England here we come

England here we come. The Granary Peverel development in Dumfries proved very comfortable and welcoming, so much so that we didn’t leave till 9.40am, our latest start yet. Nevertheless the sun was shining, and the roads were smooth so we made swift progress covering the first 20 miles in just over an hour. Despite partnering each other for a number of challenges over the years Andy and Jon decided not to stop at Gretna Green, but continued on to Longtown where we stopped from refuelling at The Sycamore Tea Rooms. The lattés and egg and bacon muffins went down well, and Geoff managed to get a donation to the fundraising after we had left. Forgetfulness seems to be catching; today it was Andy’s turn to leave something behind, leaving a water bottle in the café. Fortunately Geoff was doing what he does best and was still chatting to the owners when we realised the bottle was missing so we were able to ring him on his new mobile and get him to pick it up. Next stop Carlisle, which did indeed cause us to stop, due to the intricacies of navigation required to negotiate the city centre, we ended up walking through the main shopping area in lycra on a busy Wednesday lunchtime, definitely not to be recommended. The rain had by now caught up with us, so we donned raincoats and headed on south towards the Lake District. After meeting up with our Support at Penrith, we put the bikes on the roof and headed out to Whitehaven to commence the Coast 2 Coast (C2C) challenge. Andy grabbed a quick power nap in the back of the car (sensible move judging by Geoff’s driving!!) and at 4.30pm we dipped our wheels in the Irish Sea and set off on the return leg to Penrith, our finish for the day. After a relatively gentle introduction, the road began to climb, (and then swiftly descend) and then climb again, this time with a vengeance up Whinlatter pass. Note to anyone thinking of completing the C2C, the signed route actually took us up a road even higher than the usual road pass, prehaps one to avoid next time. Sweating heavily and breathing deeply we made the summit and enjoyed the long steep descent down to Keswick. With only 15 miles left to go we once again found ourselves riding an “off road” gravel track on our road bikes and were shuddered & shaken to bits before at last finding some smooth tarmac for the final12 miles along the A66. Heads down and blast down the road to the finish. 106 miles completed, bikes on car and drive to our next Peverel development Alexandra Court for the evening in Windermere. We received a warm & generous welcome from House Manager Jayne, who not only showed us around, but also offered to cook us an evening meal of Spaghetti Bolognese. The residents had also made a collection for our fundraising and baked us a superb cake as well, many thanks for your generosity. Just under 500 miles completed to so far, the rest of the C2C to complete tomorrow, hopefully with a helpful tailwind and the incentive to finish to see Jon’s nephew Joseph who coming to meet him with his bike of course!!