LEJOG Days 11 & 12

Day 11: Lancaster to Carlisle - 54.51miles 3471ft of climbing

We had a gentle start to the day with a 12 mile ride to Kendal. Once again Google Maps didn’t quite show just how steep the hills we’d be climbing were!  Thanks Mr Google😁

In Kendal, we’re rode to Hansen’s Ice Cream parlour to meet Karen Gee, better known online as Cycle Sprog who wanted to interview me! (Ok, and mum dad as well😂😂). 

Karen bought is all a lovely ice cream. I went for my usual chocolate and mint, dad had a gorgeous raspberry ripple and mum had white chocolate and Stilton. Yes, Stilton!! That horrible smelly cheese that only my dad and grandparents eat!!  Mind you, it was pretty nice and you couldn’t taste the Stilton much. Mum got all the bits and gave them to dad😁

We spoke to Karen for about an hour then she led us to the end of town and the road to Shap. It turns out dad knew all about the Shap Road as it’s a famous cycling climb but he’d kept it secret😡😡. It was pretty scary looking up from the bottom but actually, although it was a continuous slog, it wasn’t too bad. It certainly wasn’t as bad as Devon! We broke up the climb into two haves as well as mum caught us up half way and so we had a lunch stop.

Thanks Aunty Natalie for the homemade flapjack!

The only real issue was the strong headwinds which made the downhill bit that we’d been looking forward to so much a real pain. As we crossed over the top and started down we struggled to get to more than 20mph!  The wind died a little as we got lower thankfully. 

Me finishing one of the last and highest climbs. over 3000ft climb in the first 20miles of the day!

We descended through Shap and into Penrith. Mum had found a campsite outside Carlisle which made the distance just over 50miles, almost all of which was on the A6. Thankfully this has quite wide lanes (but no cycle lanes) and wasn’t too busy and passing drivers gave us plenty of room. 

With 8 miles to go we turned onto quiet country lanes. I think in that entire distance we saw one tractor, one runner and one dog walker!  But most importantly, what we did see was a family of horses including two foals!  They were sooooo cute and came over for some grass but were very easily spooked. 

Then Dad got our first puncture for the trip... He also needs to try and get his bottom bracket sorted in Carlisle tomorrow as it's creaking a fair bit!

Today was a fun day. The hill (sorry mountain!) wasn’t as bad as I thought, the headwinds were annoying but a lot of the time the sun was out and it was really nice to meet Karen (and eat the ice cream🍦of course) as mum has spoken about her a lot and read me some of her articles. She's now written one about me which is really cool! Read it by clicking on the link below - Cycle Sprog is a really brilliant website for all things to do with cycling with children so you will find lots of other good stuff on there too.

More stops to stroke and feed animals!

http://www.cyclesprog.co.uk/get-cycling/lands-end-to-john-ogroats/


Day 12: Carlisle to Abington (in Lanarkshire) - 68.3 miles, 2753 ft of climbing

Lovely campsite, but there was frost on the grass this morning. It didn't have a toilet block either... weird!

We got up an hour earlier this morning to get to a bike shop in Carlisle when it opened. The bottom bracket (the bit that goes through the frame and joins the two pedal cranks. Apparently🙄) on dads bike had started making some odd noises a few days ago but yesterday it was really sounding bad. 
The bike shop would have to order the part in which would take a day but dad hoped they could do a temporary repair. Otherwise he would have to send the part to a shop further up our route and maybe ride mum’s bike which is a bit small for him!  
On the way to Carlisle though we passed two more bike shops. Dad said “come on, no harm in trying” and the second one had the part and could fit it!  Yay!  So we went for a second breakfast in a cafe opposite and an hour later dad’s bike was as good as new. Even better, because we’d got up early, we weren’t far behind. 

Second breakfast as we waited for Dad's bike to get a new bottom bracket

Carlisle

So we rode north towards the Scottish border and eventually passed the big “Welcome to Scotland” sign. Cue photo opportunities!

One foot in each country!

Selfie!

We then rode into Scotland, in glorious sunshine and blue skies and up some lovely roads and bike tracks up the valley next to the motorway and railway line. 

We found a little village to meet mum for lunch and also had another visitor. Uncle Oliver had driven up from Chester. He came for lunch then headed back to the lakes for some camping and hiking. Cool!  Hope he has nice weather too. 

Meeting up with Uncle Oliver

Dad and I then had a discussion about how far we should ride that day. We found a couple of campsites and decided to ride to the one that would take us in. Mum drove there while we started cycling the 38miles (we’d already done nearly 30!!). 

The last of Aunty Natalie's flapjack - she says she is going to send some more up with the twins

But the weather was so nice, the distance flew by. We were riding up the valley, big hills on either side and the sun was shining. A lot was slightly uphill, very gentle but apart from a few miles here and there, the tarmac was pretty smooth and we flew along. 
Along the way I got to feed some Friendly Shetland ponies and most of the lambs we saw were tiny. Karen yesterday had said that the further north you go, the later the lambs arrive and that certainly seems true to me!

Dad added up our milage today...so far we have cycled 639.38miles AND we are in Scotland... which is a really big mile stone!

Celebrating in the campsite after cycling a massive 68.3 miles (on top of big miles over the last few days)!