Day 7 - Ambleside to Thornhill

I'm not quite sure how far I've cycled today. It's more than 94 miles but no more than 103. Why the uncertainty? Well, after I had made a note of the distance for my original route I altered it to avoid the A75 to Dumfries and this increased the distance from 94 to 103 miles. But, in the saddle I altered my journey on the fly so it's somewhere in between.

Why alter on the fly, you say? Good question, I reply. When planning my route I thought it might be a good idea to detour south of Dumfries to see Caerlaverock Castle as it looked pretty cool on the Google satellite image (look it up, you'll see). After about 80 miles of cycling this no longer seemed like even an average idea. What kind of idiot wants to go sightseeing on a 9 mile detour after 8 hours in the saddle (this is a rhetorical question!)? So I altered my route and cycled parallel to the A75 before joining it for 1 mile on the Dumfries city outskirts.

The day had started dry with white clouds, blue skies and a yellow sun. It made a change.

My initial task was to cycle the 40 something miles through the Lake District before hitting my first checkpoint, Carlisle.

Within a few miles I was faced with the first of three horrible climbs that would see me puff, pant, swear and sweat. But even after all the pain they induced they couldn't take away from the beauty of the Lakes which made it all worth it.



Through Keswick then two more back breaking climbs (still haven't pushed!) that came one after the other (who thought that was a good thing to do?) and I was out and on flat roads for the rest of the day.

Carlisle came quickly and since I was passing it I stopped to take a photo of the castle.



Next stop, Gretna for lunch.

By the time I got there it was 2:30pm and I was hungry. I stopped on the verge on the Scottish border and took the obligatory photos of the sign and the First House in Scotland Marriage Room.





Lunch eaten (cereal bars, biscuits, apple and banana) and I headed off on my abandoned folly of a trip to see Caerlaverock Castle as I've already said.

Reached the Thornhill Inn in Thornhill at 6:30pm. It's a pub with rooms that look pretty new and they have free wifi so I'm happy. I'm writing this in their restaurant having just eaten a fillet steak on haggis topped with blue cheese! Surprisingly nice.

Breakfast tomorrow is at 8am (again! Don't any of these places deal with business people?). So a probable 9am start with an 84 mile (only 84!) ride to Balloch on the southern tip of Loch Lomond.

Day 7 route:

View Day 7 in a larger map

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Location:Drumlanrig St,Thornhill,United Kingdom