Day 8 - Tutbury to Shrawley - 80 miles

We had a very enjoyable dinner last night in the Dog and Partridge in Tutbury with Granville (our mechanic) and his wife Marie. The last time we saw them was last Monday morning in a very wet Glencoe while sprinkling the first of Dad's ashes, so it was great to see them again and catch up - seeing them really brought home how far we'd come.

Each day has been the same for us since starting really, the only real difference being the weather and the place we've slept in, so the days have all merged into one, full of unfamiliar places, hills, rain and pedalling - but seeing Granville and Marie last night meant we are deep into England now, and almost home! Well, not quite, we still have another 230 miles to go, but it felt like we'd almost finished.

So we ate pies and burgers washed down with Young's Olympic Gold (a nice golden ale with plenty of flavour which somehow reminded me of Caramac - not sure why, but that's the best tasting note I can provide) - we had initially opted for pints of Red Dwarf, brewed locally in Burton, but it turned out someone had just emptied the barrel before us.

We woke this morning to fluffy clouds and blue sky, and although our initial joy was tempered by the weather man telling us that showers would develop throughout the day, we decided that we were happy with 'showers', which sounded much less wet than yesterday's weather. So, with a route that barely registered on the climb chart we were surely in for a good day's cycling.

We headed down for breakfast, and once again we both had a full English as I was first in the saddle. The lady serving us had spotted the Moggy earlier, and us in our lycra, had put two & two together and thus cooked us an extra large breakfast to fuel our journey! The breakfast was very good: nice sausages, and the first plum tomatoes of the journey - my favourite when it comes to a full English - but this plus was cancelled out by the hard, 'toast-shredding' butter. Nevertheless, it was still a top 5 contender in the breakfast rankings.

This was the first place we've stopped at that offered us no cycle storage, so we locked the bikes to the rack last night and so were very relieved to find them still there in the morning (not that Tutbury seemed like the kind of place to harbour light-fingered criminals - in fact, the whole area seemed to be littered with well-to-do villages with grand old buildings; there must be interesting history around these parts, maybe associated with Burton's extremely successful brewing period: Burton became the centre of the the beer brewing world during the height of the British rule in India and was responsible the creation of the India Pale Ale style of beer, this success was credited in no small part to its water being high in Gypsum content, brewers today still 'Burtonise' their water before brewing - but I digress).

On our agenda for today was a visit to Mum's, as we circumnavigated Birmingham just east of the M42 before heading out into Worcestershire - so if seeing Granville and Marie last night didn't quite feel like we were home, today definitely would.

I was soon on the road heading towards Tamworth. It was fresh, but dry and bright, and the roads for the first 10-15 miles were country lanes so a very pleasant start. The usual posterior pain didn't start in earnest until 10 miles in, so all was going well and throughout the rest of the ride I was able to spend enough time out of the saddle to give me some relief.

Before I knew it I was rolling into North Warwickshire. It's a funny county, Warwickshire, it never ceases to surprise me: it's always larger than I expect it to be, and it starts both further north and further south than i think it should - it almost feels as if it's secretly extending its borders while the surrounding counties aren't looking. I shortly arrived on the outskirts of Tamworth, the former seat of Offa, the man of Dyke fame and former King of Mercia. Apparently Tamworth gets its name because it sits on the river Tame and had a 'worthig' type of fortification (if I've remembered that correctly) on its banks, courtesy of the aforementioned King.

After getting slightly lost in the centre of town and having to take a short walk through the pedestrianised centre I picked up the route and headed out of town. Tamworth looked quite nice by the way, and I'd have liked to have spent a bit of time looking into the history of the place, but our schedule didn't allow such indulgences.

After a small climb out of town and completing my first 26 miles of the day I met up with Lee, just as the rain was starting. We swapped over and Lee headed off, soon to be in very familiar territory following a route we've used numerous times to get to the NEC when the traffic on the M42 was bad. I headed off in roughly the right direction, but trying to navigate with an atlas and so many roads and junctions to contend with made it impossible to keep on track so I headed to Knowle and then Dorridge where I filled up the car, again!

I knew I was back on the right route now so I found the next available place to stop, picked up some bottles of water for re-filling en route and started today's blog while waiting for the 'Redditch man' of newspaper fame to pass by. At this point we were only about 4-5 miles from Mum's - perfect timing for a lunch break.

After Lee passed by I gave him 5 minutes then headed off in the direction of Kings Norton. Five minutes later I was pulling onto the same driveway in Greenacres Road that I'd departed from eight days earlier. I was greeted by Mom, Millie and Lucy (Lee's daughters), together with flags, bunting and paper chains!
,
It was lovely to see family again, and I knew Lee would be pleased to see the girls as he'd been missing them for the past few days. Lee rolled up shortly afterwards, having completed a 28-mile stint, and we headed inside for sandwiches, pork pie, cake and tea - by far the biggest lunch we'd had all trip (and very nice it was too). Dave Boucher came over to see us too - we hadn't seen Jean and Dave since Glencoe either, so it was nice to see him again (Jean couldn't put in an appearance as she was on grandparent duty).

After an hour of catching up and showing photos I felt I was getting far too comfortable and the thought of going back out was becoming increasingly unappealing, so all too soon I had to get back out on the bike and head towards Worcestershire, with just a short 13-mile leg ahead of me.

