On North Berwick

Yesterday was a success on the whole. I lost the NCN leaving Berwick-upon-Tweed and found myself on the busy but manageable A1. It soon brought me to Scotland where there was rest area for people to photograph themselves in front of a sign saying “Welcome to Scotland”. There was a coach load of young East Asians doing just that. There were three flagpoles each with the Scottish flag on it. Across the road, the reciprocal rest area also had three flags. However, there it was a Union Jack, a St-George flag and the yellow and red flag of Northumberland.

I left the A1 at Burnmouth where I returned to the NCN and smaller roads. There was a lovely bit on the A1107 with gorgeous views in bright sunshine of the North Sea. The NCN route 76 then took me down a winding, narrow road which made me glad for the disc brakes! At the bottom was a ford and the Pease Bay holiday camp. I could have done without the climb out of Pease Bay.

NCN route 76 then paralleled, more or less the A1 for some distance, with a lot ducking and weaving to avoid a quarry, the A1, the East Coast Mainline and a nuclear power station.  I had a late lunch in Dunbar, then made way to North Berwick where my cousin Donald was waiting. He and his wife Dominique live up to the family tradition of hospitality and then some. In short, I was made welcome. It was a good end to a sunny day.

Today has been grey, cool and windy, with a few drops, and the threat of more. In fact, in Edinburgh, it has been quite wet. Thankfully, I was in North Berwick.

I climbed North Berwick Law, an impressive steep hill of some 600 odd feet just to the South of town. It was a stiff climb and as I looked out over the Firth of Forth, I pitied the poor sods who had built the two abandoned buildings near the summit. One was part of a nunnery. The other was a WWII era observation post. Given the steep slope, I guessed that all materials would have had to be manhandled up.

Coming down into town, I stopped by Law Cycles as Leonardo had having problems with the lower gears. From my description of the issue, David the mechanic diagnosed a bent hanger. This sounded sensible so I went back to my B&B to fetch the bike and my spare hanger, just in case. David fixed the problem while I had lunch. He mentioned that my rear brake pads were worn which caught my attention. I had spare pads, but had never replaced them. Looking at the brakes, I realized that I really didn’t know how one went about it. I therefore asked him to show me how. He was happy to oblige. I think that I would be able to do it myself next time but would take three times as long. So here’s a rave review for Law Cycles! http://www.lawcycles.co.uk

I then took Leonardo over to Tantallon Castle which was quite interesting in the ways of castles at the end of the castle era. It had last been used in 1651, when General Monck shot it into surrender.

Coming back into North Berwick, I spotted a bird dragging its wing along the ground. Thinking it was something like a kildeer faking injury to draw away people away, I stopped to take a look and a photograph. However, a closer look revealed it to be a small raptor with a genuinely injured wing. It was near a bus stop sign with a stop number so I photographed that as well. I wasn’t sure who was one was supposed to call, so I went down to the Scottish Seabird Centre on the grounds that they would know. One of them did, and volunteered to go and get the sparrow-hawk as he identified it from my picture.

So a good day, on the whole, though not for the poor sparrow-hawk.