Day 5 in the bag!

After yesterdays beating I was feeling a bit nervous about today's ride. My confidence had taken a bit of a battering yesterday so I was glad when we got back on the bikes at  6.48am and started to make some good progress. We had about 84 miles to cover to reach Ullswater in the Lake District. The road surface out of Abington started off a bit pants again but improved fairly quickly so that we were getting a 16mph average. Again we had a headwind to battle against which got stronger as we worked our way down to Carlisle. We had beautiful weather again, clear skies and hot sunshine, although my bright red nose was possibly in need of a little less sun!! We stopped after the first 25 miles and again at 50 miles and refueled on kitkat chunkies, mars bars and flapjacks. We passed out from Scotland and into Cumbria just before our 50 mile break and stopped to pose by the sign for a picture! The road took us through some picturesque little villages (Ecclefechan, Gretna Green and Plumpton) and we had great views of the rolling hills surrounding us. Soon we started to see the mountains of Cumbria off in the distance telling us we were approaching our destination. We'd arranged to meet Pete's parents at Carlisle to stock up on more food etc. and we found them in the biggest Morrissons I've ever been in my life! After filling Pete's Mum's trolley with cider and some tasty food (no pasta - had such an overdose this week we both felt we might turn into pasta shapes!) we restocked with cereal bars and made our way back on the road for the final 25 or so miles. I'd managed to get a proper tubigrip for my hand which would hopefully give it a bit more support. All the rough roads certainly hadn't helped it over the past few days! It was now gone half 11 and getting very hot so we breaked every 10 miles for a breather and food. The constant ups and downs along the A6 coupled with strong headwinds made for slow progress and our average went down to about 14.8mph. We took it in turns tailing each other to conserve energy and eventually reached Penrith at around 13.30pm. For the second time in 2 days we managed to get slightly lost before cracking out the iPhone and navigating our way out towards Pooley Bridge where we were to stay. The mountains were starting to surround us now as we took a minor road leading us down to Pooley Bridge. We arrived at Park Foot campsite at just gone 2pm. We couldn't see the campervan anywhere and had to serch the entire site (which was huge!) before finding out that there was a whole other part to the campsite further down the road. We eventually found 'base camp' and were greeted to sausage sandwiches and tea! We both felt drained from the heat but I felt much better that today had gone well in comparison to yesterday! The total mileage worked out at 85.03 miles, averaging 14.6mph.

Tomorrow we have the daunting task of climbing Kirkstone Pass out of the Lake District! We're hoping to get it out the way early before the temperature gets up as another hot day is in store! Still, with only 75 odd miles to do, it should be a short-ish day!! :o)