Day 6: Nothing like a bank holiday

Today was a bank holiday but riding 100 or so miles for the sixth day in a row felt nothing like a holiday.

I woke in Gretna to brilliant sunshine but it was a cold night and a cold start to the day. I didn't sleep well again - having a battle between a call of nature and wanting to stay warm in my sleeping bag. I was a little sleepy and grumpy to start the day, not helped by a northerly wind for the second day in a row.

I cooked a decent breakfast of porrige, bacon and coffee and left Gretna at 10.30, just as the sky began to cloud up. I tried to get in the mood for Scotland by listening to the Celtic-punk stylings of the Dropkick Murphys but nothing could help me ignore the headwind.

I began cursing Scotland and cursing a lot of other things too. Sometimes time alone on the bike isn't healthy. The route I took ran alongside the motorway meaning it was open and exposed to the wind. The scenery had certainly changed from northern England. This was big country with long straight roads and expansive horizons.

After 49 slow miles I finally reached the lunch stop at a service station, almost an hour after I predicted to Helen. My first words to Helen were "that was a wretched morning." Just as I was eating it started hailstoning. My mood couldn't have been much worse.

Funnily enough though, once I re-started after lunch the wind died down, the hail stopped and the gradient was downhill which really bucked up my spirits. I raced through Lanark and Airdrie and felt a lot happier as the final miles were drawing in. I rode 91 miles in 5hrs 30mins.

Unfortunately during the afternoon another squeak started coming from my bike. This time it was the free hub (the bit with the gears on in the middle of the rear wheel). Without any tools to take it apart I could only hope that more GT-85 would help. We'll see in the morning...

Tonight we're staying at Greenacres B&B near Cumbernauld. It's a short drive from a lovely curry house which more than made do for dinner. I highly recommend the Nawabi Korma and the Lamb Keema Beans Taba at Bombay Dreams if you happen to be passing!

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