Cycling John o'Groats to Lands End
End2End : 14th June - 23rd June 2014 (c950 miles, unsupported)
Day 5 - Dumfries to Kendal
We awoke to yet another glorious day, 20oC at 07:30 and clear skies. It was a 25 mile run to Gretna and the English border so we decided to leave a bit later this morning, allowing for a sleep and a rest after a 100m+ day yesterday. Today was in the scheme of things relatively easy as with the exception of Shap Summit there was little in the way of terrain to worry us. The plan was to fuel up with a Premier Inn breakfast and then do the 25 miles to Gretna in short order.
We set off on the back road with the Solway Firth to our right making for good views and some fresh sea air. My neck/shoulder issue was still there but I had developed what would later turn out to be a bigger problem. Both outside ridges of my hands were aching, presumably from the pressure of the handlebars over the last 380 miles. I hadn’t experienced this before so I tried to compensate but soon realised my core strength wasn’t as good as it should have been and I was doing more leaning than supporting my own weight through the core muscles. The journey to Gretna felt good otherwise, we made good time and there was very little traffic. It didn’t help that large parts of the B724 were being resurfaced and there was plenty of loose gravel and dust being kicked up every time something past us. However I’m sure the odd stone chip was better than the risks involved in cycling along the busy A75, in fact I’m certain of it.
Route: Day5
Activity: Cycle
Started: 18 Jun 2014 07:30:01
Ride Time: 6:00:53
Stopped Time: 3:38:46
Distance: 83.91 miles
Average Speed: 13.95 mph
Fastest Speed: 44.36 mph
Ascent: 21584 feet
Descent: 21516 feet
Calories: 5321
Temperature - 20oC
Weather - Mostly Sunny
Wind - 1mph
Humidity - 88%
Sunrise - 04:29
Sunset - 21:52
We cycled in to Gretna and stopped at Costa Coffee in the Retail Park for a coffee and a cake. In hindsight all travellers should carry on a ¼ of a mile and do the same at the ‘Last House in Scotland’ but it was too late by then. Whilst at the Retail Park I saw a Sports Direct shop, I had read about an effective treatment for my shoulder knot issue which by now was like someone sticking a knife in my back every now and again. The solution was a tennis ball pressed against a wall to the knot in your back and gently manipulated, painful but it absolutely worked to relieve the pain for short periods of time. The alternative was asking John and that was just out of bounds! The tennis ball was to become a friend for the rest of the trip.
Refuelled and refreshed after the first 25 miles we freewheeled down to the border crossing about ¼ mile away, this is one of the iconic moments of this trip and it felt good. Several messages came in on Twitter from people following us, you can't underestimate how good those comments feel when you are tired. It's definately worth the investment to spend a little time on social media before your trip as there are so many people who will help you out with advice that you simply don't have easy access to.
We were taking the obligatory photos when we heard a shout, it was Stuart who had shared the transport with us to John o’Groats. It was great to see him as if there was instantly some life long bond with anyone who was doing this challenge. We had a good chat, swapped stories, took photos and then John and I went on our way and made good pace in the first few flat miles of England. This was a very rewarding moment and you wouldn’t be blamed for assuming you were half way, but in fact it was little below 40% of the trip with the actual half way some considerable miles ahead of us.
From Gretna you pretty much mirror the M6 by following the A7 then on to the A6. The road was ok, relatively quiet but certainly busier than much of Scotland was. I was looking forward to the famous Shap Summit, some 1400ft climb from the sea level that was Gretna. We made good time getting through Carlisle then Penrith still following the A6 and now heading up hill gradually toward the Shap climb. We stopped in Penrith for lunch, sitting in a town square outside of a café having soup and sandwich. There was some welcome shade from the sun which was now supplying us with about 24oC, plenty of sun block at regular intervals, this being one of them.
From Penrith it was 20 miles to the summit and we set off in good form. Neck and hands increasingly sore but still managing the bike position to relieve the pain. This would go down as one of my more memorable parts of the ride, we got to the ‘steep bit’ which was just fabulous climbing up it in the heat of the sun. I could see John (who usually isn’t a fan of climbing) making every effort to get up probably because he knew there was the enjoyment of a tantalising chance of death going down the other side, something he seems to enjoy more than me. We reached the top and it felt good, I didn’t feel phased by it at all and we admired the view.
Shortly after this point we came across one of the more bizarre moments as we had to stop only to be briefly surrounded by a flock of sheep being herded down the road, I found myself in the middle of the pack with a few of the sheep giving me strange glances, must have been the sight of the lycra I suspect!!
From the summit it was around 10 miles to Kendal which after the terrifying 44mph descent where I bottomed out in the dip and snapped the go-pro from the handlebars for the second time of the trip. John managed to exceed 50mph down the descent, which isnt surprising. This reminded me of Loch Ness, I suspect the Kendal route is great if you are going North to South but much harder if you are coming the other way, the gradients heading North looked brutal, another reason to do JOGLE not LEJOG.
We made it to our accommodation that night which was an apartment attached to a quite brilliant bistro pub (see accommodation notes for details). The reason we were staying here was that when I was booking accommodation way back in February, Kendall was almost booked out, also it had a washing machine so we thought we would get our kit sorted. On reflection all we achieved by washing our kit was a pile of wet kit, I didn’t consider there would be no dryer and we weren’t there long enough to hang dry so that turned in to a bit of disaster and just added weight to our bags. You might think it’s warm enough outside to dry your kit at night, obviously not, clearly we need to read up on the actual scientific reasons for evaporation which is more than just warmth.
After yet another good meal, we retired for a rest. We were now at 460 miles, a fraction away from half way. Tomorrow (Day 6) a good friend of mine had arranged for him and a mate to take a day off work to join us for about 30 miles at Lancaster. Darren and Chris had completed JOGLE two years earlier, it would prove a welcome break and company through what was without doubt the busiest and most confusing section of the UK to cycle through. Interestingly it also proved a real memory jerker for Darren, something months after i've finished JOGLE I have come to symapthise with.
