Day8 Carsphairn to Gretna Green

Today was slightly shorter than intended. the weather has been sunny all day and the riding has been very enjoyable. Unfortunately I was enjoying it so much that I forgot to drink my water - this didn't seem to impact me until about 4pm when I suddenly ran out of steam, Jan and I had met for a cup of tea at Moniaive and for lunch at Dumfries (Scotch pie and chips washed down with a Tango) but when I got to the afternoon tea stop at Gretna Green I'd had enough. I was only four miles short of the revised target of Longtown, but I didn't fancy it. It'll have to wait until tomorrow. Tonights B&B is a lovely farmhouse about 8 miles northwest of Longtown. We'll drive back to Gretna Green for tomorrows restart. In theory it should be a short day tomorrow - about 30 odd miles down to Lake Ullswater. I fancy a rest. Within a few minutes of tomorrows restart I'll be back in England for (almost) all the rest of the ride. Today we mainly travelled through the Southern Uplands of Scotland (having left Maureen and Jim at last nights B&B - what a lovely couple). After Dumfries (which reminded me slightly of Chester), there was some nice easy cycling south and east with views across the Solway Firth to tomorrows objective - the Lake District. I was possibly at my lowest ebb so far as I met up with Jan at Gretna Green and fair plays, she coped with my grumpiness and sorted me out with a cup of coffee and some shortbread. I'm all happy and rehydrated now following an excellent home-cooked meal of Steak pie and loads of vegetables washed down with a bottle of Pinot Grigio. Luvverley! Jans highlights of the day include a lovely cup of tea at Moniaive and the panoramic views of the distant Lake District. She wasn't so impressed when I drove the last few miles to the B&B - it was so much fun to just use gentle pressure of my right foot to go quicker and slower (and to have a broad seat under my bottom for a change) and I just had to remind myself how good a Scooby is! A minor observation at this point: in the far north of Scotland they seem to prefer Subaru Foresters, in the Great Glen area they go for Subaru Legacy's and then further south it's the Impreza that gets the vote. But, apart from a white WRX that passed me in a car park in Fort William, Jan's been driving the only Impreza going my way so far. Another observation I've made today is that for quite a few miles I was following the route of National Cycle Network (NCN) route 7. For some reason it kept on diving off the B road I was using to make a two mile loop where I was riding one! Couple that with some well-intentioned (but rubbish) cyclist routing at a couple of junctions and it would appear that the idea of this particular NCN route is to slow cyclists down and minimise any 'inconvenience' to motorists. This is the wrong approach in my book - inconvenience the motorist I say, because all they have to do is press a pedal with their right foot to deal with any situation, much easier than the effort us cyclists have to invest. Anyway, England have just won 3-1 and I'm ready for bed, so it's off the soapbox and time to hit the sack.
Cheery-bye, Bob & Jan.

Todays stats:
Accumulated mileage : 439 miles
Todays mileage : 51 miles
Todays average : 14 mph
Todays Maximum : 31.6 mph

Day 7 - Uplawmoor to Carsphairn

A fine day with only two short showers (one of hail). We had a lovely meal at the hotel last night and so couldn't manage a full breakfast this morning - Jan went for porridge and I had an Arbroath Smokie. The countryside was a bit softer but with loads of ups and downs and also more choice of routes, I got lost and then followed a signpost that I subsequently found out was pointing in completely the wrong direction! Anyway, with an extra five miles and an unnecessary climb under my belt I was very happy to see Jan at our lunchtime halt - The Stair Inn. The food was great and we had a pleasant time sitting in the sun. It was hard leaving the pub and a few miles down the road, Jan overtook me for the second time since lunch - she'd got lost (I think her and Navman weren't talking to each other). Incidentally I know all about their affair and I must point out that Navman is a she! The route was now going up (again) and into the Southern Uplands. We were concerned that we might not get a B&B at Carsphairn and we were right - Jan had to travel on down to St. John's Town of Dalry where she found a lovely B&B run by a very sweet lady called Maureen. As this was not on my planned cycle route, I finished the days riding at a place called The High Bridge of Ken and Jan picked me up and took me to the B&B. Tomorrow she'll drive me back out there - hope I can find my bike! Just kidding - it's safely in the boot of the car at the moment. My left ankle continues to feel a bit sore and todays roads didn't help it any - one of the photos shows the kind of surface that's giving me trouble. Whilst I was taking that photo, I heard a 12 bore gunshot on the hill behind me and thought I'd better skedaddle, quick. The photo with a loch in the foreground shows Loch Kendoon and the mountains in the background are the Rhinns of Kells - they're about 2500 feet above sea level. Tomorrow should see us finally enter England as our route takes us out of the Southern Uplands, through Dumfries, Annan, Gretna and on to Longtown, just to the north of Carlisle. Todays stats: Accumulated mileage : 388 miles Todays mileage : 57 miles Average speed : 13.5 mph Maximum speed : 37.3

Day 6 Crianlarich to Uplawmoor

Hello everybodypeeps,today it's been mainly not raining!! After yesterdays hard slog up Glencoe and the brutal wind and rain across Rannoch Moor, today was a piece of cake (except that it was sixty-four miles), We came down the A82 alongside Loch Lomond - we both decided to tak the low road. The going was good although the road surface was very choppy in places and my wrists and ankles were aching for a while. The picture of the two of us was taken at Tarbet and I think that may be Ben Lomond in the background. Last nights B&B was in a fabulous setting and the picture with cars in it was taken from our room (hope you can't see any reflection of a naked cyclist in the window - ughh!). We drove a couple of miles back up our route last night to a pub in Tyndrum for a meal. The food was good and there was a live band on - The Ragin' Bullfrogs - but after setting up and tuning for about an hour, most of the crowd had gone and we only lasted 3 covers - Lou Reed, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Simon & Garfunkle. Jan hustled me out when I was trying to shout for some Devo or Buzzcocks!! Thanks everyone for the e-mails, I'm trying to reply to them all but I'm pretty tired each evening and it's as much as I can do to write the blog but I WILL answer them all sooner or later. I'd like you all to sing a simple song that keeps me going for miles and miles. I'm sure you can work out the tune and the words are:One Scooby passed me, there's only one Scooby passed me, one Scooby passed me, there's only one Scooby passed me. And it was ....... Jan. She's been absolutely tops in sorting out the B&B's and keeping me fed and watered and feeling keen. Mind you, yesterday and today I surprised her and beat her to a couple of our rendezvous points. I even managed an astounding 30 mph on the A82 approaching the Erskine Bridge (a strong wind was behind me). I met a local group of roadies (road cyclists) after the bridge and had a good chat with one of their number - he gave me some good route advice to get me through Paisley, then at Barrhead I met a couple of roadies doing the end-to-end - they'd set out from JOG 3 days ago and were already ahead of me (they were doing over 100 miles a day), mind you I showed them a clean pair of heels on the drag up from Neilston to Uplawmoor (Jan had waved the promise of a beer under my nose).
Todays stats (the government will set a test on these):
Total miles so far : 330 miles
Todays Mileage : 64.5 miles
Todays Average : 13.3 mph
Todays max speed : 39.2 mph

Yesterday we grappled with the Grampians, today we tangled with the Trossachs, tomorrow we dive into Dumfries and Galloway. Bob & Jan