Left Langholm in bright sunlight but with wet roads from an earlier downpour. It felt very autumnal and thermals were worn. The ride up to Eskdalemuir was beautiful in the sunlight with the river and burns all very full from the rain. Had tea and chocolate at the Samye Ling Tibetan centre. A strange place but certainly tranquil. Would have been nice to look around the gardens and buildings but we had to move on. We were overtaken by a heavy shower as we crossed from the Esk (Dumfries and Galloway) to the Ettrick (Scottish Borders) valley and got pretty wet coming down the other side. Not as shoe squelching as yesterday though. Lunch at Tushielaw inn would have been perfect timing but it was randomly closed for lunch today. Never mind, there was a hotel over the next hill in the Yarrow valley so we plodded on as the sun came back out. Unfortunately the hotel had just closed for refurbishments so we had some muesli bars to keep us going until Innerleithen. Best downhill of the day to Traqair and then we crossed the Tweed to find the first hotel now closed for lunch as it was after 2pm. grrr. Starting to get a bit annoyed by this point. Finally found somewhere still serving on Innerleithen High Street and the grub was good. Amusingly the Tweedale Hotel had reopened 2 days before after refurbishment.
Up next was a bit of a drag along the Tweed to Peebles and from there over to Penicuik. This was the worst leg of the trip yet as a long day, bad road surface, long gradual climb, muppet drivers and plenty of vehicles combined to have us raging at ourselves and each other. Once over the top the road surface got even worse so Penicuik has now overtaken Lancaster in the Bad Roads category. Of particular note are cycle lanes/strips at the side of the road that are so full of potholes you end up cycling in the traffic anyway and have longitudinal cracks wide enough to swallow a wheel.
Finally got to aunty Leslie's near Fairmile head both very tired and very glad of Shepherds Pie.
This blog probably sounds a bit grumpy but as far as I'm concerned the day to Innerleithen was the best of the journey so far. Quiet roads, glorious scenery, no killer gradients and long sweeping downhills.
back by popular demand is the interesting roadkill category. Today: a tawny owl
distance 115 km
average 16.7kph
cumulative 1039km
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1 comment:
Still loving the blog and thinking you are making amazing progress. Long-range weather doesn't look so good, sadly, with lots of rain and the wrong direction of wind. But, who knows: locally things can prove different, the midges are set to be blown to the Hebrides and you already have two thirds of the epic expedition in the bag. Still think you're both mad - but tough wee buggers ;-) Good Luck
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