We slept badly, the room had heated up during the day and the office type blinds knocked against the window frame in the breeze. I eventually got up and used a towel to stop the movement. Nice ride to Gatehouse where we called in on Graham, whom I met on my first day at university as eighteen year olds, and his wife Margaret, first time we’d met since 2001. It was good to have a brief catchup, there was insufficient slack in the schedule to linger long.
Another lovely day’s cycling though we didn’t appreciate the easterly wind that impeded our progress all day. We reached Lauren House at 17:00, our base for the night, showered and ate. We were very tired but the night was again very warm and we didn’t sleep. The weather forecast had changed and now promised heavy rain driven by strong opposing winds for Wednesday and Thursday, after a warm 54 mile ride to Newcastleton tomorrow. These thoughts didn’t help our sleep.
It was going to be tricky returning home at the weekend as the west coast line was to be closed south of Carlisle for three days. Next morning we decided to bail out of the tour, and took the 08:59 train to Carlisle. Two bike spaces were available on the 10:06 from Carlisle, we changed at Warrington and Llandudno Junction and were home around 15:30, a smoother journey than the outward where we’d booked all the reservations way in advance.
Maybe we’ll return for the last three days sometime.