A Big thanks to Sarah, David, Josh and Annie for the dinner bed and breakfast and for washing all our cycle kit last night, at least we're now smelling a bit sweeter !
Annie joined us to the farm road end this morning and after saying our last farewell we then headed into Kendal to drop off both bikes for repair. The guys in Askew bike shop did a great job today and fitted Charlie's new back wheel and repaired a broken bracket on my bike all in under 1 hour.
Leaving Kendal the rain got heavier and heavier, the river was already swollen with flood water. Because of this we decided to take the road north on the A6 to Shap. This was a wee diversion from our planned route to the lakes, the forecast further north was meant to be an improving picture so this spurred us on.
The route to Shap turned out to be more direct but also meant we climbed 1,350 ft in heavy fog and it didn't stop pouring down, good job the old skin is waterproof lol
After a long down hill we reached the small village of Shap, free wheeling downhill allows you to recover from the uphill slog but you quickly get cold and we were already soaked through so didn't hang about.
We stopped in Penrith for lunch in a traditional pub, not the best grub but it filled a gap as we were feeling a bit hypo. Whilst there, we met some Norwegian lads who were doing coast to coast. They had come through a lot if surface water which had closed roads around Penrith. Our bellies now full, we set off for Carlisle.
The river Eden which flows through Carlisle was in full flood and we watched helplessly as some Simmental cattle got cut off by the rising water levels, there was nothing we could do but watch. They were big beast, so hopefully they managed to get to higher ground.
Carlisle is a surprising city, which I had never been to, most of the main shopping outlets surround a large red sandstone castle near to the river which was now in full spate. Leaving the city we were running behind scheduled so we had a fast ride to Longtown the rain had now returned just as our feet (flippers) had started to dry out. We crossed the M6 for the fourth time today and headed into Gretna for a quick photo and headed to our B&B for the night.
Tomorrow were off to Thornhill in Dumfries & Galloway, to meet up with Alistair, Wendy and family for lunch so really looking forward to meeting the new arrival Ewan
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