Probably the worst campsite in the world...
Trip Start
Jul 08, 2008
1
8
16
Trip End
Jul 25, 2008
Sanquhar,
United Kingdom
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Just as we were leaving Largs on the 1st hill of the day Carl's rear derailleur combusted into a million little pieces. The first thought (for me anyway, Carl was incapable of any thought at this point and just sat down and looked at his bike for longingly) was 'thank goodness, we are in a town'. We found the only bike shop in town but were then informed that the shop was closing that very day, the mechanic had left and a guy was arriving shortly to make an offer for all the remaining stock. Luckily the girl in the tourist info was a cyclist herself and new a couple of good shops in Ayr so we resolved to meet Carl in Ayr once he had the bike sorted. The journey to Ayr was particularly horrible, the dual carriageway metamorphosed into a 3 lane highway that resembled a motorway in every shape and form except for the lack of hard shoulder and the fact that cyclists were allowed. Junctions were a nightmare on a bike, almost half a mile of slipway to negotiate with cars speeding past from all directions.
I was keeping right behind Phil, so much so that I didn't see a bit of metal till too late and managed to puncture my front tire. When we stopped I mentioned to Phil that his rear wheel seemed buckled; on inspection it certainly was buckled...as a result of being missing 2 spokes. So we gingerly made our way the last 10 miles to the bike shop in Ayr where the little woman fixed it while we adjourned to Morrison's for a flying Scotsman all day breakfast (I ended up having way too much as they gave me normal sausages instead of square sausage and has browns instead of tattie scones...so I got double of everything.
Leaving Ayr we got onto the A76 towards Dumfries. The road was fine with some amazingly fast descents but passed through some hellish looking ghost towns where all the shops and pubs were boarded up. Phil's ankle started to give him gib about 70 miles in so we decided to call it a day at the campsite that was marked on the map in Sangquar. The 'campsite' turned out to be more of a caravan graveyard but we had no choice but to park up and hide the bikes in between some caravans. Toilet facilities were limited to say the least with just a bowl and wash hand basin.
Phil's sign fetish
We went into town but eating options were certainly limited so we had a couple of pints (and updated the blog...while marveling at why the worst pub on the journey so far had wifi!!) and got some pate, bread and pies from the Spar for a tea in the tent before a nice 10pm bed.Miles 69.99
Average 13.7
Hours on bike 5.05
Max speed 40.8
Total distance 453.79
