Saturday 4 September

Early breakfast. Packed up bikes and met Mel who was packing his. He had done about 90 miles yesterday and was going the same direction as us, but I don't think we'll see him again! He's from Bristol Roger and Janice - do you know him? :-). Actually he looked a lot like Richard! Started off at 9am. Weather is not quite so warm today - a bit hazy but still good. Carlisle hilly but then fairly easy cycling. Followed the M6 again and crossed the river Esk on aroad right alongside the motorway. Almost immediately crossed the river Sark into SCOTLAND! Passed through Gretna Green (didn't stop - been there before). Got to Ecclefechan about 11pm, which was our original stopping place for today. Too early to stop so we decided to get to the services at Johnstonebridge. The road we were on was great. It was alongside the A74(M) and was a long straight road with not much traffic. We had it to ourselves most of the time and then we got a cycle lane added at the side too! At one point we saw about 6 cyclists on another parallel road in the distance (B723 maybe?). They had to share their road with traffic. I took a picture of 'our' road and seconds after that about 6 pheasant chicks ran across it! I thought we'd see a lot more wildlife than we have. Most of what we've seen has been squashed! Loads of hedgehogs, some rabbits and today a badger. Stopped at Lockerbie for lunch at a fish and chip shop. Resisted the temptation to ask for a deep fried Mars bar! Got to the services at about 1.45 and debated whether to carry on but it looks like we'd have to travel quite a few more miles before we'd find somewhere to stay and I didn't want to go that much further. We're both getting muscle burn now whenever we stop and have to start again.
Mileage: 37.92
Current height: 232 ft
Max height: 413 ft
Total ascent: 1,505 ft
Thanks Ba for the info re plane. Can't believe Peter got it wrong! :-)
John Clayton starting his LEJOG tomorrow. Good luck! You should overtake us shortly after Ft William