Day 2 of cycling ~ 85 mile day, 135 total.
So today started off cloudy threatening with rain. So we wore our rain gear from the get go, but it didn't shower on us until around 2pm. Packing up the camp gave us a good idea of how Tolken meant for hobbits walking through bogs to feel in LOTR as we were greeted by almost invisible midges. Very annoying little buggers... Thankfully that was the end of them as once we were on our bikes they couldn't keep up.
My arm also thankfully looked a bit better and by better I mean didn't look worse.
So today started off cloudy threatening with rain. So we wore our rain gear from the get go, but it didn't shower on us until around 2pm. Packing up the camp gave us a good idea of how Tolken meant for hobbits walking through bogs to feel in LOTR as we were greeted by almost invisible midges. Very annoying little buggers... Thankfully that was the end of them as once we were on our bikes they couldn't keep up.
My arm also thankfully looked a bit better and by better I mean didn't look worse.
Pretty countryside
There's cows in the background I swear!!
A church along the way
Leaving Scotland behind us... well not really.
As we tried to leave Scotland it told us no! and made us backtrack after we didn't find the road we were looking for. So we went by this sign twice, just once in each direction. Eventually we made it to Carlisle at which point the heavens opened up and really drenched us. Still another 20 miles or so to North Dykes at which point I definitely didn't feel like riding anymore.
Upon getting close to North Dykes we took a road which we thought would be a shorter route...well everything in that area was up and down hills and we definitely hit the largest hill of the day at about mile 80. Not fun, but showed me I had more "left in the tank" than I thought since I was still able to get up it.
Sheep in the fields
Family we stayed with in North Dykes
So we stayed with a family through couchsurfers which turned out to be great. They fed us a lovely supper (after they got home - they left the door unlocked for us since they were out) complete with sticky toffee pudding for dessert. YUM! They had a daughter who was away, another couchsurfer visiting as well, their son and his friend who was staying the night. A lot of energy from their boy until he eventually crashed in front of the television. World travellers and avid cyclists. Jane (our host) had taken their kids (age 5 and 7 or 8) out touring on bikes earlier in the year through rain and cold. Those kids are going to be able to handle anything when they get older!
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