The day started in the usual manner, with me getting a puncture on the way out of the campsite. Once again, the self-healing gunge worked its magic, and we were on our way.
I’m feeling much better today. We got to bed a bit earlier last night, allowed ourselves an extra half hour’s lie in, and agreed to poodle along at a leisurely pace. The latter was fortunate as the first 13 miles were almost relentlessly steeply uphill. Luckily, however, the following 15 miles were almost relentlessly downhill and we trundled happily through Tebay, into Shap and Penrith.
Our route took us past the Skelton radio transmission masts, a colossal array of towers and antennas that the BBC used until recently to broadcast around the world on the short wave.
Today’s weather was good (sun or cloud) until about 16:00, after which it rained but not so heavily as to soak us. The skies are getting noticeably lighter as we travel north, and it was almost completely light when I awoke briefly at around 05:00.
The last section of today’s route took us across the “Cumberland Gap“, a section of road that, until 2006, was an A-road sandwiched between the M6 and M74 because the English and Scottish authorities couldn’t agree who was going to pay to upgrade it to a motorway. Happily for us, they’ve just finished extending the M6 and have even build a nice wiggly road along side that bikes can use.
We crossed the border into Scotland at Gretna and arrived at the campsite at 18:40.
Crossing the border at Gretna
