Day 9 "Oh what a day!"

As per usual up at 07:00 for breakfast and on the road for 09:00, weather looked alrightish, and we went through the Carlisle traffic. It was only 15 miles to Gretna, (first village in Scotland!) we soon clocked up these miles, with the sun shining and no wind, this was easy! Next thing we saw, was Barry parked up outside the Ministry of Defense, with all out trackers and GPS systems they must have been slightly concerned!

A quick 10 minute break and we headed for Gretna, 3 miles down the road we saw the sign "Wecome to Scotland", we had successfully cycled the length of England. We saw the famous registry office and sent a photo to Stan! From Gretna we headed up a fantastic B road, the B7076 straight to Lockerbie. This road goes alongside the M6 and is fantastic for cycling. After Nigel's influence over the last 2 days, we slightly amended our routes to do some B roads! We then played a game of where's Barry. As we rode into Lockerbie there was no sign of him, then all of sudden, there was a van, outside a police station, with 2 officers talking to the driver! What on earth has he done we thought? could it be, the not paying for a black and white TV license, or maybe his Beta Max collection had been stolen, but no he was having a telling off for parking in a yellow hatched area! Once we bailed Barry out we parked in a legitimate place and tried to find a nice cafe, but ended up with fish and chips!

As we headed out of Lockerbie we had a 20 miles ride to Moffat, this looked to be a pleasant ride, however with Scottish weather, this meant a head wind! Frank and I have never struggled so hard. There was a steep downhill section and I was peddling like mad to do 6mph! It was hard work, eventually after a lot of sweat, we met up with Barry. I have never seen, Mars Bars, Flakes, Jelly Babies and Bananas eaten so quickly, washed down with powerade! It was at this point we also noticed sun burn on the backs of our legs! Scottish weather!!!!! We want to head up to Douglas before the end of the day, and this should have been a simple 15 miles ride, however with the heads winds, the sun and the hills it proved to be bloomin' hard! Shattered we met up with Barry at Douglas at headed to the hotel!

What a day! absolutely shattered, and hopefully less wind tomorrow!

Miles: 71 miles (minimum) total: 596 miles!

Incidents:

Barry: Pretty much arrested
Frank: Sun burnt legs
Tim: Knackered! and 2 chains!

Tomorrow:

Sees us officially head for Dumbarton, but wind permitting we are hoping to head a bit further!