Day 10 – it’s raining again!

Hey I’m not complaining, the weather has been incrediably kind to us.  We seem to have raced the rain up the British Isle’s!  Well, it caught up with us today…..and for the first time since Day 3 we got soaked.  As I may have mentioned the ‘waterproof’ gear I brought along is only ‘waterproof’ until it rains really hard, all day, then you just get wet!  Hey ho, we set off at 8:00am this morning from Moffat, for our last 60+ mile ride, and we knew the weather was going to be rubbish.  After a 3 mile uphill climb out of town (what did you say about being downhill Kev?)  we settled into mostly flat roads for the majority of the day.  We got up good speed on the downhills and flats to get the day over with as quick as possible.  The scenery was stunning but too wet to photograph, mostly.  I took this one of a suspected slag heap, although we were too far away to see clearly.     It does show the visibility of today.  Not so good really, and not good for taking photos.  Morale was high though, and ticks on the incident sheet were surprisingly high given the rain and all.  Alex got back in the swing on the pee stop list, though David came a close second!  Muppetry was ticked quite a lot today too, mostly for road awareness – or lack of it!!  Jackie did fairly well on the mechanical tick front, though I think it’s unfortunate that he saddle has chosen to be tempermental.  It flew off this afternoon again after developing a wobble after MacD’s stop. 

The nice ladies at MacDonalds gave us a free dessert as we were cycling for charity – and dripping heavily over their furniture and floor!  I wanted to take their picture for the blog, but they seemed a bit shy….
After our stop, the weather seemed to deteriorate rapidly.  We were approaching Glasgow City centre, and the rain got heavier, the traffic more manic and the wind very blustery.  Still we were nearly back, right?  Well nearly.  I was impressed that despite all the downs of today we were still joking and generally  – I think – pleased that we were nearly finished with day ten of or adventure.  I’dgone to being a bit damp, to dripping wet in every conceivable area of my body.  Wet and kinda cold if and when we stopped. 
Try as we might we couldn’t find the A8041 with a right turning.  So when we were well on our way to Helensburg, or so it seemed we stopped and phoned John for help.  It seemed we had gone too far – poop.  Though not poop in the same breath, because that means we took a couple of miles off tomorrows ride, missed the uphill drag to the hotel, and John cam and picked us up.  Tomorrow we will either overlap or be dropped off at the pick-up point.  Oh, my bike had a rest too when I took a place name picture.  See? 
After John picked us up – crazy wet me forgot to take photos of the event…May have been try to keep camera dry at that point.  We heard of his emotional day.  For the first time since John and Jackie have had the camper van, he got a punture.  And unlike Alex’s the other day, it was a little more complicated to fix. 
The jack supplied with the van, was unable to lift it, and it took hours and trips to a tyre place to fix it.  Eventually he ended up driving it on a flat tyre to get it done.  Well done coach, you’re great!  😉

We were all grateful for a hot bath and a drink at the end of the day – all five of us that is.  They were no exciting pictures today, but we saw many beautiful things along the way.  Many cattle and sheep, it’s lovely to see farms in the traditional fashion.  Early in the day, poley poley-ing upthe 3 mile drag, there were somemoody, misty woods with the odd tree on it’s side which was then sprouting mini trees all up the length of the fallen trunk. 

All in all it was a great day, despite the weather.  Who’d have thought I’d have enjoyd being out in the rain?  
In the absense of photos today I’ll try and give you one from the wonderful views up Shap Fell and one of the team stretching after lunch in the early days!  Here’s hoping they take ok………..

View from ride up Shap Fell

  I’m going to leave you now, so that I can get rested up for the push into the wind tomorrow.  The forcast is for more rain and blustery winds.  Oh joy!!  More buffeting from the side.  At least it’s a shorter day.

As always I thank you for checking in, and special thanks to all who send comments.  Sorry I don’t have time to reply to them all, but I do pass messages on and very much enjoy reading your best wishes.  Welcome to a third brother on the comments scene – Steve…I’d love to do some riding when you’re over next year 😉  and Mike Powell, do you think you’ll put this on your list of things to do?   

I look forward to telling you all about tomorrows exploits….if I can get online, thanks Jackie for lending me your dongle tonight…no wi-fi here. 
Take care all you out there, will post blog soon,

Beth xx