Before we leave Penrith I want to say something else about lovely Preston. On our arrival representatives of the residents, probably cyclists, were there to welcome us, some on the bridge as we crossed into the place (in the dark and wet) guiding us to our destination,
more locals were near the sports pavilion to make sure we got there and yet more inside the place to make we sure we got a goody bag and found our way to the food.
The next morning as we left Preston there were three of them cheering as we got out into the countryside. Then a little further on, in the front garden of a house raised up on a bank was an entire family with two small children who had made posters and gave us all a cheer. I was on my own that day as Kristien's knees and battery wouldn't have taken the hammering that was to come, and I joyfully waved back but I was so touched that I could barely call out.
On now to day 6.
We were waved off from Penrith by cheerful locals who had greeted us the previous evening at the Quaker centre.
On day 5 we had seen on the news that it was pretty wet, trains had been cancelled and Dumfries had been on the news as parts of it were under water. I was booked into the station hotel and hoped it was on high ground. Anyway the organisers, this lovely bunch (Anna must have been fixing a bike)
were highly organised and I spoke to them all on one day or another. I got some of the names but don't think I asked Mrs Goggles on the right what her real name was, she didn't seem to mind the nickname. They had checked the route early in the morning and adjusted it to take us round the worst of the flooding
You can't cycle a flooded road that you can't even see and we did see some lovely countryside that wasn't under water.
This was a day of mostly roads so the cargo bikes weren't struggling with barriers as they had on previous days.
The rider on the left is a Green Party councillor from Lancaster. Tandems, Bromptons, e-bikes, cargo bikes are all the cycling sub-groups that everyone wants to talk to and so talk we did.
On this day Penny & Salim, part of the Barnet posse, took what I thought was one of the best photographs of the week, their bikes framing a body of water and all the lovely autumn colours. They also demonstrated that you can cycle long distances on any bike, you don't need to spend thousands on modern carbon fibre.
This day was an 'easy' day (a mere 63 miles to cycle) after the rigours of what had gone before. Lunch was at Carlisle, filled rolls, crips, plastic wrapped cake & something else I just forget. Compared to what had gone before it was sub-standard, the rolls being of mass production and the cheese being a Kraft type square. The salad roll was a small and very sad piece of lettuce, tomato & onion which wasn't trying to break out of the edges of the roll. It was no surprise when the message went out that there were more available for seconds.The organisers got absolutely everything else right so nobody moaned, as far as I am aware, and I'm sure they learned from it so it is forgotten.
Lunch was quite early in the day, taken here
As it happens, Kristien and I had stopped less than 10 miles earlier and limited ourselves to a cheese scone or cake and a nice cuppa. It wasn't a chance find as when we turned the corner into the square I had said to Kristien that I was here the previous year on LEJOG and that there was a friendly cafe with good food if we pushed at the closed door which was open. It was in the village of Dalston. There had been something about a church in Dalston and a globe or COP26 or something (I wasn't really paying attention, the TV being on in my room just for a bit of background and the weather forecast) so we had a fruitless tour of the churches/chapels of Dalston (two of) before we had our lovely cuppa, here.
I did tell the lady owner that we were there for two reasons, one because I came in a year ago (my coffee card would be a long way from being stamped if they had a loyalty programme) and secondly because she was on the route from London to Glasgow. As was often the case we had a lovely chat about how far she could cycle and what her future cycling plans might be. We explained about pledges and hoped that just one small step might be taken, whether formally pledged or not.
So on we pedalled, having a lovely restful day.
We crossed into Scotland which means that a photograph is obligatory, so here it is.
Here is a summary of the day
Clearly we didn't rush as we spent 4 hours sitting around which would be tea stops, photograph stops, lunch, navigational debates and just general dilly dallying as we had the time which of course usually means it runs out.
We were happy to be in Scotland, we all wore our masks as required, everyone had taken and shown a Lateral Flow Test to the organisers at the start and mid-journey and all was right with the world. The only sadness was that the end was in sight, just one full day and then a procession and then back to the day job (trains permitting, which they weren't).
The end.
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