Day 5 - Kendal to Abington

Last night Richard (from Matt's work) joined us, and pitched his tent in the camp site for a wet and windy night. In the morning we set off around 9.30am (again difficult to get going) and headed up to Kendal, Penrith and Carlisle via Shap. The climb up to Shap from Kendal went on for approximately 10 miles, but the day was clear and the views spectacular. It was really good cycling. Richard was stung by a wasp under his helmet (serves him right as he had too much energy). At Carlisle we parted with Richard, and carried on up to the Scottish border at Gretna along fantastic deserted roads. The road ran parallel to the M74 and was really well laid out with a cycle lane and no traffic at all. In addition we had a good tail wind!. The rain eventually came just after Gretna and it was wet from then on as we went through Lockerbie and onto Abington. However the day was overall really good with fantastic views, great roads and helpful wind direction.

In total we cylced 113 miles at an average of 16.4mph, a maximum of 42.1mph (down Shap), an average of 70 pedals per minute and a total of 6 hours and 41minutes in the saddle.

We would just like to acknowledge that we have made good use of Ali and Julie Carmichael's kind donation of pharmacy first aid items, especially for Ben's wounds from his fall on day 1 and also general pain killers etc.