LEJOG day 10

We headed out of Carlisle at an early start of 7am, knowing that we had a reasonably long day ahead in the saddle.

Leaving Carlisle 

We entered Scotland at Gretna around 8:15. It immediately started to rain!

Why do I look photoshopped?

Where we stayed in Carlisle didn't have much in the way of supermarkets, so we had skipped breakfast. We took a slight detour into Gretna to grab food at a sandwich shop and more importantly, coffee. The lady serving us was not impressed with my choice of jalapenos with my cheese and coleslaw baguette. Jalapenos are the marmite of the salad world, I guess.

Most of the route this morning followed one road, the B7076, North. This road is right next to the motorway, and so is largely light in traffic, but still has a cycle lane. It was and is extremely dull. Nothing much to look at, no navigating to be done and mostly flat.

A long dull road

Tracy pondered if Scottish cows moo with a Scottish accent.

Admit it, how many of you just tried to moo like a Scottish cow? We decided to put on some music for a large chunk of the morning.

Ways to cope with the boredom:

1) Time how long it takes before the next car passes. Managed 7 minutes.

2) How long can I ride along the white line at the edge of the cycle lane. Turns out with the crosswind that we had, not long. Without the crosswind, still not very long.

3) Watching the water droplet resolutely hanging on to the bottom of Tracy's mudguard. How long can it stay on? Inevitably it would eventually fall and then get thrown up into my face 

How to take an action shot without falling off your bike

We had lunch today at motorway services - there wasn't much else on the route.

The weather all day was wet and windy, which meant we both started to get cold.

Rain stops play

I wish I had packed long fingered gloves, some warmer clothes and a car. Tracy wished she had packed a tartan blanket.

The poor weather continued into the afternoon although the scenery did get more interesting with rolling hills and fields of purple flowers. We were right in the middle of wind farm country, hundreds of wind turbines standing majestically on the hills. It was a shame they were shrouded in dark clouds. 

Rosebay willow herb possibly?

We decided that we really didn't want to go out and find somewhere to eat this evening so planned to stop at another motorway services at the 63 mile mark (about 4pm) where we had a decent sized meal from chopstix. Not healthy or wholesome but did the job. Tracy was suffering with serious cool down and sat at the services shivering, despite donning her thickest fleece. Coffee from Starbucks helped a little. It's strange to think that this time last week we were struggling with the high temperatures in Devon. It seems a lifetime ago.

Where's a blanket when you need one?

To satisfy the cake of the day requirement, we bought cakes from Starbucks, with Tracy opting to eat hers later. She couldn't resist another white chocolate blondie.

We checked the remaining route before setting off and found that we had at least another 25 miles to go to get to Hamilton on the outskirts of Glasgow. Our route planner is in kilometres and Tracy attempted the conversion to miles last night and had announced it would be an 80 mile day. Unfortunately, it was in fact a 91 mile day. Tracy was never very good at maths! 

 

The sun came out for 5 minutes, allowing Tracy to get sunburnt 

It has been a tough day - a combination of more miles than expected, rubbish weather and general fatigue took their toll. However, tomorrow is another day. Probably a wet one. 

Distance travelled: 91 miles

Elevation: 3750 ft

Cake of the day:

Tracy whinge factor: 1/10 (she bore the hardships well)

Total distance: 704 miles