BPE - York~Edinburgh

Aug 7...
Our way from York to Edinburgh was quite long, you cannot always get a straight lift, and you cannot always choose the right way. And so it was...

It took us two days to reach Edinburgh. Going out of York was quite difficult, because even when the town center is very small, there is a lot of houses around it, and there is no highway coming out from York to the nor
th. We tried our luck towards the north by country roads, and after quite a few lifts we ended up in the entrance to the highway towards the north. We were just where we wanted to be, but we had to wait for someone to pick us up... and not many cars passed by. After almost an hour waiting, a guy from ?????ztan gave us a lift, but he dropped us in the middle of a small city where many highways meet and with buildings everywhere... what to do next? we didnt want to try our luck in the middle of the city, so we decided to take a bus towards a town in the north were there was a campingsite (according to a pamphlet).


It was nice to take the bus for a long ride across small towns, and countryside, but when we got to Durham (a small town with a big castle) and we asked for the camping site, they were not so sure, and at the end they sent us in a bus, and told the driver to tell us how to get there... we got down of the bus, followed the driver's intructions, but couldnt see signs of a camping site anywhere... just a park at one side of the road, and bushes at the other. When we realized we wouldnt find the camping site, we just went into the bushes, and found our floor for the night... :)

Aug 8...
Trucker's day!

After waiting for the tent to get dry, we took our bags and went to look out for a lift. We were just in the entrance to the highway but most of the cars were going south and we had a "NORTH PLEASE :)" sign in our hands... we had waited for quite long, when just when I sitted to rest for a while, I was surprised by the sound of a truck stopping and my sister calling at me, running towards me and making me signs to pick up my bag... We were just before a corner, and the truck stopped suddenly just in the middle of the corner blocking the way... We just ran towards the cabin, and try to open the truck's very high door to jump in with our backpacks. Today was going to be a nice day on the road...

After settling down in the big truck's cabin, we started talking to Tim, who was always looking at me looking at the map to see where we were, and where were we going to... At the end, he kept our map (not because we gave it to him, but because I forgot it... :( at least I hope it will become a good memory for him as well!). He was a really good guide, slowing down for us to take pics, telling us where to go, and what to see, showing us maps (while he was driving... :s), and all. At the end he dropped us after Newcastle in a rest area on the side of the road where there was a mobile kiosk selling food.


Here we met our good friend Alan (the kiosk's owner), and spent a nice time talking to him...

He asked us where we were heading, and then he told us he would help us get a lift by asking his customers... :D but it was a quiet day, and no many people stopped by... which let us more time to speak to him. After midday it was really quiet and in one moment he went to his kiosk and brought some food for us... we were really worried with my sister, because, well, he was selling burgers... but we were so surprised when he put hot baked beans and tomatoes in the table, and brought us bread to eat with that!! :p I guess that's just the way things are supposed to be...

It was going to turn 2 pm, and Alan was already going back home so we tried our luck and went out to the highway to see if any car saw us and stopped... just when we were thinking of going back with Alan to Newcastle and come back tomorrow, a truck stopped. And he was going all the way north to Edinburgh!

He was also very nice and even stopped for us to take pics, bought chocolate for us, and told us a lot of history about places in the way.

Welcome to Scotland!!! We were joking about how they say it always rains in Scotland, and then, just when we were crossing the border it began to rain... :p

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hey. I really admire the way you and your sis travelled around in UK. Backpacked, camped, hitchhiked. I wonder when I will come up with the guts to do that. But I'm sure it will be a very good experience, getting to know different people..

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