Saturday 23rd July 2022, 108.06km, 1,643m

It was nice to start a day’s riding and not go immediately uphill. It didn’t take long until we did but at least it wasn’t from the get go.

After some pleasant country lane riding we dropped into Blackburn and its traffic. We obviously got the timing wrong as we seemed to hit every traffic light on red. Soon we were climbing out of the town and back into the countryside. One of the great things about this trip has been how little traffic we’ve seen overall, and some of the lanes have been stunning to ride on.

The climbing began straight after lunch and as we descended one hill we could see the daunting climb of The Cross of Greet laid out before us. On a clear day it would have looked majestic, clad in the mist it looked like a trial.

This was a beast of a climb with a gradient that never seemed to stay the same for very long. I huffed and puffed to the top and then enjoyed the descent before we got into more rolling hills.

Finally we rolled into Carnforth; the beer we had felt well deserved even if I got the location wrong and wondered why I was the only one in the hotel bar. Turned out everyone else was in the bar next door linked to the hotel.