There were noises to be heard in the early hours last night. However the noises of drunken merrymakers departing a 21st century lesbian wedding are not confused easily with the ghostly murmurings of celibate medieval monks. So no excitement, only annoyance.
There was confusion again about whether we would get breakfast after the landlord was kept up so late trying to organise taxis for city dwellers in the middle of rural Scotland. Apparently taxi drivers don’t like travelling 10 miles out of Dumfries. In the end the landlord did a good breakfast at the expense of us leaving an hour later than expected. We made good this delay by covering the first 33 miles in just over 2 hours in the rain. We were helped by there being no traffic on the A roads but also because we were very disciplined as a team swapping the lead every mile – this gives everyone a big advantage by being pulled along by the leader. At last we emerged from Scotland after 5 and a bit days. Time for a photo.
We stopped after 44 miles at Carlisle for our second cooked breakfast of the morning courtesy of Chris and Mandy, friends of Alan. While we were tucking in to our 3rd sausage and 6th rasher of bacon for the day, Mandy was tumble drying our soaked clothes (it rained all morning). Chris and two other friends of his then joined us for a 6 man ride through Penrith at which point the other 2 rode the 25 miles back to Carlisle leaving the 4 of us to climb to the 1400 foot summit at Shap. This was one of those ‘I’ve done it once and never again experiences’. A hard slog up but I was looking forward to breaking my 40 mph speed record on the way down. This was not to be – the wind was strong and inpenetrable and I could only manage 38mph. With the wind behind who knows…
We rolled on with the Lake District to our right and eventually behind us. We stopped for tea at Kendal (without the tea) - Sandra met us and we feasted on Sarah’s home made fruit cake, oat cakes, power gels, pringles and anything else edible in the car before we set off for the last 15 miles. The last 10 miles were tough. Both Al and I had moments when we thought the energy supply was running out. But we made it – 102 miles at 14.5 mph and covering around 5300 feet of climbing. I wish I could report exact numbers but annoyingly my Garmin’s battery expired at 99 miles. We arrived at our lodging (Longlands Hotel) around 6.15, had a celebratory shandy and recharged all our batteries (iphone, garmin, pc, camera), showered, washed our clothes (amazing how much dirt you pick up off wet roads), looked for somewhere to dry them (amazing how many hotels turn off towel rails and radiators when fuel prices go up) and went off for a great meal; potted shrimps and lamb Henry (or Henry lamb as Al calls it). Fanstastic. All that was missing from the night was being able to watch Rory McIlroy win the US Open and being with Penny and Alex so that they I could share father’s day with them – but I will be seeing them tomorrow night.
Highlight(s) of the day: (i) leaving Scotland after 5+ days (ii) coming down from the top of Shap into Kendal (iii) tonight’s meal.
Surprise of the day: Meeting the other 4 guys who set off at the same time as us from JOG; we crossed each other at 90 degrees across an A road outside Gretna not having seen each other since yesterday at a café stop, 80 miles back. 20 seconds either way we would have missed each other. They acquired some great ginger wigs to go over their helmets – check out their website. Body report: OK but a bit nervous about tomorrow.
Expectations for tomorrow: 90 miles, hopefully fry in morning followed by family dinner at night as Sally and my kids together with Mark’s brother and family join us in Nantwich. Another full day.
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