The return to England...
Trip Start
Jul 08, 2008
1
9
16
Trip End
Jul 25, 2008
Penrith,
England,
United Kingdom
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
The road was cracker with gently rolling hills so I went all out (and paid for it later in the day) in my own personal little time trial. In the end I averaged 18mph over the 26 miles to Dumfries. By the time we got to Dumfries the weather had brightened up and the sun was even appearing now and then from behind the clouds.
We decided to kip the busy roads after the Ayr experience and went on the tourist result to Gretna. The journey was great and we arrived in Gretna ready for some lovely local pies and cakes from the bakery. Phil even managed to buy himself some wedding cake though me and Carl declined to get married for him to enjoy the cake properly.
For once we had made great progress, doing 50 odd miles by lunchtime (51.83 miles in 2.6 hour with an average of 17.3) so we relaxed and Phil and myself even managed to fall asleep on the grass before we cycled off to the 'Welcome to England' sign for a photo call.
We had wanted to do a 100 mile day but with Shap Pass sitting right south of Penrith we decided to limit ourselves to Penrith for the night. And just as well as the route down the A6 from Carlisle was pretty damn hilly. Carl set a fine pace early on but was later spotted shaking and frothing at the mouth from lucozade sweets again 5 miles out of Penrith.
We found a top little campsite a mile or so out of town and as the weather was good for a change we chilled out and had pate on bread with cups of tea before showering (the 1st in a couple of days - Carl especially likes his daily shower and clean clothes) and walking into town.
In town me and Phil decided to treat ourselves to a nice Italian since we had reached the halfway stage. Carl didn't have the money to join us but waited outside for us with a chip naan and bottle of wine. The couple of glasses of wine had proper gone to my head after all that cycling so it was straight to bed for me.
Miles 85.94
Average 15.4
Hours on bike 5.3
Max speed 32.8
Total distance 539.73.
Which way shall we go?
