Day 9 - Gretna Green to Glenridding

We're back in England! Today was supposed to be a rest day but we'd planned to do the short run down to the Lake District anyway. Because I finished a little early yesterday, I had to ride those miles first so ended up doing some 41 miles ( not so short). The weather was good and the going was fairly easy. We'd arranged to meet for a tea break in Carlisle and it was quite a buzz for us to see so many people! Whilst there we met a fellow end-to-ender called Paul Clements. He's doing it in the same direction as us and left JOG the same day (but in the afternoon). He'd heard there was someone just ahead of him using a similar route and it was me! We had a good old chinwag and shared our experiences (the highs and the lows). He's completely solo and is using Youth Hostels and B&B's. He'd had a few mechanical problems, mainly related to broken/loose spokes and was having a day off to recharge his batteries a bit. His web address is wwwclemjogle06piczocom I've disguised it
just to avoid any spam engines spotting it, but I'm sure you can work out where to put the dots!! We've also swapped numbers so we can keep in touch (& perhaps offer encouragement from time to time). I expect he'll pass me again in a couple of days. I'll have to buy the coffees next time - thanks Paul.

We had a bit of grief with Jans phone today - I added some credit to it via an ATM but Orange reckon the phone's not registered for that - that's news to us and I expect Orange will have some sorting out to do if they don't want me to start slagging them off - their poor signal coverage is already bugging me, so it won't take much to send me over the top!

Because of that malarkey Jan had trouble sorting out tonights B&B but as ever she came through and we've got a lovely room with a four poster bed and a magnificent view of Lake Ullswater. There's no phone signal on any network here so we'll have to move along the lake a bit to send tonights essay.

Tomorrow starts with a climb up Kirkstone Pass and may turn out to be quite a tough day but with the promise of improving weather, we're looking forward to it, We anticipate reaching Chester on Friday evening and will probably have a proper day off on saturday.

Oh, by the way, we didn't get to see the Led Zep tribute band in Fort William - the gig was cancelled due to them having an accident (although our landlady suspected lack of ticket sales).

My speedo is playing up a bit (in spite of me changing the batteries in both the transmitter and head unit) but the figures are pretty much correct - I'll try and get a replacement if I get a chance though.

Todays stats:
Accumulated mileage : 481 miles
Todays Mileage : 41.5 miles
Todays average : 12.9 mph
Todays maximum : 39 mph