Day 5 Lockerbie to Kendall

We had the best night’s sleep of the trip so far at the Ravenshill Hotel in Lockerbie, probably something to do with the gargantuan dinner’s we’d all eaten last night.  It has to be said that the breakfast lived up to expectations as well.  Happy Days.  A short one today, only 75 miles to bank, and by 9am most us were on the road after the usual  45 minutes of general faffing, drink making, bike cleaning and chamois application.

We left Lockerbie and carried on the B7078 southbound, through Ecclefechan (try saying that with a few drinks inside you..) and on to Gretna Green and the English Border, where the road quality improved.

 

 

 

 

From Gretna we made our way down towards Carlisle and filtered through the traffic jams and out the other side heading towards Penrith where David and Tommy  Snr enjoyed the 22 degree temperatures and caught some rays over a café lunch.  The A Team + Froomey and Wiggo had a pub lunch in the Lowthern Arms and enjoyed a refreshing blast of cold air when they let us store the bikes in the cellar.

 

The afternoon session was always going to be tough, we had Shap to climb and a few dreams were shattered when we climbed up and through to Shap Village only to be faced with the actual peak some miles ahead, and further climbing required – what a climb, but oh what a downhill on the other side.  Waltdog, CJ and Hamish hitting over 42mph on the 10% decline, it was epic.

 

 

Kendal looked gorgeous as we cycled through it, lots of folks enjoying the sunshine on the river banks and in the beer gardens, and as usual the Travel Lodge that we’d booked was on the far side of town so we bashed out the last three miles down the  busy A591 dual carriageway where we had the nice bonus of Sammy’s folks waiting to cheers us over the finish line!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Job done.  Time for baths, beers, dinner and bed.  Night all.

 

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