In Alvechurch I turned off into country lanes again, and although a little hilly it provided much more pleasant cycling and after an hour's dry pedalling I heard the now familiar sound of  the 'Moggy' approaching from behind. Lee parked around the corner and we swapped for the last time today, about five miles from Droitwich Spa (a 'Historic Brine Spa Town' if the signs you pass on entry are to be believed).

Droitwich Spa is only a small town so we were soon out the other side, where I stopped at the Holt Fleet pub on the River Severn, which looked particularly magnificent. After snapping a photo of it, and Lee when he passed, I set off in search of the Lenchford Inn, now only a couple of miles up the road in Shrawley. I pulled into the car park to find it sat on the bank of the river - a lovely spot, and the sun was even making a bit of an effort for us.

Lee arrived soon after, as did friends Sarah, Potter (no, not the one with the scar on his forehead and the broomstick), and a little later Grogan. We caught up over a couple of pints of Otter Ale. Sarah had attempted to get the local paper and the BBC interested in our efforts but neither were here to welcome us (is there something else going on that's more newsworthy?!), we appreciated the effort though.

Both Lee and I had managed to sneak off to shower in shifts and we were able to relax a bit and regale our crowd with cycling stories about near misses with sheep (I have a video which I'll post once I've worked out how to edit out the expletive).

It was a fun few hours, but you know what they say about 'all good things' and one by one they left. Then Lee's wife, Claire, arrived with the girls, which made his day, followed by our friend Adrian (making a cameo appearance to cycle with us tomorrow). Adrian had already cycled 18 miles from Worcester train station, having got a bit lost en route and having ended up re-tracing his steps(/pedals) in order to find the correct road out of town (I'm now even more thankful we've had the Garmin on the bike for our trip).

Lee went and found a table for dinner with his family while I kept Adrian company with another Otter Ale. We ate, and nursed a pint of Doombar before bed. Although I attempted to finish the blog before bed, the beers had taken their toll and I promptly fell asleep - not that i could have posted it anyway as there was no internet access.

The Lenchford Inn has seen better days, which is a shame considering its fabulous location, but it now seems to be earning its keep as a stop-off for tradesmen crossing the river after work. Lee thought the place had more than a whiff of Pontins about it, which I thought was very well observed, but our room was clean, spacious and comfortable and believe it or not the beds have won my 'most comfortable bed' award, for now at least, thanks to the mattresses having an integral 70mm memory foam top.

I woke at 6am (after only 4 hours of snore-free sleep I was informed - my wife will sympathise with Lee on that score) to finish the blog. The weather forecast for today is WET! So far, though, it's only the roads that are wet. Long may that continue. I've just seen Lee and Adrian cycle off into the distance, in the wrong direction, I blindly followed - not a good start, so I'd better go and find them now to make sure we all head in the right direction of Bromyard.

NEXT STOP: Stow on the Wold - 64 miles, a bit hillier today than yesterday, but nothing compared to recent days' terrain... I hope! Only five cat 5 climbs and a cat 4 just before Stow.

Day 7 - Holmfirth to Tutbury - 70 miles

Today was a day of two halves, fortunately! If this morning's weather had continued all day, I'm not sure how we'd have fared.

We had a very good breakfast in the White Horse to kick proceedings off. Lee allowed himself a full English this morning too, as he was second in the saddle. Breakfast was not quite up to Balloch or Threshfield's standards, but a came close second - interestingly, this was the first place so far on our trip to include fried bread with the full English (suppose it's a little old fashioned), but thankfully we've not had to suffer potato hash browns anywhere in its place!

After loading the car and with an unclear head, I almost rode off in my sandals, without helmet, gloves, glasses or drink! Once I had sorted myself and my things out I headed off straight into a hill. My legs were feeling the effects of yesterday - something I hadn't considered - as was my bottom, and right from the off it was hard work. As I didn't have time to get the blood pumping before I reached the hill, the first 2-3 mile climb was gruelling. In fact, it wasn't until I was coming to the last climb, at 18 miles, that I felt like I was performing to usual standards. But I'm getting carried away, first I must tell you about the glorious weather.

The Met Office had forecast heavy showers for today, and we weren't disappointed. No sooner had I finished the first climb than the strong headwinds started, the temperature dropped and the cold rain hammered down. I say 'down', but it was more like sideways. It felt like hail on the face and as I had to remove my protective glasses (because I couldn't see), I was now struggling to see because of the pain from the rain hitting my eyes. My fingers and toes were numb, and it was the worst bit of cycling I've endured so far - I think it was the tiredness from yesterday's efforts combined with the cold temperature that won this morning's cycling that particular accolade.

Nevertheless, I pushed on and the rain stopped for a while - it was still cold, but I was happy with that. I crossed into Barnsley and the Peak District. I considered taking a picture of the sign, but I was so cold, and so keen to get this stretch finished that I cycled straight on by. In fact, that's pretty much how my morning went - so apologies for the lack of pretty pictures in this post. I will try harder tomorrow, but in place of a picture from the morning, here's one I took from this afternoon - absolutely no relevance to our cycling, but I couldn't help myself.

