national park in South Africa.

Head straight east and over the Tyne, or stop and take in the view. On our last visit there was a canoeing event taking place which we watched for a while (even though we had only been peddling for 2 minutes). Left over the bridge and follow the road for a short distance before turning right and up a short but very steep hill. This may be an opportunity to miss a gear change, lose momentum and push (my wife's most used explanation).

At the top of the short hill you can, turn right and follow the road to Birtley or left and loop around via Thorneyhurst which although longer provides wonderful views of the North Tyne (suggest the latter)

Travel through Birtley and join up with the Reivers Cycle route nos 72 which are sign posted at the crossroads.

This stretch from Birtley to Reedsmouth is one of my favourites and can be incorporated into several other routes. It is set in glorious Northumberland farmland at that border line where crops can no longer be grown, cattle foraging takes over and life becomes a bit harder.

Continue along the farm roads until you reach the main tarmac road to Reedsmouth which you follow all the way to Bellingham. Your first mile is downhill so enjoy the views.

One point of interest as you make your way to Bellingham is the remains of the old Hexham to Kielder railway which appears on your right. If you are also a grumpy old man like me then you can also wonder at the madness of scrapping the rural railways: which other European country would get rid of a national network of railways? Certainly the green brigade would never allow it if it were to happen now.

History Lesson

Bellingham Heritage Centre is well worth a visit. As you would imagine it provides an insight into the way things used to be in a bygone time pre Keilder reservoir when the railway ran from Hexham through Keilder to join up with the Carlisle to Edinburgh line.

Bellingham is the halfway-ish point of the ride and as there are several pubs and cafes you could take a break and make a day of it. One suggestion would be to visit the beautifully situated Riverside Hotel which makes an ideal spot for Tiffin.

Also as there is a proper hill just ahead- it is a good time to indulge your partner and provide them with the reason they came, tea and cakes.

Best not to mention the hill until you again set off again. Cross the bridge and head south towards Wark for a couple of hundred yards before turning right signposted Hesleyside and travel a further mile before turning left.

The hill

It is at this point when you are about to receive advice from your partner as to what you can do with your nice bike rides in the country and where you can shove the pump.

My theory on hills

What I do is always make sure I am sufficiently far enough ahead that my wife (who is now out of breath) has a difficult decision to make as to use what little strength she has in hurling abuse or save it to surmount the hill and then when closer offer suggestions relating to my parentage.

However what usually happens is that she is so overjoyed at the thought of breathing and freewheeling for a couple of miles that this is often overlooked.

I may have made the hill out be something huge and impossible to surmount, however I did manage to get all the way up with only a little wiggling from side to side, so see it more as a challenge.

Yet again it's a great place to stop when you have reached the top of the mountain (just kidding) and take in the views of the more rugged Northumberland Hills lurking across the valley with Bellingham nestling in the foreground, not forgetting the North Tyne on its journey to Hexham.

As a bartering tool you can actually promise on your way up the hill that there are a couple of miles of downhill on the other side.

Follow the road until T junction and then turn left and carry on.

Again wonderful countryside to enjoy as you wander up and down a couple of inclines that vary in exhaustion but do provide a wonderful panorama of the changing countryside.

There are alternatives to lengthening your route that you can either explore yourself or await further posts from "There and Back Again"

My advice if asked for is to do whatever you fancy or your body will allow. Either way you still finish at Wark with a good thirst.