Day 9: Destination Boston……Wait, what?

Haxey to  Fosdyke ( 73 Miles)

It was a strangely familiar feeling waking up this morning and setting my sights on a town just outside Boston. The last time I did so was on the final day of my cycle across America, I had a feeling that today would be less climactic. Once again a long day on the bike and the rhythmic dripping of rain on the tent had proved to be the perfect remedy for a good night’s sleep. Thankfully, the rain had subsided by the morning and it was looking like the forecasts were correct and it would be a nice dry day ahead. Before packing up, I spent a little bit of time trying to rectify the gears issue that I was having yesterday. By the time I was ready to go, I had restored almost all of my first gears, which was good enough for me, so I set off.

I made a plan for today in the tent last night, however, somehow breakfast had been omitted from the plan. I could see that Gainsborough was only 8 miles down the road and looked relatively certain to have places for breakfast, so a couple of chocolate bars would have to suffice until there. It proved to be adequate and I arrived in Gainsborough in good spirits. The route into Gainsborough proved to be a bit more than the promised 8 miles, this was due to my choice to avoid the most ridiculous “bike path” yet. I am fairly certain that my mood wouldn’t have been as jolly had I followed directions and taken the bike path. I found an excellent place that offered all you could eat breakfast. A couple of trips to the buffet also gave me time to charge my phone which was proving to be my most valuable piece of equipment due to its navigational benefits.

The next part of the day took me through some very nice villages along the River Stow, and contrary to what I said yesterday, I was actually quite enjoying the riding. It is strange that sometimes you have preconceptions of places you’ve never been to before that often turn out to be completely false. It could be due to someone you’ve met from there, the local football team or that you’re simply mixing it up with a different place with a similar name. One such place was Lincoln. I had seen on my maps that the route was going to take me directly through Lincoln, a prospect that I wasn’t too excited about. However, it turned out to be far nicer than I expected (Stockton on Tees was another that was pleasantly nice). There was a bike path that lead right into and through the city, which I broke up with a bit of lunch. Once I was out of the city, the temperature had risen sufficiently for me to go taps aff for the first time since day 1 (By taps aff I mean that I’d taken my waterproof off, I still had under armour and a cycling jersey on, which I know isn’t really taps aff). The bike path was excellent and followed a canal for about 15 miles, these were exactly the rare conditions I was describing yesterday, resulting in enjoyable cycling. The path continued out of Lincoln and then joined onto a small country road to continue to follow the canal all the way to Boston. I had made good time into Boston and arrived just in time to watch the Springboks scrape past Ireland at rugby, I then switched pubs and had some dinner. I then had about 12 miles to go to reach the campsite where I’d be staying for the night. The first couple of miles were a bit chilly in the evening air but I soon warmed up and the last section was actually quite nice, bringing an end to the best days riding so far.

I checked into the campsite, pretty confident that I’d woken up the elderly proprietor in the process (it was only 8pm). It turned out to be the best campsite so far, situated around a lake and much quieter than yesterday’s site. It wasn’t quite as memorable as the last time I finished in a town near Boston, but all in all, a good dry day. With more sun and bike paths expected for tomorrow, I found myself questioning whether I might actually be starting to enjoy the trip….