I finally caught up with Lee after 20 miles and a climb out of Glossop. We swapped over and off he went heading for Chapel en le Frith, as did I, but in search of sandwiches for our lunch as we'd decided not to stop anywhere to eat and instead push on again.

With sandwiches 'in the bag' I headed south for Buxton and then towards Ashbourne on the A515. However, I lost the A515 and followed the A6 for a while before I could re-join the A515. At this point I wasn't sure if Lee had got ahead, so I decided that the only sensible course of action was to get far enough along the A515 to ensure I was in front and to wait for him to pass by. So I parked up in a layby about 17 miles from where we had swapped and was able to get yesterday's belated blog finished and uploaded using Lee's '3 dongle' for internet access.

While waiting the heavy rain started again and I was glad I was in the car.












Not long afterwards Lee rolled up, looking somewhat damp. He'd managed to get lost at the same point as I did - which meant extra hills for him to climb so a slightly longer than planned 'leg' to kick us off but we were sure we'd catch up as the peaks flattened out.

We pushed on for another 3 miles so that Lee could finish his leg and swap over, leaving us 14 miles each to finish the day.

Fortunately for me, this is where the second half of the day started: the sun started to break through the clouds and the temperature rose to make for a pleasant hour's cycling, and as we slowly descended out of the Peak District the hills got shorter and shallower, giving me the opportunity to get out of my saddle and allow my bottom a break - thus making the cycling more enjoyable. After a very pleasant hour's cycling and averaging 14mph (despite getting a little lost in Ashbourne's one-way system), it was time to swap for the final time. I sat in the car in a layby making a start on the blog while Lee headed off in the direction of Lichfield, still on the A515. Another hour later Lee rolled into the car park of the Dog & Partridge in Tutbury where I'd just finished fully inflating my tyre after yesterday's puncture.

So it's off for showers now and to see what the beer pumps offer us before dinner. Granville and Marie are coming over to say hello as we're in their neck of the woods - it'll be the first time we've seen 'friendly' faces since last Monday morning.

NEXT STOP: Shrawley near Droitwich - 79 miles and only 1 climb! :-)

(You'll notice there is no longer a 'chafing' score on the 'Smith-o-meter' as we feel we've cracked this with the right clothing and use of anti-chafing creams.)

DAY 6 - Threshfield to Holmfirth - 71 miles

Firstly, apologies to all who logged on to read our day 6 installment on the blog only to find it missing. With a later start yesterday, the big hills to contend with, and a later than usual arrival in Holmfirth, by the time I sat down to look at the blog it was 10pm - an hour later than my body seems to want to shut down while on this ride. In the end I had to concede defeat and turn the lights out at half past 11, so here's the entry for day 6:

We finally awoke to stare day 6 in the face - the big one. Here's how it stacked up:
7 categorised climbs of 19 miles in total: 2 x cat 5 / 1 x cat 4 / 3 x cat 3 / 1 cat 2

GULP. I think it's fair to say that neither of us was particularly enthralled by the idea of today's ride, having tasted cat 4 and cat 3 climbs recently and found them hard work. But we had to face it, so we went through our usual routine and headed down for breakfast.

Breakfast was a little later this morning, as the breakfast service didn't start until 8:30, so we decided to do a couple of checks on the bikes, inflate tyres and adjust saddles in an attempt to alleviate knee and bottom pain.

So with bikes back on the rack we headed in for breakfast to find out whether we were in store for a 'Balloch beater'. I had the full cooked breakfast (as I now consider my duty), while Lee went for poached eggs on toast - he was first in the saddle today and finds it easier to pedal without the weight of a full English to carry with him.

I can officially reveal that today's breakfast at the Old Hall Inn was indeed the best we've had so far, but only by a nose, and I think it was the salted butter waiting for me under a tiny cloche at a perfectly spreadable consistency that clinched it. The Old Hall Inn would make a great base from which to explore the Yorkshire Dales National Park and, being close to my wife's and my favourite dale (Coverdale) I think there's a good chance I'll be seeing this place again in the future. I think they have real claim to having the best food in the dale, as their sign outside states.

After breakfast I went to settle the bill while Lee headed out into uncertain-looking weather. While paying the balance for our room the lady behind the bar (who I'm guessing is the landlady) gave me a very generous £20 for our cause!! Who'd believe it?! Talking with Lee only the other night we were expecting the stranger donations to dry up the further south we went but so far, there has been no evidence of it. THANK YOU Old Hall Inn!

Once I'd filled the Moggy up with fuel in the petrol station in the village I set off to find Lee. However, there had been no sign of him before I hit Skipton. My phone rang shortly afterwards: Lee was somewhat lost in Skipton centre. The route can be a little tricky to follow on the Garmin GPS sometimes, as we're using OS landranger maps on it, which have pink roads; the route we need to follow is also marked in pink so it's very easy to over-shoot the route and if it's busy with traffic you can't always hear the beeps the unit makes to tell you to take a turn.

Once we'd finally caught up, by a slightly different route than planned, we headed south again, trying to thread ourselves between Bradford and Manchester. We swapped over after Lee had soldiered his way through his 21-mile leg with his still swollen and painful knee. I hopped on the saddle part way up the first categorised climb, a cat 4, and made my way into Calderdale.

