Tour de Lincolnshire, day 5

It was a good night in my campsite with en suite pub.  I was wakened from a deep sleep by a roar from my noisy neighbours at RAF Coningsby,  off on a midnight assignation, but otherwise, I slept well on a very warm night, with a few light rain showers.  The rain had blown away by morning  and the sun was out as I struggled to pack the tent without anything flying away in a fresh westerly wind.

My route today is an arc north and west to Lincoln, via Market Rasen and nowhere else.   I had very definitely left the flat fens now and was in the Lincolnshire Wolds, nice mixed countryside and quite hilly.  Breakfast in a caff on the main Lincoln to Skegness road, very busy on a Friday morning, and then up on the high (ish) hills along the ridges with great views all the way to Lincoln, at least 20 miles away.  The main feature was the gusty wind, which was often in my face, so I was pleased to leave the wolds.   I passed through Scramblesby, which would have been a great site for an RAF base, or perhaps an egg farm.   So many place names ending in -by, meaning village, from the Danelaw days of the 9th -11th centuries.

High-level route - The Lindsey Trail

At lunch at Donington-on-Bail, I met a tandem couple in a lovely post office cafe; both built for low air resistance, very small and wiry but full of stories of their cycling.  The chap recommended a steep hill in Lincoln city to me, but I wasn't all that receptive, I'm afraid. 

After lunch I headed up to Market Rasen, another town with Market in the title.  Nice scenery on the way there, but still very windy,  and when I got there for early tea, hot and tired, I found I couldn't face eating anything.  It was a shock - I've never had that problem before.  Market Rasen didn't live up to all the other Market... towns I've visited on this trip.

Not one, but two surprise fords

#2

Probably a foot deep

There was nothing for it but to slog onwards to Lincoln, mostly into the wind.   It was flat, and the high hedges meant there was not much of a view, but every so often they created a wind tunnel effect.   It was a 15 mile endurance test.

Eventually I got to Lincoln, and it is a gorgeous city.   The cathedral is huge, difficult to photograph but lovely in the late afternoon sun.  There's a castle, and a whole olde world area of shops on cobbled streets, including Steep Hill.  So steep I didn't dare cycle down it with a loaded bike.  At the bottom is the modern shopping area centred on the river, with no less than three Wetherspoons.   I didn't have time to try them all.

Cathedral 

Part of the castle

Steep Hill

Riverside

This is the last day of my trip.   I'm getting the train home this evening, having ridden myself to a standstill.  I feel that I've covered a lot of ground in Leicestershire,  and less so in Lincolnshire,  but I've also ridden up the Lincolnshire coast, so I know that bit from 2013.

I've enjoyed exploring some different countryside,  and visiting some towns that I'd heard, and some I hadn't.   I loved the roads with almost no traffic, and the very friendly people everywhere.

Post Adventure

Stopping train to nowhere

I got an advance single on a quiet evening train direct to London,  and my bike and I were all sitting comfortably ready to leave, when we were all told that the train wasn't going, due to overhead line damage.  Plan B was a slow train to Nottingham, then a slow train to Loughborough, and then an even later train to London... arriving 00:30.  It even made the news: Rail Chaos Causes Travel Nightmare, according to the YorkMix website.   Three rather rushed platform changes and boarding three busy trains with a bike and panniers was not part of my plan, but it somehow worked.  I forced my legs to cycle home through a quiet London, still warm at 1am and a very pleasant way to end the tour.

Day 4 · Day 5