May 28 Kettlewell to Kirkby Stephen
51.6km, 840m elevation, 16degrees and cloudy
Said goodbye to Fullers and headed out from Kettlewell, straight into a fairly gentle but persistent uphill.
Today we “suffered” the biggest hill yet- 16 degrees incline was a little too much for me so a bit of bike pushing required 😉.
Made it to Hawes in time for lunch, and Neil now has a new mission- to find the best battered fish in the country. Or maybe just in Yorkshire. Didn’t think to actually take a picture of the fish…too hungry…but it was pretty impressive!
I remember a childhood with fish and chips in butcher paper- don’t know if they still do that in Oz anywhere?? But they certainly do it well here.
Gotta love a good castle, and this 12C ruin was a nice little diversion on our way. Pendragon Castle.
The forecast for the day wasn’t too bad, but it’s supposed to rain heavily overnight and into tomorrow so we had a healthy “debate” about our accommodation options for the evening. One of us was all for camping and the other more keen for a solid roof and warmth. Two guesses as to who’s who…
Somehow we found a perfect compromise with a camping pod at Kirkby Stephen. Just a tiny structure, a solid tent really, but it has heating, it’s spacious for two and just a few more ££ than a campsite. Win win, end of argument 🙂
And apparently, we’re pretty much in the middle of the country!
May 29 Kirkby Stephen to Penrith
40km, 520m of up, 18 degrees, showery and very windy!
A very lazy, 2 cups of coffee kind of morning as we weren’t in a hurry to set off in the drizzling rain. We watched some of the Pennine trekkers packing up their tents and secretly celebrated that it wasn’t us trying to wangle an extremely soggy tent into a small bag that’s bad enough when you try and stuff in a dry tent…
Today’s ride was consistently drizzly and very windy in sections. To the point where bike stability seemed a bit threatened. But only 40km and the hills were moderate so we made it to Penrith for a very late lunch. We splashed out for a cheap B&B tonight but couldn’t check in till 5ish- so I made good use of the Wetherspoons WIFI and endless coffee and caught up on a bit of work while Neil explored the town.
A handy (but pricy) bike shop across from our accomm set us up with a couple of running repairs and some new handlebar tape. It’s the small things…
Our B&B is an Italian restaurant- we didn’t try their menu tonight, opted for a couple of bits gathered from M & S instead, but we are looking forward to the included breakfast in the morning!
May 30 Penrith to Carlisle
40ish km and relatively flat after the last few days. Windy…but dry.
Started our day with probably the best breakfast yet. The Italians definitely do food well…
Then retrieved our bikes from the locked garden and off we set.
Penrith to Carlisle showed us a scenic cycle route for most of the way! Quite impressed with the way they manage to keep cyclists off the main drag.
We took a punt with a couple of road closures, but thankfully they paid off. At one stop we were told firmly…sorry but I can’t let you through here, it’s too dangerous- you’ll have to take the detour. When we asked if we could walk, we were told “I can’t stop you from doing that” and he kindly looked the other way while we wheeled our bikes past a short section of random road maintenance. Phew!
Carlisle is an interesting place- seems pretty run down but lots of construction going on in the city to beautify and pedestrianise the city. Might be worth having another look in a few years!!
A very cheap accomm option for the night, maybe could do with some TLC but the price was right and it was nice and clean!
May 31 Carlisle to Auldgirth
77.5km, a greyish day but not too unpleasant for riding!
And today we made it to Scotland! Left our remarkably good value B&B and headed north out of the city.
Couldn’t help a little nosy around the townships of Gretna and Gretna Green… then we followed a useful but very noisy “cycle path” (the old road and still somewhat in use) next to the freeway, all the way up to Lockerbie.
After 50 something km, ready to call it a day, we stopped at the little town of Lochmaben where we had earmarked a campsite. We winged it today and just rocked up…the first time we’ve done this without booking and maybe it turned out for the best today.
A lovely spot, right on a lake (although very cold!). But also right next to a Pub (normally a good thing, right?) which was hosting a VERY loud music festival. Nice enough music…but we weren’t too keen on the thought of listening to it for another 10 hours or so! Called the campground number and the caretaker reinforced our hesitation- yes we could stay here….BUT the noise isn’t going to stop until well into the wee hours.
So, plan B was another 25km on- we called ahead to check this time, just in case… and arrived fairly tired but very happy to find a lovely little quiet spot in someone’s paddock. Nice hot showers and somewhere for us to charge our array of devices 🙂
Now enjoying the peace, tranquillity and a scattering of midges…
Let’s go cycling 
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