When chatting with Q (my cycling guru) last night about saddle soreness and gear usage strategy, he suggested going for lower gears earlier in the climbs rather than trying to save a couple in reserve for when it gets steeper (which is what I had been doing). So I opted for this new strategy and hit the granny gear from the off, with my eyes fixed 3 metres in front so as not to become disheartened by what lay in front of me. I pedalled on, it was a comfortable climb for legs and lungs, but the saddle was starting to fight back.


42 miles in we swapped again, which was a great relief after a five-mile climb out of Hebden Bridge (cat3). Lee had made a pitstop in Hebden Bridge to grab lunch for us in the form of paninis, so when we changed over I was able to enjoy a hot sandwich and soft seat before heading off in the car to find Lee - who, after my half-hour break, had almost crossed the M62 and was halfway up his own 4.5 mile cat 3 climb. I waited at the top of hill where it started to rain again, though this morning's speed-sapping winds had now died down thankfully.


From here we dropped down into a busy little area between Halifax and Oldham - not so busy with cars but with roads, and while easy to navigate on the bike with the GPS for guidance, following in the car wasn't so easy. At this point therefore we had to pick a destination and follow the TomTom's route in the car, so we parted company. This meant that once Lee had hit his mileage for the day I was nowhere to be found! I attempted to retrace my steps to where I had last seen him, only to end up back where I started, having a bit of a 'twighlight zone' moment.


While speaking together on the phone to work out where on earth either of us was, the heavens opened - for both of us. We couldn't be far away from each other, but decided to head to the next village along the route, Greenfields, which should be easier to locate as it was now on both our routes. When a very wet Lee arrived he told me he had found the best view he'd ever seen, complete with train crossing a viaduct and cricket match. The video he took on his phone did look nice, but at this point I wasn't about to go back to find it, as it was still raining and I had a cat 2 climb to do before we dropped into Holmfirth.


Fuelled by a panini and an energy gel I once again hit granny gear and pedalled my way up. I think it was a little steeper than the climbs earlier in the day, but short enough to be a happy compromise, I spent the whole climb waiting to turn a corner and stare another 16% section in the face, but it never came, and to my delight I rounded a bend onto the summit.


After another half mile's cycling I found myself bouncing around in an usual manner. The road immediately in front of me looked fine, so glanced down at my rear wheel to determine the source of the strange sensation and found a rapidly deflating tyre. I set about changing the inner tube - fortunately it was only drizzling at this point and 5-10 minutes later I was on my way again, with a very long and enjoyable descent into Holmfirth.


Our pub/bed for the night was a couple of miles the other side of the town, on Jackson Bridge, and after a short but ridiculously steep climb out of the town I found the Moggy sat opposite the pub. What a sight - we'd done it! This was cause for celebration as we'd both been feeling anxious about today.


Lee had already got the bags into the room so all we had to do was walk the bikes around the back to the storage area and head off for showers. The landlord, Dave, told us at this point that we'd made the local paper! (Thanks again to Helen for working hard behind the scenes to contact all of these people in an effort to aid our fundraising.) So our plan was to shower, have a quick pint, look the paper, and head into town to find a suitable spot to sprinkle some of Dad's ashes.


Holmfirth is the only place we'd planned to sprinkle Dad's ashes that he'd not visited before, but as a huge fan of 'Last of the Summer Wine' we know he would have loved to visit. In the bar we were soon asked by one of the locals about our efforts, prompted again by our CMA T-shirts. It transpired that the pub we were in was used in the filming of the TV series and the man we were now speaking to, Ron, had been the landlord during filming!


After a fun chat with him we thought he'd be a great person to recommend a nice spot for the ashes, which he did: a hill just across the road which afforded us an amazing view of the village. He assured us that the hill itself had been used extensively in the filming of the TV series, and once we arrived near the top we saw why: a picture postcard view! Once we'd taken in the view we sprinkled some of Dad's ashes, knowing that he'd be very happy indeed with this spot.


We headed back to the pub for another pint of Plaedies, which was a lovely hoppy summery ale (with plenty of body considering it's 3.8% abv). While enjoying our beer we looked at some pictures that Ron had been to fetch for us from his cottage across the road of his time with the cast during filming. He signed a couple of pictures for us and gave us £5 for our cause - stranger donations now up to £80.


We then sat down to dinner. I had an excellent slow cooked piece of lamb 'Henry' and Lee had pork with black pudding. Very good quality food, excellent ale and comfortable rooms makes the White Horse at Jackson Bridge another one that's worth coming back to: a proper locals' pub, full of friendly people. We also had £4 from a lady sat a couple of tables away who'd overheard us talking and then another £4 from a younger chap who popped in after a game of cricket. Stranger donations now £88. Brilliant!


NEXT STOP: Tutbury near Burton, 70 miles.

Day 6: Threshfield to Holmfirth - 71 miles - wot not blog?

A few people have asked as to the whereabouts of the blog post for Day 6, so I've been asked to fill you in.

The boys put in another very hard day's work yesterday, with the hilliest day of the ride by far. As a consequence (and the fact that Stu also had to stop to fit a new inner tube thanks to a puncture on top of a wet and windy moor) they had a later finish, and by the time they'd showered, changed, fed and watered (beered) themselves and sorted out their routes etc. for the following day's ride, it was pretty late.

