Diary - Day 24

Got up at about 8am, sorted ourselves out and went to the pub for 9am. Good start to the day, although not a great one time-wise. After we had stuffed ourselves with as much breakfast as possible it was about 10:30 by the time we were out of Lanark. To make things worse it started raining about 10 miles later and this would be the very predictable theme of the day. As we would later learn Sheffield and nearby areas were flooding badly and the whole of the north of England was under extreme flood warnings so we were a little fortunate not to get hit that badly. Not that it made us feel all that good at the time. After 3 weeks of tough weather conditions we really didn't want to be heading into floods.

So 12 days and about a thousand miles after we we last left Lanark we were on our way out of the town again. Straight down the main road to Biggar as the weather grew gradually worse, then into the town to try to find some sarnies. This, unfortunately, we did not achieve and ended up out of Biggar without any food. Also a fairly strange thing happened on that main road - an old man stopped his car a few hundred yards ahead of us and as we overtook him it looked as though he was trying to get out. A little odd that someone wanted to stop on a main road maybe, but we were too busy trying to shield our eyes from cold rain to worry about such things. The car went by us and stopped in a lay-by further up. As we passed we heard the old man say something, which I now believe was possibly "am I invisible". I am assuming that he didn't actually believe that he was invisible but rather expected us to stop to talk to him. Maybe, in better conditions, my mind may have been functioning better and I may have worked out that he had something to say to us, but I had bigger concerns at that time and the chance passed us by. I wonder what he wanted to say?

He may have wished to tell us that some roads were blocked further along our route. As we left Broughton, having got hold of some sarnies at a cafe, we saw signs telling us that the A701 was shut off further down the road for whatever reason. Fortunately we were turning off before that, at Tweedsmuir we cut across the hills towards the A708 on our way to Hawick. As we turned off the main road we were only 15 miles from Moffat, fondly remembered as the only good part of the day over a week earlier. The countryside around the town was certainly spectacular, albeit somewhat barren at times.

Then it got difficult:

This is a photo I took standing on a small bridge overlooking Talla reservoir. It does show that the weather is a little nasty, plenty of low cloud and the fence on the left drops out of sight where the road becomes a 1 in 3 or so. It doesn't show the fact that the wind was belting through this corridor at a mighty rate, giving us a hell of a time getting up to this point. Here is Sam struggling up the final part:


After this I didn't get the camera out again for about 7 hours. My hands were too cold and there was nothing worth photographing anyway. Both of us stopped dead at some point on that little climb, not a good thing on such a steep section as getting going again was really difficult, but coming around one bend we were hit by an immense gust of wind that was impossible to cycle through. The view would have been good but for all the cloud, and rain, and the cold wind................

Fortunately the wind wasn't so strong on all of that little road, but it was certainly a pain and the cold rain driving into our faces was far from enjoyable. Passing Meggert reservoir we stopped for food. There was no shelter and the sarnies we ate were the only food we had that day between breakfast and our next meal at 5pm. 70 miles - 2 sandwiches. Not a good idea.

The next 10 miles or so were mostly taken up by feeling cold and really annoyed. Stopping to eat was essential, but led to us getting wetter and colder without much hope of warming up. Sam had his gloves and boots that he had bought in Inverness and was, maybe for the only time, less concerned about the cold than me. Neither of us was enjoying it much though, which was a shame because I think the B711 that took us into Hawick would have been a good route on a better day.

In Hawick we stopped at an Italian takeaway and ate some very welcome pasta dishes in there. Then it was on to Morrisons to stock up on Flapjacks and a little wait while Sam answered another oddly timed call of nature. Not very regular that fella. And then off towards Britain's largest forest - Kielder - where we would stay the night.


On the way we crossed the border back into England - it was quite amazing how quickly Scottish accents gave way to English, almost as soon as we crossed the border there was a dramatic difference - border's accents giving way to a more Geordie style. A few miles after the border we rolled into Kielder, 95 miles on from Lanark and starting to get dark, but the weather for this last patch had been so much more enjoyable. The wind was much calmer, the rain almost completely gone and as a result the temperature was nearly sensible. So at the end of the day we were finally able to enjoy cycling along the B6357 watching Buzzards and seeing trees for miles on each side.

The YHA was closed so we went into the Angler's arms and had a decent meal and a decent pint for a decent price. I can't remember the name of the pint, but it was local (something to do with a castle) and tasty. As we settled in with chocolate drinks laced with whiskey it became apparent that it was getting dark outside and we had nowhere to sleep. Moving was a real pain, it had been a long day and the pub was bloody comfortable, but we had to go and put up a tent. The campsite was soaked and empty, but the shower was free so we didn't mind. About 2 minutes after getting into our sleeping bags we were asleep.


Day 24 review

Mileage - 95
Pints - only the one each unfortunately
Crapness rating - Very high until about 5pm. Stinking weather most of the day, but had we been 300 miles south it would have been worse.