Day 7 Carlisle to Ayr. Thursday 30th June 2011

91 miles


The day began with giving the bikes a little TLC and we witnessed one of the funniest things to date. On the instructions to Nick to oil his chain and brakes, he took it a bit to literally and lubed up his brake pads!

We soon got to the border and took great pleasure in several photo's to mark the occasion. Our only English member predicted that it would rain as soon as we reached Scotland - and Andris was right! During the photocall it indeed started to rain and the waterproofs were on sharpish.

After a pit stop at the Aldi in Dumfries to load up on as much munch and sweets as possible (and a controversial toilet stop for Nick and Fraz) we battled against a strong head wind and really hilly section to Ayr on the open B729. At lunch one well known Chain Spoker divulged some rather juicy personal information which we all had a good laugh at. Due to the superinjunction I can't say anymore.

Andris was really ill today and was struggling badly with flu symptoms. Credit to him, he was on the bike all day and kept his legs moving even though the day is almost a blur to him.

We weren't in the greatest spirits but we did feel that on another day it would have been a fantastic road to cycle on. It was a real slog but once we reached Ayrshire the road became even better and we cut down a lovely valley.

Our accommodation for the night was at Yvonne's house and it was really kind of her to let us stay as she was away on holiday. We arrived to find frozen lasagna's and beer's left for us. Spot on.