September 25th 2018
Well... that may be a tiny, weeny exaggeration as we still have almost 360 miles to go.
(How did we never realise that Scotland is so big??)
But we have reached Scotland... a huge milestone.
It was such a kick to reach the 'Welcome To Scotland' sign, just outside Gretna. It is indeed still a long way to go but we are on the mileage countdown now which feels good.
Today's ride was a breeze... a very strong breeze. It started of as a south westerly, (terrific) grew stronger and turned into a north westerly, (not so good) but we flew along the first few miles into Gretna. It was terrific.
We stopped for the first leisurely morning coffee of the entire trip. We knew we only had to cover 25miles or so today so had the luxury of time. No pressure to cover more miles before the afternoon was up. So a coffee and a little cuddle later (well, we were in Gretna after all!) we set off. The wind direction had changed and strengthened and we were pleased that we were not going to be battling it all day.
We arrived in Lockerbie very quickly and it made me realise just how much I have changed. When we moved to Kent and first started cycling I could only just manage to ride to Reculver. On arrival at the pub there my legs were always like jelly and I could barely walk up the steps into the pub. (7.5miles) It seemed incredible today that we had slogged it out for 27 miles and it felt like a walk in the park. The Oxygen bikes have opened up a whole new world for us both.
We have been very lucky with accommodation so far, but it is becoming harder and harder to find available places close to our route. So tonight we are staying at The Crown Inn in Lockerbie. It looks a dive from the outside, but our room is comfortable, the one member of staff is lovely and we have both just had a bowl each of home-made soup which was totally delicious. The first fresh food we have had all trip.
So an afternoon of R&R for us today.
Day’s Mileage: 27.54m Total mileage to date: 632.28m
Day’s climbing: 837ft Total climbing to date 26,341ft
with love
Annette & Bob
xx