I had an online chat (there was no phone signal where they were staying) with Stu at around 11.30pm last night when he was still attempting to write the Day 6 blog post, but in the end I think the tiredness got the better of him and he retired to bed for a few hours' rest and recuperation.

From what I've heard so far, Day 7 has started out with the sort of hard rain that feels like hail stones and some sore bottoms :-( The ride should get less hilly after the first half of today though, so hopefully that will bring them some relief!

With a bit of luck your normal blogging service will be resumed tonight :-)

Day 5 - Middleton in Teesdale to Threshfield - 62 miles

We woke up in Middleton to sun streaming in through the blinds, which was a pleasant surprise as we had gone to sleep listening to rain.

After a good breakfast, which was on a par with most we've had except for the fact that the eggs were the best cooked so far, we made our final preparations and started to load the car. As we were doing so we were accosted by a dog walker who inquired about the car and our ride, he said his mum used to own a 'moggy' which brought back memories for him (it seems the car is as much of a conversation piece as our ride), he then proceeded to pull £10 from his wallet for us and wished us luck. This takes the stranger donation total to £55. Truly amazing!

I was in the saddle first today as Lee had opted to take the second and final legs after having had the two biggies yesterday. The weather was perfect - sunny but with a fresh breeze, I was feeling good about the day ahead and our journey into the Yorkshire Dales.

After an easy few miles of undulating and quiet roads I hit the A66, a busy dual carriageway that connects Scotch Corner to Penrith. After a short run along it I turned south onto much quieter roads where I soon hit the start of my second climb for the day - our first category 3 climb of the week. Once up the first short and steep section (16%) I found Lee waiting in a layby. Having done 15 miles at this point we decided to swap. I think we both thought we'd seen the end of the climb, but our naivety soon shone through as within less than half a mile, now in the car, I drove up some hideous ascents with all manner of twists and turns, which went on for another 2 miles, all of which Lee now had to do.

All I could do at this point was wait at the top - neither of us had any phone signal as this was a remote stretch of road so if he had a puncture I wouldn't know about it unless he came walking up the hill behind me sporting a flat.

Sooner than expected he came grinding up the hill and into the Yorkshire Dales National Park, with a painful knee (probably an old footballing injury rearing its ugly head) so we stopped and consulted the chart and map and figured out that it would soon descend. So the plan was for Lee to continue for another 10 or so miles until the other side of Leyburn, where we would swap again, giving me two climbs, a category 4 and a category 3, to have a stab at.

The 4 arrived and didn't go unnoticed, but it was comfortable enough. One look at the GPS unit showed that I only had about 4 miles left before the next swapover, so I knew the category 3 climb was imminent. Having no experience of hills of this sort I was curious/nervous about what was to come, I didn't have to wait long to find out!

It was a steady incline for about 2 miles, which I was managing on the middle chain ring and in my saddle with any real discomfort, so I felt good about putting paid to this 'little hill' - until I rounded a bend and saw that there was a small 16% incline in front of me. I had no choice but to drop the the 'granny gear' and push to the top - except it wasn't the top, it kept going for another half mile. My heart rate hit 99% of my maximum, at 181bpm, I couldn't get the air into my lungs quickly enough and had no choice (not that it was a conscious decision) but to put a foot down and let my heart rate recover.


A few minutes and about 300 yards later I was at the top and rewarded with not only amazing views but a descent to match. A few minutes later, after hitting speeds of about 37mph, I was down in the bottom of the Dale and at the next meeting point. A quick change-over and after a nice run into Threshfield for Lee we were at our home for the night, The Old Hall Inn.

After the usual post-ride routine we headed out for a short walk before retiring to the bar at the Old Hall, where I couldn't resist trying a pint of Theakstons Best Bitter, Theakstons Lightfoot and a Timothy Taylor Landlord, all very well kept beers. Best Bitter was a darker ale so I preferred the other two, although I couldn't choose between them for a favourite. It was nice to get a good selection of ale, it's been surprisingly slim pickings until now, although last night's 'Flower Power' in Middleton was excellent and my favourite so far along with 'Fourth of July'.

This was soaked up with a huge burger and chips. The sign outside the pub says 'best food in the dale' , I viewed this statement with skepticism, as all pubs seem to advertise 'good food' as standard these days, but I have to say, the quality of the food was amazing, If the breakfast in the morning is of the same quality it could be a 'Balloch beater'.

Talking of Balloch, I must thank my wife for unbeknownst to me, contacting a load (about 18) of local papers in the hope of getting more publicity, she's already had one taker in the form of the 'Lennox Herald' in Dumbartonshire who are going to run our story.

Back to the room now for an early night, will see if we can stay awake long enough to watch any of the Olympic opening ceremony.

NEXT STOP: Holmfirth - 71 miles and the biggest day in terms of hills of the entire ride by far, there could be a bit of pushing tomorrow.

Day 4 - Annan to Middleton-in-Teesdale

Another prompt start today, however we found a beautiful spot behind the Blue Bell pub last night: under a  rowan tree was a bench that was afforded a view of a sweeping bend in the river Annan. We both agreed that Dad would appreciate this little spot, so after breakfast we headed there to sprinkle some more of his ashes.

