clairedavieswriter

There’s been an element of Schrödinger’s cat about my approach to this bike ride, because I’ve always held two entirely incompatible thoughts in my head at the same time: first, that I would do it, and second that I couldn’t possibly. The latter has prompted many ‘I can’t believe I’m here’ moments, none more so than this morning, when I crossed the border into Scotland. How is it possible that I’ve pedalled all the way here from Cornwall? It’s crazy – I never thought I could (and yet I always knew I would…).

This was a nice signpost but the distances bear no resemblance to the route I’m taking: by the end of today, I’ve cycled 746.7 miles (1.201.7km) since Land’s End.

This trip will be a welcome opportunity to improve my (embarrassingly poor) knowledge of Scottish geography.

Hills and distance-wise, today’s ride was easy – starting with an excellent traffic-free cycle path out of Carlisle (there was an equally good one on the way in yesterday) and continuing on the broad and mostly empty B road alongside the A74(M), where cycle paths helped us safely negotiate roundabouts.

It wasn’t especially kind weather-wise – visibility was poor and pretty soon became ‘a bit damp’ (cf Day 5), but on the plus side we still only needed light waterproofs, not the heavy duty jacket I last used in Devon, and the wind had dropped almost completely and often blew on our backs.

Before the weather closed in, south of Gretna, we enjoyed some clear views of what we assume was the northern Lake District, across the estuary of the rivers Esk and Eden.

After a stop for lunch and to dry out in Lockerbie’s very popular Café 91 (their generously stuffed paninis made great cycling fuel) we only had 12 miles left, which were again on a mostly smooth surfaced, slightly undulating B road – I haven’t spent so long in my big cog (as no expert cycle mechanic calls it) for ages.

We weren’t sure what this was: suggestions please.

This sign definitely fell into the ‘can’t believe I’m here’ category.

We arrived at our destination well before 3pm – time to restore energies and refuel before a long day’s ride tomorrow. And this being the home of Moffat Toffee, it would have been rude not to sample the Sticky Toffee Pudding at the Black Bull. Tomorrow: Glasgow.