Day 9 - Tebay to Canonbie (No, we hadn't heard of either place before either!)

We’ve made it to Scotland! Cue the picture!


It may be a while before you get to read this as, now that we are in the far flung frozen wastelands of the north, mobile coverage seems patchy. Earlier, Stephen was able to speak with his mother and sister, but now, after dinner, there is no network available. Maybe the phone people have gone home for their tea!

Update on Christine’s health. She felt better today after 12 hours sleep but still not 100%. The conclusion we have reached is that, even though she has been getting her normal 8 or 9 hours sleep, with this amount of physical effort day after day she needs more - at least 10 hours - and yesterday her body said “enough is enough”. Let’s hope another 12 hours of quality shuteye tonight gets her back to normal.

Omission from yesterday’s post (due to Stephen almost dropping off while writing it in the pub! Stop sniggering kids! It doesn‘t happen THAT often!). We went through 500 miles/800 km right at the end of the day which means we are (just) over halfway in 8 days out of 16 - so right on schedule.

Turning to today it was another 100km/62 miles. Here’s the route - by clicking here and also below.

Actual Day 9

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Initially from Tebay it was downhill but that soon changed as we started the first and longest climb of the day. The following picture is looking back towards Tebay from near the top but unfortunately seems to emphasise the downhill and underplay the uphill - completely the opposite of both what our legs felt and what the elevation profile of the route shows!! Still, it shows what a beautiful part of the country we are in.


After the uphill there was a more gentle downhill followed by an undulating road with the occasional short sharp climbs and descents (10 to 13%, or 1 in 10 to 1 in 8 in “old money”). All the time, the Pennines were close by on our right hand side and the Lake District more distant on the other side.


The following sign amused Stephen! For all of those of you with pampered pooches in need of a bit of a workout - please give Ingrid a call. It does strike us that we are members of a privileged generation to even contemplate such a thing. Sorry for the pontification!! (And apologies to Ingrid if we, in any way, damage her business - that is not our intention.)


Gradually the route flattened out as we got closer to the border (much to our surprise, we must say). We ended the day heading up the A7 - nowhere near as bad as it sounds. That makes 3 “single digit” A roads we’ve cycled along and survived - the A4 around Bristol (albeit only briefly), the A6 between Preston and Lancaster and now the A7 - and still one more to go in the A9 once we are past Edinburgh. On none of them, so far, have we felt particularly threatened - just like other roads, there are drivers who get impatient or come too close (see previous rants!) and there are others who can spare the few seconds that are sometimes necessary to pass cyclists safely (out heartfelt thanks to them!).

On the other hand, the weather gods decided that, in giving us yet another tailwind, they had done their bit and they could not let us have a first day without any rain. They therefore sent us a brief shower in the last 10 miles just to make sure that Stephen got out his rain jacket and Christine her overshoes (dry, toasty tootsies = a happy Christine!)

Almost as soon as we crossed the border (passports at the ready), we were grateful to see the sign to our destination in Canonbie and were checked in well before 6 o’clock giving us time to see the news (including the cricket score (go England!) and the weather forecast (things are looking up for the weekend after a ropey start to Saturday) before going down to dinner.