Woohoo, today is Abington day! 51 miles uphill to a motorway services area motel with no restaurant, no food and no alcohol! I tried every which way to find an alternative, but there is no where else within miles and miles so this was the only option. Guess it’s Burger King for us tonight 😬. Weather is rain at 2:00 so we’re heading out early after our morning coffee and 7:30 breakfast.
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| Crossing and recrossing the train tracks |
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| The Scottish Lowlands starting to appear |
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| Crossing and recrossing the motorway |
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| Misty and rainy - all of today’s pictures |
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| It says, ‘Yellow Warning, Heavy Rain Forecast |
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| Interesting art… |
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| Heading for Beattock |
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| Not too rainy so far! |
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| Misty up on Beattock Summit, high point for the day |
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| 1050 foot climb |
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| Coffee stop in Lockerbie |
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| Today’s climb |
We left Gretna and the Solway Firth heading south, but quickly turned north following farm-lined country lanes. Then we got on the B7076 and that was pretty much it until shortly before Abington. Watching for the views of the Scottish Lowlands (which looked pretty high to me) in the distance - mostly obscured by the rain and mist, but we did see some. A short stop in Lockerbie and another ‘sheltered from the rain under a tree’ stop was it for stops. The cycle lane on the side was often in better condition than the road.
Not exceptionally clear photos today as the weather was grey, misty and rainy. The dreaded Abington day was not nearly as bad as it could have been. This was one I had not been looking forward to for 3 reasons - the climb, the 50 miles in addition to the climb and the heavy rain forecast on top of the climb plus the 50 miles - oh, and staying at a motorway services with only fast food options. Ugh!
Turns out that it hasn’t been that bad! The climb was MUCH better than expected, a long gentle climb that we could do all day - no pushing! The 50 miles - left Gretna at 8:15 and made it to Abington by 1:45, with 2 stops. The heavy rain? It wasn’t, mostly a gentle misty rain (although it’s a howling gale out there now!). And finally, the services - the hotel is fine, the verdict on the food is still out. And here is the latest place the tandem has been stored!
Last Sunday, we were at Six at Nico’s in Manchester. This Sunday:
An interesting note, checked to see how far it is from Tampa to Portland - 1600 miles, just another 400 more than this trip!
Steve’s Letters From…
Hello all you LFA’s and welcome to this weeks edition which comes to you “fay bonnie Scotland”. The cycling gods have been good to us and here we are in Gretna which is the first town over the border when coming from Carlisle.
Last week we effectively completed the North West of England Section including two rest days at home. We are well over half way.
This weeks mission is Southern Scotland which the route we are on classifies as up to Pitlochry which is kind of on the other coast/side ie we go north from here to Glasgow (where there will be a “wee rest day” and playing out in an old stomping ground called Merchant City) then we head roughly north east up to Pitlochry in series of fairly short days alongside Lochs (lakes) and Glens (valleys), supposed to be most scenic part of the trip.
Today we are off to a service area just outside a place called Abington and it’s going to rain proper wetting rain later on, oh and there is a big hill. Doubtful there is a restaurant (other than McDonalds or similar) at the end of it, it may not be possible to buy wine or beer either. There isn’t much enthusiasm for today for some reason 🤔. We are making contingency plans and have a wee bottle of Scotch in the panniers, the assumption being we can find Diet Coke or similar to go with that and a Big Mac. “Suck it Up Buttercup” or “Chose your attitude “ are phrases that come to mind. Better news is my bottom is hardly ever sore now and my legs haven’t stopped aching all together but ache a lot less. Onwards and upwards, have a great week. Steve and Katherine.
Thought I would add some points of interest from todays travels. We went through Lockerbie today which is where Pam Am 203 crashed in 1988 killing all onboard and 11 on the ground. It’s a small town in SW Scotland, there is a memorial garden but that was a little two far out of our way. I guess the other place of interest if your into trains was Beattock Summit which is the highest point on the West Coast Mainline from London to Glasgow, a train journey Katherine and I have made many times whilst working in Glasgow. In the days of steam trains north bound trains would pick up another engine in Beattock (small town at the bottom of the climb) to get up the climb which has a max gradient of 1 in 69. The road we were on goes higher and is steeper in places but still a gentle climb even for a laden tandem. There was a film made in the 1960’s (Night Mail) about the mail trains running over the summit. There is a poem about it too, I remember this vaguely from school. The West Coast Line was electrified in 1974 and steam trains are no more.
ReplyDeleteFinally the road we were on is interesting, at one time it was the main road between Carlisle and Glasgow, it was replaced over maybe 30 years in the 80’s onwards with a motorway. Whilst stationed in Scotland in the early 80’s I had driven this road many times in its various stages of completeness. It wasn’t final completed until 2011. The old road was re-designated and we spent quite some time on it today alongside the railway line and the new motorway.
Although a less interesting route today with all the motorway crossings, you can take away you crushed a hill you'd been dreading. That's ALWAYS a positive!
ReplyDeleteVery good point! Now we just have a couple passes and the Highlands to go, but the scenery should be awesome!
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