It's a long long way to Inverary

I decided that I needed to get up early today and miss the healthy organic muesli based breakfast. We were in Glasgow the cultural capital of fried food and I wasn't going to miss out.
Surprisingly the ride along the Glasgow cycle way was really nice, following the River Clyde. It was nice to see that shipbuilding has not entirely died out on the Clyde. This is HMS Duncan which is being built by BAE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Duncan_(D37)


I spotted a likely spot for breakfast from the Cycle Path and what a breakfast it was. Sat opposite me was Betty who has lived in a tenement building opposite all her life (82 years). She was having a bacon roll for breakfast and assured me that my breakfast was the best in Glasgow.

Powered on by such magnificent food I was soon on the Bonny banks of Loch Lomond. The view is just as good as billed.

After another 20 miles I needed some more sustenance. Quite pleased to get a picture with the Scottish Flag.

I had teamed up with Nigel and Simon today. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=331412446821&ref=ts Nigel was also in the REME, the part of the Army that keeps all the equipment working. It was nice to swap some war stories.

They ride really hard all day. Here they are charging up the Rest and Be Thankful Pass, with the Cobbler ( a famous mountain) in the background.

I didn't get a photo of Inverary, but it is a delightful town. I am writing this from the George Hotel which has a magnficent Whisky collection. Not sure how tomorrow's ride is going to be. Although just for once we are sleeping in beds as there are no campsites anywhere near.

We spoke too soon

Today was going to be our first full day in Scotland and yet again the weather was fantastic. When in Rome.....or to be precise Moffat, you have to have a local delicacy, so after 20 miles or so I had a short break and a Scotch Pie. It was fantastic.
Shortly after leaving Moffat, I was riding with Stuart ( the tall one) and Welsh Mike, when we noticed that Mikes wheel was looking very buckled. We pulled over to investigate and it was in a very bad way, with 5 spokes not even attached to the wheel. Whilst waiting for help to arrive, a very very kind lady bought us out a cup of tea along with penguin biscuites and kit kats. (you can see the tray on the right of the photo. Fortunately Stuart and I were able to get the wheel fixed to a reasonable level and when the support van arrived a bit of further tweaking from Kevin, and we were able to get going again.

We then had a seven mile climb up the A701 towards Edinburgh. Here I am pictured at the top. The fantastic reward for this, was a 14 mile downhill stretch!

As we got nearer to Glasgow I was astounded at the number of wind turbines. Quite a majestic sight, but possibly a little annoying if you live next door to them.
We got a little bit lost near Dumbarton and ended up riding on the M74, for a short while. Not only illegal but very dangerous, so we had to climb over the fence.


Finally we reached our destination of Strathclyde country park. Despite being very close to the centre of Glasgow it was very pleasant. Although we didn't leave the bikes unattended!

Trampolining Dogs and killer birds

Today was a 73 mile ride and finally we were going to be entering Scotland. Yet another sunny day and the forecast for the next few days is equally good, hard to believe my luck really.
First stop was Appleby in Westmoreland. As we crossed the bridge some local lads were fishing and there was a lot of commotion as they had hooked one. The trout was dispatched very swiftly and was clearly going to make a very nice meal.

A lovely trout

At one point we had to go on a cycle path along an old railway which went past a scrap metal dealers. I spotted a Bedford truck, which caught my eye as I used to drive one in my Army days. What was more interesting were the rocket parts which were lying next to it.

Scrap metal

As we passed a churchyard in I spotted a military grave. So stopped to take a look. This was a reminder of part of the reason I was doing this trip. It would be interesting to know the story behind this as he died in 1919, after the Great War.

Private Irvine.

The route we are following uses very quiet lanes, so the road into Scotland didn’t even have a proper side. Fortunately one had been erected by Bike Adventures.



Trampolining Dogs and killer birds

Of course you were wondering what the title of this entry was all about. Well I have no idea but the News and Star certainly has the most interesting headlines.

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/

Into the wind

One of the shortest days today, only 55 miles. However the compensation for this was the 6,800 feet of climb (more than the combined height of Snowdon and Scafell Pike) made even worse by the incredibly high winds that we were cycling into all day.

The route was lovely up over the Forest of Bowland and into the North Yorks Moors. It would have been even nicer to drive it in this Ferrari, which I spotted in Clitheroe
Ferrari

This was a typical downhill section, although at times it felt like you were going uphill because of the wind.
Downhill all the way

Here I am entering North Yorkshire, with Ingleborough, one of the highest hills in Yorkshire in the background.


