Day Seven (Part 2) - Lancaster to Scotland (almost) - 82 miles

Today’s distance: 82 miles.

Last night we watched three different weather forecasts for today in the hope that one of them would offer better weather than the others. That is the sort of thing you do when you are tired and have been cycling for a few days (another is to get out the small scale map during the course of the day so that the destination appears to be nearer. Oh yes, we are getting desperate). All the forecasts were varying degrees of @@!!* and unfortunately each forecast just got worse; thunderstorms were on the final one. We were expecting a foul day and the winds last night did not bode well. However, this morning we awoke and things did not seem too bad. Windy, yes, and some drizzle, but as we set off blue sky began to appear.  

The Gods of the weather had clearly been given breakfast in bed because it continued to improve during the morning. Indeed, as we headed towards Cumbria it became positively sunny. Route planning as you head north becomes easier since you begin to run out of roads (although unfortunately it is still a few days before we actually run out of road). Today’s route took us along the A6 from Lancaster all the way to our destination through the Lake District via Kendal and then Penrith. As we headed towards the Lake District I was concerned about how the day was going to pan out; to me this is an area of steep hills and lakes. Today our minds were on the steep hills. But as we approached, the road continued to undulate but still remained relatively flat.  There was only one hard climb over the moor towards Chap. By this time the ‘breakfast in bed’ credit had been lost because the heavens just opened. I used to think that I wore a bicycle helmet to protect my head in a fall but I now know it is to protect my head from the massive hailstones being thrown down upon us. 

It was just outside Penrith that we saw our buddy Nigel Mansell. He is currently doing a charity trip from John O’Groats to Paris (Why could we not do that John?). We waved across to him and he waved back (actually we did not realise it was him until a few moments later). He was followed by his entourage of two support cyclists, a support motor bike and a support car with his spare bike. If he had only asked we could have told him how to do it more efficiently. That said we were not sure whether he would, like us, have been willing to dive into a KFC to get out of the rain and to warm and feed ourselves after rain and hail. I expect his tastes are more refined.

The last part of the day was through Carlisle, another long push through busy city streets before the last six miles to Longtown (the source of the outbreak of Foot and Mouth in 2001 for those who are interested in these little facts). We had hoped to make it to Scotland today. Unfortunately we failed as Longtown is three miles from Gretna Green and hence just inside England. So we will be crossing into Scotland first thing tomorrow morning. Another 82 miles down and only slightly longer to get to Kilmarnock tomorrow.