We woke today in an oven - not literally, but someone forgot to turn the radiator/clothes drier off before sleeping. The weather outside was considerably less warm - overcast and cool ,but dry at least. The breakfast at The Old Rectory in Annan was very good indeed. Lee again opted for something a little lighter, but I now feel it's my duty to try the full cooked breakfast option all the way down the country - a kind of Pepsi challenge for pork lovers.

We had a chat with the B&B owners after breakfast who were originally from Oxfordshire, Didcot to be exact (small world), so after catching up about the changes over the last few years since their departure we thanked them for a comfortable stay and we headed off.

The climb chart as you'll see here appears very flat at first. Lee opted to do the first session, which turned out to be even flatter than the graph led us to believe, and driving along it made me feel a little jealous of the ride he had in front of him.

Very soon we were passing through Gretna Green and into England, where Lee let out a rather loud 'wooo hooo', to the bemusement of one passer-by.

From here we headed east and a little north to Longtow - not a very big place but pleasant enough, and it somehow felt a little more English, I stopped for a photo opportunity then we pushed on towards Brampton.

With a total mileage for the day of 64 miles, we decided again to break it up into a 'bottom friendly' four chunks. The first stopping place I could find was about 20 miles into the journey, just north of Brampton, so we changed here and off I went with a 20-mile stint of my own. By the time I hit Brampton, three miles in, the bottom numbness/pain had started, as usual - I guess this will become a constant theme throughout my journey, but I'm hoping that I'll become accustomed to the saddle at some point and the pain will subside a little. I'm certainly paying the price for not getting on my bike enough in the weeks preceding the ride (I blame the weather!).

The route was easy to follow all day and I got stuck in with the intention of trying to average 14mph. All was going well, and then I hit Northumberland. All too soon after crossing into the county the strong headwinds started, as did the hills and then the rain. This continued until the moment I crossed back into Cumbria. The winds were so strong that often cycling downhill into the wind was 6-8mph slower than going up them. To say I felt cheated out of my rewards for climbing uphill was putting it mildly! If the weather had been like this all day long it would have beaten Day 1 hands down in the 'worst weather' competition.




However, a few dry miles later I arrived Alston, the planned lunch break and swapover point. Alston is by far the prettiest town we've seen on our journey so far, and tourism is obviously rife here as there are surely too many pubs/shops/tea rooms to be sustained by the local population alone. The tourism hasn't spoiled the feel of the place though and the cobbled streets around the very centre make for quite a charming picture (though as a surface to cycle up, combined with it's steepness it is not ideal).

We went for lunch at Blueberrys tea room where we both succumbed to a pork-based sandwich before getting started again, which we were keen to do as we could taste an early finish today. The next two stints were nice and short at around 10-11 miles each, but this is where all the real work started - this is the price Lee paid for taking the flat easy run this morning. 

He immediately had to start climbing up out of Alston for over three miles without let up. He was rewarded with a short downhill section, only to hit the bottom of another climb at three miles, again without any break in the ascent - by far the hardest work he's ever done on a bike he assures me. I think it'd have been the same for me too but I was cheated out of this workout by his eagerness to start this morning (I'm sure I'll get over it, especially as tomorrow's climbs make today's look like child's play, on paper at least).

Lee handed over to me with 11 or so miles to go. What he hadn't realised when jumping at the start section today was that the finish section, albeit a short one, was pretty much all downhill - a fair payback for the 'Northumberland saga' I think, so our cycling world has equilibrium again.

A very enjoyable 40 minutes ensued with only a light splash of rain. Reaching speeds of over 30mph, I soon ran out of effective gears so had to freewheel a lot of the way (here I needed a road bike) averaging almost 18mph for my 'leg' (an average I don't think Ill see the likes of again on this journey). I arrived in Middleton-in-Teesdale at the Belvedere Guest House before 4pm.



NEXT STOP: Threshfield near Grassington - 62 miles and six big climbs, two of which are category 3. Lee's big climbs this afternoon were only category 4s, (4 being the easiest on the scale, 1 the hardest). GULP!!

Day 3 - Ayr to Annan - 85 miles

The longest (in terms of miles) day is now behind us, but that's not to say it's going to get any easier!

We woke to a clear blue sky today in Ayr, hoping to be on the road by half past eight to accommodate the extra mileage. So, after a respectable breakfast (on a par with the Clachaig Inn but nowhere near Balloch House), we departed just after half past eight, with Lee kicking the day off in the saddle.

Within a mile Lee was climbing a steep hill out of Ayr (as was I in the Moggy) - not the gentle warm-up he had been hoping for, and the hills kept on coming! But so did the beautiful scenery.

With the sun came the midges today - it seems that midges can either fly no faster than 10 miles an hour or just can't be bothered to as when my cycling speed dropped below this magic number I was instantly surrounded by a cloud of the little blighters. I think that if I was a bird and I liked my food, I'd be seriously considering cycling lessons!

The midges were only a tiny issue though, as most of the time we were managing to ride too quickly to be caught and so far I've found no bites - testimony to the effort I've put in today!

This stretch of the journey was so enjoyable to cycle and drive along it felt like it alone was worth the 12-hour drive up to Scotland.

We broke the day into quarters again, mainly to give our bottoms a break, so we did the journey in roughly 20-mile chunks. The first two were over all too soon, both of us feeling like we could have done more.

