Sunday 24th July 2022, 140.18km, 1,708m

This was a big day, 142km and over 1600m of climbing as we traversed the Lake District to Scotland. It would have been a bad day to have a bad day and I started feeling like that was the case. I’d woken up feeling tired and yawning and the day’s cycling seemed daunting.

Some road closures meant we spent more time on some of the busier A roads than anyone would have liked but we also got to ride on some amazing back roads and lanes.

Before lunch we stopped at Castlerigg Stone Circle to admire the views and look at the stones.

After lunch the climbing started in earnest. The climb out of Uldale was incredible. It was unrelenting for kilometre after kilometre. It was a case of gritting my teeth and somehow keeping the pedals moving, even if it meant my cadence was in the 50s.

The descent towards Carlisle was fantastic although the cross tail wind did make it a bit hair-raising at times. Getting through Carlisle was a case of head down and pushing as much power as I could sustain and then we were back on the country lanes heading for Gretna.

It was a little surreal riding on the road alongside the M6 as we approached Scotland. Then we saw the sign we’d all been looking for. We were finally in Scotland, we’d ridden the length of England in 8 days.

This was a hard day, not as hard as the day on Dartmoor but hard with 7 days of riding in the legs (and backside). It felt great to see the Scotland sign, and in 6 days time we’ll arrive in John O’Groats.

Dinner was in a room laid out for a wedding reception, complete with chairs labelled Bride & Groom. Carmen and Mike played along.