Day 9 - Scarborough to Wansford - 75km: The day starts more or less similar like yesterday, a road sign warns us that we’re having a 16% inclination for the next 3/4 mile. Easy. It afterwards goes down to Bridlington where we have lunch. Between Bridlington and Driffield, the NSCR goes via “The Way of the Roses”, a long distance coast to coast route fromYorkshire to Lancashire. The path is named after the War of the Roses between Lancaster (red rose) and the House of York (white rose). Arriving in Driffield, the hotel we had in mind just sold out their last room. A few km further away from the track, a room suddenly became again available in previously fully booked inn. Problem solved.
Day 10 - Wansford to Barnetby Le Wold - 74km: It’s very difficult to plan where we will stop for the day. The last couple of days, the track has been very varied. There are parts with very steep climbs, bringing the average distance you can ride well below 10 km an hour. On the other hand, we also had a few railway cycle paths with maximum inclination of 3% where we were able to go really fast. Our GPS track does not have info on the inclination levels and we do not know what to expect. And then, there is also the wind. For the last couple of days not really in our favour. Minimum target was Beverly and yes, we already reached Beverly by lunchtime. Next target is crossing the river Humber near Hull, also done. We find a room in Barnetby le Wold, a good 80km from next place to visit: Lincoln.
Day 11 - Barnetby le Wold to Laceby - 23km: Yesterday evening when we were checking booking.com for a hotel in Lincoln, we were instantly in a state of shock. Just 1 hotel available for the insane price of 540 Pounds or approx 640 Euros for 1 night. This was not going to happen. Looking at the following days, prices became again more reasonable. As the weather forecast also gave us showers as from 1pm, we decided to take it slow today and just cycle 25 km. Lincoln will be for tomorrow. We stopped in Laceby and visited Grimsby by bus. Nothing really special but better than getting soaked and paying unreasonable hotel expenses.
Day 12 - Lacetby to Lincoln - 52km: Just a short trip to Lincoln where we arrived in the early afternoon. Certainly worth a visit. Lincoln Cathedral was for a certain time the tallest building in the world. We stayed at the Charlotte house hotel, next to the old fort. From the old city, it’s a very steep downhill to the new city, something which really surprised us as we did not really have a big climb approaching the old city from the North.
Day 13 - Lincoln to Long Sutton - 105km: From Lincoln to Boston is an easy ride, most of it going on the Water railway cycle path, a flat, traffic free path that follows the former Lincoln-Boston railway line along the river Witham. We had lunch in Boston and continued as far as Long Sutton, making this our first day of more than 100 km.
Day 14 - Long Sutton to Burnham Market - 94km: We’re cycling the North Sea Cycle route but on this part of the 6.600 km track, we’re cycling on winding and traffic free inland country or secondary roads. All up to London, we’re most of the time at least 10 km away from the coastline. Also, the countryside here seems a lot like where we live. It’s certainly nice and a good ride but it’s at least for us less spectacular than what we’ve seen in our trip around Scotland some months ago. We seem to be doing more km's per day now, we're stopping in Burnham Market, today 95 km's.
