Day 1 report is here
Day 2 was planned as the shortest day of the trip as I only had to get to the ferry port at North Shields and the ferry to Ijmuiden/Amsterdam was only due to leave at 5pm. It was just over 50km to get there and that wasn’t the most direct route. I chose to hug the coast as much as possible and left Amble around 10am.
There’s a nice gravel track running alongside Druridge Bay Country Park where the Frontier 300 that I’d done a couple of months earlier had finished.




Approximately 15k into the ride I came across a Café called The Drift which seemed an apt place to stop seeing as there was a Café of the same name just outside North Berwick.

Another cyclist parked his bike next to mine. James had started his ride in Inverness and was heading to Malaga with similar daily mileages to mine.
We rode together for a bit and were meant to be on the same ferry that evening. Unfortunately his ride ended that day due to an emergency and while I got on the ferry he got on a train back to Inverness.
In contrast to Day 1, the weather was sunny and I was enjoying the sea views along the coast. In Whitley Bay I got a sandwich and coffee for lunch and sat on the sea wall watching the world go by.
Tynemouth had an impressive bit of cycling infrastructure which made me feel that I’d got to the Netherlands early.



I arrived at the ferry around 3pm checked in, stood in the queue for a bit with a number of other cyclists (most of whom were planning on touring the flat areas of Holland, Belgium and Germany) before boarding and securing the bike.
Found my cabin, sorted my stuff and headed for the Skybar (outdoors on the top deck) to enjoy a beer and the views as the ship left port and headed out to a very calm North Sea.

That was going to be by far the most chilled day of the trip.
Stats for the day:
Planned Distance: 52.8km
Actual Distance: 54.71km
Trip Distance: 201.23km
Ascent for the day: 301m
Ascent for the trip: 1873m
Riding time: 3:04:26 hrs
Riding time for the trip: 10:47:24hrs
Onto Day 3 click here