The scenery was stunning

After lunch in the beautiful village of Dent, we then climbed up to Dent Station, the highest railway station in the UK at over 1100 feet. The road was one of the steepest we had climbed, made worse as it had just been resurfaced with loose stone. Several riders reported having to walk this bit, but I managed to ride it. I saw an old guy at the top and he asked me if I had ridden all the way, when I said yes, he said “you want your head walloping”

Dent Station

We then descended into Cumbria and had an easier ride into the campsite. The sheep are braver in Cumbria and this one decided to face off with me.

A Brave Sheep

Some other blogs
A number of other people on the ride are also competing blogs. Some even have fancy GPS tracking to show exactly where they are

Richie’s GPS tracker
http://tiny.cc/y92u3

Simon and Nigel’s facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=331412446821&ref=ts

Alan and Jenny’s blog
http://alan-jenny-lejog2010.blogspot.com

Mad for It

Today we had to cycle from Cheshire all the way past Manchester and into Lancashire proper. I really felt like I was in the North now. Accents had changed and so had the weather and we also had our first rain.



Every morning we have a great breakfast at the campsite, but you sometimes you can need more than muesli, fruit and toast. So today I decided I needed to have a real breakfast. I left the campsite an hour earlier than normal and pushed along as fast I could in search of a 'full english'


I was starting to run out of puff when finally I found Willowpool garden centre www.willowpool.co.uk/ Great service and just what I needed. This was also where I spotted the ancient bike mentioned in my previous post.

A great breakfast

Shortly after I thought I was hallucinating when I saw these enormous sheep. Turned out they were llamas.

The next challenge was getting through the Greater Manchester area.

I bravely left my bike unlocked whilst taking this picture as we went through Wigan.

We had about 15 miles of urban riding, lots of traffic and annoyed drivers. The great news was finally we left this behind and ended up in Rivington, where we stopped in the tea rooms. This was like something out of Heartbeat. http://rivingtontearooms.co.uk/

Tonight was the England match against Algeria. I suspect this decoration may get taken down soon. But it was nice to see so many houses decorated.

Shortly after this I had an opportunity to try and break the law. A lovely swooping downhill section in a 30 mph area. I think I went through at 32, but the camera didn't flash.

Tea at the campsite is always served at 4pm, so I raced the last 10 miles to try and get there on time and I just made it and even did a skid stop in front of all the others who had got there before me and were already drinking tea.

Tonight's campsite was on the outside of Clitheroe. Most other people had been trying to get there early so they could go out an watch England play. I decided to do an extra 10 miles to find a McDonalds with free wifi. It was nice to ride on completely empty roads for once. As I later found out, I was probably the only person in England not watching an very boring game. Result!!

Avoiding Saddle Sores

Lots of people said to me before I set off make sure you get a nice soft saddle. As it turns out this is poor advice. Luckily my new bike cames with a Brooks Saddle, which is as hard as a rock! http://www.brookssaddles.com/ This has proven to be the most comfortable saddle I have ever had. Some experienced cyclists say that you have to do at least 500 miles before it is worn in, but I have found mine to be comfortable from the beginning. It has now nicely moulded itself to fit by backside perfectly. Not bad for something that was invented in 1866.

A bit different to this saddle which is probably over 80 years old, which I saw on an old bike made in Ashford, Kent. This was in a Garden Centre in Cheshire, where I stopped for Brekkie

A little bit of history of Norman Bikes here www.normancycles.co.uk

LeJoG meets Jogle

Billed as an easier day, today we were travelling through Shropshire and into Cheshire. Very soon we started to see hundreds of cyclists going in the opposite directions. Turns out these were from the Deloitte Ride across Britains, http://www.rideacrossbritain.com/ and they are riding from John O Groats to Land's End (JOGLE). It certainly didn't look as much fun as our trip. I couldn't see any of these guys stopping for cakes and sampling beers and ciders from across the country!

I also passed through Tiverton, whose more famous namesake we went through about 250 miles before.

This was a nice fast ride and despite stopping at a cafe in Malpas with the worst service in the world I still got back to the campsite at Acton Bridge before 4pm. As we shared afternoon tea we all swapped stories of how long we had waited for the simplest of food orders.

One of the nicest things about Bike Adventures http://www.bikeadventures.co.uk/ is the afternoon tea and cakes when we finish. The cakes are homebaked by manager Kevin's mum.

The campsite was a bit crowded, fortunately there were no children on the site wanting to use the slide.