Day 9 – and dare I say ‘feeling fine’!?

What a fine start to the day – the sun was shining, the breakfast was yum and we were all set to go by 9am-ish.  Perfect.  We set off from Penrith, and looked forward to a flat-ish day in the saddle.  Just 61 miles of it – again!
So we were all happy to find it was pretty flat.  Although any up-slope as they are known, seem like hills to me.  Just have to do them poley-poley.  And no Angela, it has nothing to do with whatever you were thinking, it just means taking it at your own pace, and in my book, the slower the better!

The first half of the day the scenery was stunning again, although a little cloudy.  We stopped only a couple of times for photos, pees and de-kitting when it got hotter.  I’m hoping to be able to put some photos on tonight and have the WHOLE thing posted… lets wait and see, eh?  Here goes with the first scenic one, unfortunately the ploughing match one I took was to far away to be any good.  I was thinking Barry N. might like it!

North of Penrith on the A6.

The A6 was a lovely road, pretty straight and flat-ish as I mentioned before the clouds were lovely too.  We stopped for coffee just after Carlisle, were John led us through some back streets which were not sign posted well at all.  Then we were off again, practically mirroring the M6.

The road at this point wasn’t so scenic, and it was very windy.  David led the group so that we could draft behind him.  Thanks David, it made life a little easier.  I found the wind very tiring.  When we reached Scotland – HURRAH – John was waiting for us at the welcome sign.  County/Country border signs have become a favourite photo stop, and Scotland was a must ;-D

We made it to Scotland 😉

It feels so strange to think we’ve actually cycled the length of England, touching into Wales, in 9 days.  Even stranger to think that the length of Scotland will take 6!  It’s going to be such a sense of achievement when we get there. 

Tonight we’re staying in the quaint town of Moffat, which has a rather magnificent statue of a ram as it’s center piece in the high street.  Thanks to John meeting up with us and cracking the whip a bit, we arrived half an hour ahead of schedulewhich gave us extra wind down time. Nice.
Tomorrow though we’re set for an early start; 7am breakfast, 7:45 start.  It’s due to be bucketing down, so we want to get it over and done with in  reasonable time!

Moffat Ram.

I’m getting extra sleepy now, but before I press the button which will surely put most of this post in some strange ether bin somewhere, I must thank all those who comment on the blog, it means a lot to me that you guys are coming along with us.
Welcome to new comment-ers too.  Kevin says it’s all downhill now we’re across the border, but I think he’s in cahoots with John!
Don’t forget too if you’d like to sponsor me, there’s a lik to my just giving page somewhere on this page………..

Night night, I’m off to sleep now, I think I’ve earned it!
Beth xx

Tired but happy in Moffat.