When it came to the second changeover, the half way point, we needed to think about a lunch stop. It was half past 12 by this time, so we decided to continue on the same route in the hope that one of the next two villages would yield a place to eat. Alas, neither had anything to offer! Before I knew it, the Moggy and I had landed in Dumfries almost an hour later. I knew at this point we had no chance of finding each other without considerable delay so I headed out the other side of town to wait on a road I knew Lee would need to travel on.

After another hour (and staring at a huge hill that Lee would need to climb) we finally made a pit stop for lunch at a coffee shop I'd passed a mile back. One haggis and cheddar panini and a tuna melt later we returned to the car - at which point I realised it was my turn to take over and therefore the huge hill I'd been staring at in front of us was mine to climb.

I attacked the hill with gusto fuelled by haggis and cheddar (yes, that was mine) and with the help of 'granny gear' climbed a couple of back-to-back category 5 hills for about three miles. Mere hillocks for the likes of Bradley Wiggins, but a big enough challenge for me. At the top I turned at the site of a ruined castle and headed down a nice quiet B-road.

This kept the climb going and all of sudden, like midges attacking a cyclist, the road turned into track. I thought it was just a small section that would soon turn back into the tarmac road I was expecting to cycle on, but after a mile of climbing over this (with road tyres) I realised there was a potential disaster looming.

I stopped to check my phone and realised that I'd missed two calls from Lee - who, it turned out, had decided to follow my route and thus had been faced with tackling this 'road' in the Moggy! The further I got along the track the more confused I became as to where he'd managed to turn around (assuming that he'd turned back), and only when I'd got off the road and descended for a couple of miles did I catch up with a slightly dirty-looking Moggy - turns out he hadn't turned around at all but gone through the whole lot. I was amazed!

This left me with about 10 miles to do, and with an average speed of 9 mph after the track debacle, I attempted to drag my average speed kicking and screaming towards 13mph (despite my bottom's best efforts to get me to get off the bike and walk).

I soon pulled into Annan, which had a nice market town feel to it. A lot of buildings were of a reddish stonework construction and the high street has a clocktower at each end.


The sat navs got us to The Old Rectory B&B without any problem, where we checked in, showered and sorted out the next three days' maps/routes. Then we went out for a couple of beers followed by dinner - nothing of any note here I'm afraid (yet again chips with everything, but it wasn't 'bad').

A nurse in the bar spotted our CMA t-shirts and after a lengthy chat about our route for the following day she handed over £5 for the collection.

A great day's cycling today - we both thoroughly enjoyed the scenery and the weather. I'm just going to ignore the dirt track section and pretend it didn't happen.

Oh, and to set records straight, I neglected to mention a sweet old chap who gave us £10 in the Erskine Garden Centre car park yesterday who, on seeing our Moggy and the signs on it, decided our efforts were worth a contribution - this takes our 'stranger donation' total to £45.

NEXT STOP: Middleton-in-Teesdale - 72 miles and a few climbs away.

The Smith-o-meter for the day reads as follows:

Day 2 - Balloch to Ayr 54 miles

Q: How many mechanics does it take to fix a Morris Minor?
A: 4 + 1 imperial spanner!

We woke up to a dry and almost bright day today - the heat in the room from the radiators being on full heat last night made it feel like summer had arrived though!

We headed down to breakfast around 8am and were presented with a very good looking plate of breakfast - not too big and all tasted great and was very well cooked. It set a high standard for the rest of our trip and it's going to take some beating - if anyone reading this should be visiting Balloch, I highly recommend the Balloch House Hotel.

During breakfast a gentleman approached us having overheard our conversation in the bar with the locals last night and gave us £20 towards our cause! It really is amazing how charitable people can be, and that takes our 'stranger donations' to £30.

We took our time a little in departing today, partly because our room was a long walk around the hotel, also because we were waiting until the tourist information centre opened so that we could investigate the cycle path from Balloch to Erskine Bridge (we were advised to use this by the charitable strangers in the bar last night). Once we'd done this and confirmed that the path did indeed exist and would take us to where we needed to get to, we collected the valuables from the room, retrieved the bikes from storage, consulted the map and arranged the day's meeting points.

I was in the saddle first again today, for no other reason than I had my heart rate monitor on and was in a slightly better state of readiness, so I dropped down onto the path and headed south. The path was indeed good, wide and smooth tarmac all the way to Dumbarton, at which point the path left the river and the signs disappeared altogether. After a couple of wrong turns and stops to consult the GPS I found myself under the Erskine Bridge - I just needed to work out how to get up to it. I happened upon a small 'path' sign for the bridge amongst other places so was soon crossing the bridge on the dedicated cycle lane.

Shortly off the other side I dropped down to the Erskine Garden centre where I found Lee with the Moggy's bonnet up - not a good sign, I guessed. It turned out that the windscreen wipers had stopped working - a bit of a problem considering how much we'd come to rely on them over the past two days!

We agreed that Lee should head off in the direction of Ayr on his bike while I attempted to find someone to diagnose our problem and then fill up with fuel... AGAIN!

I headed into Paisley town, knowing this to be a sizeable town, but not so big that I couldn't find my way out again in a hurry. Fortunately I soon stumbled across a garage, I pulled in and asked if they could take a quick look but was told they were too busy at the moment - my newfound faith in humanity, still fragile, started to crumble a little.

