(Backup) Gilberdyke to Market Rasen

I probably should have set off earlier today than gone 11 but, I got distracted by doing a row or two of knitting. When I did get going Google Maps and I (powered by my charger) had several fallings out. I kept checking I was following the route I’d planned then she’d try and send me onto the A64. Not a road for bikes. 

At 1.4 miles long, The Humber Bridge is the longest suspension bridge you can walk or cycle over in The World. 

I made it to the bridge eventually and prepared to cross. Whilst I love the scale and aesthetic of bridges I do hate the height. I stuck to the inside and made it across.  By the time I reached the other side I looked like fly paper - covered in tiny black irritating flies.

After the Humber Bridge I had no particular route planned so I made my way south. I chatted for a while to a bloke cycling to Sweden. He hadn’t done much route planning either but as we were on the edge of the wolds and he was a considerably better climber than me I was glad our paths eventually diverged.  

As you know, I like to keep an eye out for wildlife. Today, I saw a yellow hammer and thought my bird spotting day had been made until - whilst watching a chaffinch sing into the wind (the head wind for forty miles was a bit draining so I was hoping he was conducting some sort of spell) I saw what I thought was a tawny owl sitting in the hollow of a dead tree. I moved to see better and in a shudder of branches whatever it was, had gone. I thought I’d been mistaken until, a minute later it popped its head round the tree, blinked and turned away again.  

My day was made.