Day 9 – Across the border and into Scotland

We stayed at the Salisbury B&B in Keswick where the owners provided a very beautiful vegetarian breakfast.  As we ate, the cloud descended down the mountainside and the rain got heavier outside.  Rob and Fo were ribbing me about how long it took to leave the B&B, but the wait proved worthwhile as I turned north and saw blue sky and sunshine on the hills.

A long road ahead across Uldale Commons

I cycled through Keswick then onto the minor road to Uldale.  Steep hills and descents followed one another as I climbed.  An RAF fast jet flew down the valley, presumably on a training mission, but I wondered how long it will be before that pilot might be working in Iraq?  I had to pause on several steep hills, but after about an hour could see the summit with a tall radio mast.  When I eventually reached the top on Uldale Commons I had a huge panorama and I enjoyed a few minutes rest to send text messages, change the GoPro handlebar camera orientation and eat a food bar in the bright sunshine.

Carlisle Castle

I descend fast down a wide road towards Carlisle to the north and reached over 45mph which was suitably exciting!  The GoPro video should be funny as I was certainly hanging on tight over the bumps and had to use full braking to stop for a road junction.  You don’t often get to go that fast on a bike!  Through the busy streets in Carlisle, I past a huge brick chimney and then the castle and headed north, dodging cars round the M6 junction roundabout.

Longtown Church

As I headed for Longtown to meet Fiona for lunch, I saw her going first in the opposite direction and then overtaking me.  She was on the main road which was busy with trucks, but my route took me onto the country lanes.  Unfortunately, I missed the National Cycle Network turn twice and so took rather longer to arrive than Fiona expected.  On the way into the town I stopped to photograph a church with the most amazingly densely packed graveyard.  I wonder whether living in Longtown is bad for you?

Crossing the border

I had a sandwich, followed by fried egg sandwich and a huge Eccles cake at the Gretna Bakery & Café and headed north again towards the border.  After a few miles I saw the border signs and stopped for a few minutes to take a celebratory photo.  There was no border post and no passport was required to get into Scotland.  It is clearly still part of the UK!  There are many things shared between Scotland and England – land mass, language (mostly), economic interests, currency, etc.  I have one more: the headwinds in Scotland are just the same as those in England.  This time I was on a long straight road alongside the M74 and kept my head down as I tried to reduce the wind resistance.

I passed Gretna where Fiona was going to look at the outlet stores (and where, rather bizarrely, she found Irish tweed for sale!) followed by Ecclefechan.  I expected to find a bakery selling Ecclefechan tarts as we can get them in our local Sainsbury’s (where they are notorious in our family for having an almost completely red health traffic light indicator), but there was none!  Somebody missed a business opportunity there.  I was amused later on to learn that the residents of Ecclefechan are known locally as “Fechers”.

I crossed the M74 several times under bridges so big they had permanent lighting underneath.  Fortunately, the traffic was light and I just followed a long, wide, straight road all the way.  I imagine this was the main road north before the M74 was built.  The HGV traffic had changed with logging trucks heading south loaded with timber and returning empty going north.  I passed a forestry saw mill so large I found myself wondering what they needed the height for.

I arrived in Moffat at 6.30pm to be greeted by Fiona at the Queensbury B&B.  In total I had cycled 73.7 miles in 8 ½ hours elapsed and 5 hours 40 minutes moving at an average of 13mph and a maximum of 46.4mph!  After a good chat with Peter the owner who kindly stored my bike in the utility room, I had a snack of salty crisps before a shower and heading into town.  We walked around the main street and got a good meal including Haggis, Neeps & Tatties at The Stag.  As we left for a reasonably early night the bar was getting going for a big end to the week!