June 26th – SCOTLAND. We must be nearly done now.
67.6 miles – total so far = 601.5
5,741 feet of climbing – total so far = 39,949
Max elevation 988 feet.
Another cracking breakfast, get the bike out of the cellar, kit out and off. We have this smooth routine now and this morning went like clockwork, until I was videoed leaving going the wrong way from the pub and promptly turning around as the Garmin went beep.
Immediately followed this up by going straight on when I needed to turn left. Another beep and I am sorted and in less than a mile am out of Kirkby Stephen.
It’s a grey morning. Dry, not much wind. Quiet at this time.
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I’m on quiet country lanes already, but when I get to Soulby, even quieter. This is the biggest climb of the day starting after 2.7 miles and going off and on to 5.8 miles, 638 to 988 feet, so not too bad. Well, apart from the bits that hit 22%...
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After this, the inevitable descent and then it’s just steady little ups and downs as I run along the edge of the high Dales after Appleby-in-Westmorland. Also, it would seem that hares get up early as I had one running along the road in front of me and when it decided 18mph was too slow it bombed off and jumped into a hedge.
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Tiny little hamlets along here, Dufton and Knock, before the first meet up in Milburn.
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Apparently, we were lucky to meet up in Milburn as the Support Team were now starting to encounter issues with a lack of signal as we were very much in the country. That meant that they had to resort to plan B, the recently purchased modern alternative route finding method, the map book to check where they were.
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The map book does not talk to them, it does not have a blue blob on the page showing them where they are and where to go to, this is something new. Thankfully, we were preparing quite well the night before, but would spend more time going forward on this to allow for signal failures.
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I don’t know if anyone lives in Milburn or on the Sunday morning that we were there if they had all been replaced by Pod People as in Bodysnatchers. If that had happened, then they were all hung over form the night before as we saw NO_ONE!
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In fact, all the way up to now, I hadn’t seen many people, cars, bikes along the way and Milburn was empty. Quite pleasant looking, would have been nicer with the sun out, places always are.
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So, feeling slighty uneasy, it was a brief stop and we were all happy to move on.
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The route continues to be wonderfully quiet, does nobody get up on a Sunday morning up here? Makes me consider An American Werewolf kin London and I make sure I stay on the path!
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A few little ups and downs, change of route in Renwick when I see a way of avoiding a rough track bit, but really nothing bad here. This was a different type of riding almost now, it had more purpose and felt more like road eating was going on and before I knew it I spotted the red Yaris again and it was lunchtime.
Sitting outside a pub, nice warm cup of tea as it wasn’t exactly warm today. Gradually wearing more and more of the clothes I have even though it is allegedly the middle of summer.
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The support team had been having far more fun, although maybe again the cold weather was leading to the increased incidence of wee wee stops. Three-two I think was the score in favour of the older generation by the lunchtime stop.
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In using the pub facilities, they had been doing the PR on the ride, and while we were sitting outside, a chap wanders out and tells us a story of another couple he met doing a LEJOG. They were pleased to have got this far, as Castle Carrack, where we were at the Duke of Cumberland, was close to Scotland, the lady was horrified to be told it was still over 400 miles to go. She had no idea Scotland was that long and was not happy.
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He then popped a tenner in the pot and wandered off to have his lunch. Another lovely man.
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Had we arrived the day before as had been originally planned, we would have rolled up in the middle of their summer fair, maybe we would have been almost celebrities and got more donations, who knows. All that was left was straw blowing in the wind.
Crossed the River Irthing, and from there it was steady climbing over about 7 miles, some steep, some downs as well, so I was quite glad to take a pause and munch more cake and chocolate. Needless to say in the support car, the older generation had been behind another bush by now.
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We were now only 10 miles from Scotland. There was a fourth stop set 8 miles on, not really needed but it would be symbolic to be together at the border.
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More steep hills between here and there, then a sharp descent and there it was. A wee burn, a bridge and a sign saying Scotland!
It promptly started to rain.
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Didn’t stop us taking pictures up against the sign and eating a little bit more chocolate.
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The support team had experienced disaster on the way to this stop though, as the stereo in Carlos suddenly stopped after a cattle grid. Fiddling about, turning it on and off, and whacking the dashboard brought results as Adele blasted out, but it doesn’t look good.
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Bewcastle had looked like it was a place when we set this as meet three, but it wasn’t. An old ruin, more pretty countryside and a real feeling of isolation. On a sunny day this would be beautiful, still cloudy, still and dry. Could this be a rainless day?
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On the way to stop three, I don’t need to say it was still quiet, and still. Both myself and the support car took pictures of cows, mine were Belties, cracking cows. Apparently Ruth has declared that she can speak cow after a conversation with a couple of the herd.
Ruth is threatening to abandon if she doesn’t have Tay Tay to sing along to. We will see.
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Time to see what Scottish roads are like then on the last 2 miles to the B&B.
Bloody steep was the first impression as the other side of that nice descent I had mentioned went up at 20%! At least it was only going up 100 feet as opposed to the 200 feet I had come down the other side. With that out of the way, in no time I was at the B&B and another day was done. What was brilliant today was that it was before 4 o’clock. We had got ourselves well and truly sorted now and this meant that there was loads of time to sort routes, clean bikes, clean riders, eat, drink and sleep.
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Well, that was the plan.
After her CD problems, Ruth had further problems at the B&B, as there was a power cut. That meant the wifi was down, and with signal being poor she had to drive a mile down the road to get signal and allow her to send a text. More than likely the first time in years that she has been cut off from technology, and she didn’t like it. Wouldn’t have lasted growing up in the 70s.
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This also meant that we couldn’t do the routes so decamped early to the pub. The Grapes was in the middle of the village, which was somehow Scottish in its layout. It just looked as if we were now in a different country.
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They did a very good roast lunch, and were still just about serving it, so we sat, pigged out and did the route, planning in the stops with Ruth now taking lots of screen captures of maps so that even with no signal, they would be fine in the support car. There were a couple of town based stops, but the last two were sort of in the middle of nowhere, so this seemed to be very prudent.
The landlady got chatting to us, and after hearing what we were doing also made a donation to the pot.
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We were in the habit now of always having the collecting pot with us, so it went straight in there. Yet another kind soul.
With the early eating, it gave us some downtime back at the B&B, which was a very nice place, and on a nicer day, we may even have thought of a walk to get some exercise.
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Ruth was happy as with power back on, wifi was revived and she was in touch with the outside world again. Happy days.
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