The B7076 and B7078 run beside the newer A74(M) all the way from the border to Glasgow, which made map-reading pretty easy today. They are also roads which were made almost redundant by the motorway, except to allow local traffic access to the few properties and villages scattered along their length. We’d been looking forward to these roads but with miles (sometimes tens of miles) between junctions, almost no traffic and few landmarks by which to gauge progress, it can be surprisingly lonely out there.
One thing that we did like (and didn’t like) was the abundance of cycle paths. They’re a nice idea and, when they’re done properly – with a smooth surface, free from debris – they make for a relaxing journey. There were two things that have begun to annoy us a bit about cycle paths, though. The first is when they’re painted onto the edge of town roads as a political afterthought, without much consideration as to whether they’ll be useful to cyclists: constant Give Way lines and – worse – “CYCLISTS DISMOUNT” signs make us feel like second-class road users; pedestrians get cross when they think we’re using their paths, and motorists get cross when they see us not using the cycle paths. The second is when cycle paths are built well but not maintained: a rough or pot-holed surface is really no good to us and constantly dodging glass, tin cans or (grr!) parked cars is enough of a nuisance to make us not use the lanes at all. The three punctures I had today were all caused by cycling along grubby cycle paths.
We left the main road briefly to cycle through Lockerbie, the village where Pan Am Flight 103 crashed in 1988 when it was bombed. We had a quick look for the memorial but didn’t see it, and with time at a premium, had to press on.
With little else to do, we’ve become quite good at watching the weather – in the sky, I mean, not on the TV. With an abundance of time to gaze skyward, you begin to notice not just the sun and the clouds, but the bigger weather systems. Cold fronts rolls in, creating huge avenues of heavy clouds, like vast motorways spanning the country. With practice, we are getting quite good at tracking the breaks in the clouds and pacing ourselves so that we can sneak through the banks of rain with only a light dusting.
Clouds rolling over the hills
On a more mundane note, we moved this evening’s camp 30 miles north because we realised that today’s ride was far too short (about 45 miles) and tomorrow’s would have been far too long (about 95 miles). We’re staying at Strathclyde Country Park in Motherwell, just on the outskirts of Glasgow. The midges are beginning to nip but, other than that, it’s lovely.