I headed back out of town to another garage I'd seen when filling up at a petrol station across the road and explained my problem. I dropped the word 'charity' into my explanation and upon seeing not only the car but also the signs on it, all four of the mechanics set to work - well a couple did, the other two mainly 'supervised'. After a few suggestions to oil this and that, and maybe buy a new motor for the wipers, one guy thought he'd stumbled upon the solution; he disappeared and reappeared with an imperial spanner, tightened a couple of bolts and twenty minutes after arriving I was on my way again with fully functioning wipers - and they wouldn't take a penny off me (my faith in humanity was swiftly restored and increased).

Thanks to everyone at Roadside Vehicle Service in Paisley.

As I was 'in town' and in the right part of town, I decided to pay a flying visit to our Aunt and Uncle a couple of miles away. They were suitably surprised to see me, and we had a quick chat before I set off to catch up with Lee. I wished I could have taken them up their offer of tea and food, but after the late start and the mechanical setback we had some ground to make up.

I caught up with Lee just north of Lugton after he'd cycled 19 miles since Erskine. At this point we decided to abandon dividing the day up into quarters and he headed off to Stewarton to finish his 'stint' for the day. I caught up with him (despite a closed road) at about half past two, so after a quick sandwich we swapped roles and I set about putting the final 19-20 miles behind me.

The ride was very enjoyable, and although nothing really qualified as a climb, it was very 'up-and-down' and was a great workout.

So all that's left for today's update is the 'Smith-o-meter':

NEXT STOP: Annan - 86 miles (longest day of the ride).

DAY 1 - Glencoe to Balloch 68 miles

First things first: the Smith-o-meter!

 Not too bad then, for the first day.

The weather when we woke up was not much better than when we went to sleep, but better enough for us to feel happy to have a good go at the ride ahead.

After a substantial breakfast we headed a little way north to meet the send-off party at the new Glencoe visitors centre.



Once we'd coaxed Nero out of the car we set about finding a suitable place to sprinkle some of Dad's ashes. Marie spotted a very nice little spot in full view of a mountain amongst a clump of trees. Happy with this we said a few quick words, gave the ashes a sprinkle and promptly headed back to the cars where I got ready for the first stint of cycling. We said our goodbyes (all too soon really, as Lee and I felt we weren't able to do their presence justice the evening before after having had such an early start and a long drive) and got ready to set off on our way.

Thanks all SO MUCH to everyone for making the journey all the way up here to send us off.

So off we went, south on the A82. As the climb chart at the top of the page shows, the first half of the day was all hills and the second half relatively flat, so we decided to break the day into four chunks and each do half of each section.

The hilly bits were certainly hilly and WET, but the hills were long and shallow rather than short steep climbs, which meant we could hit the 'granny gear' and stay in the saddle and grind it out. I was climbing for about 20 mins on one particular hill, but despite the pouring rain and passing trucks we both enjoyed the cycling.

The routine found its own flow and the Moggy driver would pass the cyclist and then sit in the next layby until the cyclist went past, and so it went, giving us the occasional photo opportunity. In the main though, we just had our heads down, stopping only if absolutely necessary, as we were keen to get out of the rain despite our enjoyment.

I handed over the first baton at the ski centre and Lee slogged out an average 12-13mph for 18 miles to our lunch stop at Tyndrum. We ducked into the Green Welly Stop for a sandwich and a break from the rain, and immediately bumped into a similarly dressed person who crossed normal social boundaries by starting a conversation with us without wanting anything (there seems to be something quite magical about doing this kind of activity - it breaks down normal boundaries so that people feel free to start up conversation).

It turned out he was also a native of Birmingham and was doing the JOGLE (John O'Groats to Lands End) - he had started out a couple of days ago, camping along the way. We chatted for the duration of lunch and traded information and routes for about an hour then bade each other farewell before donning our (wet) waterproofs once more and hopping on our respective saddles; he was heading for Glasgow, us for Balloch (12 miles or so nearer).

The difference in the roads at this point was marked - they were much flatter but with a larger aggregate on the surface so while easier, they didn't help our speed much: we averaged about 15-16mph during the afternoon stint.

Fewer laybys on this stretch (due to the road running alongside Loch Lomond) meant that we didn't see each other for quite a while and at various points we each thought the other had got lost, but we put our faith in my newly acquired Garmin bicycle GPS unit, which works really well and certainly has our seal of approval after today.

We finally arrived in Balloch at about half past four, checked into The Balloch House, locked the bikes up, showered and washed our clothes out. We had a couple of very good pints of Deuchars IPA with dinner and spent a few hours in our room (which was actually more like a sauna, thanks to the fact that we'd turned the radiators on full blast in an attempt to dry out our clothes/shoes) fighting the urge to sleep until we'd made all the preparations for tomorrow and updated the blog.

Verdict then for day 1: a great success! Oh, and another £5 donation from a kind local couple who saw our CMA t-shirts and after inquiring as to their significance promptly forced money on us - our plan of using the CMA shirts as our evening  uniform seems to be working!

NEXT STOP: Ayr - 51 short miles, hopefully a little drier although the same weather man seemed fairly certain that the rain was heading south at about the same speed as us.