We were queueing outside Sainsbury in Lancaster at 7.25 am waiting for the cafe to open for breakfast.  The weather was better than expected, but I was still prepared for the rain that was forecast.  The first leg was through Kendal and on to the infamous climb to 1400 ft known as Shap.  It's quite difficult to get going first thing, the miles seem to pass very slowly. About 5 miles in I heard a twang from the back wheel.  Sure enough a spoke had broken.  I bent it around one of the other spokes to stop it catching and carried on.  I spent 15 miles or so pondering where to get it fixed.  Luckily I passed a bike shop in Kendal (Brucie's Bikes).  They were very friendly and fixed it without fuss. All the time they were doing that I was wondering what to do about paying (I only had £10 on me).  The cost was £7.50, phew.

The climb out of Kendal is steady but never ending!  The training runs I had done to Bala were paying off big time today.  I felt a tremendous sense of achievement when I reached the top and utter relief when I saw the van.

After a quick bite to eat at the top of Shap I set off for leg 2.  This was destined to take me to Gretna.  The first 5 miles flew by on the descent, but the next 40 were a real grind.  The rain never really happened so I got too hot in the gear I was wearing.  About 5 miles from Gretna the wind really got up straight in my face.  This was awful and my legs were really aching.  I have self diagnosed tendonitis in my left leg.  I got a bit bored on this leg, I've found that thinking about something else helps to divert your attention.  I was so relieved to reach Gretna and it was really nice that Jake and Grace were waiting by the sign to greet me.  They noticed the gap between the "welcome to England" and the "welcome to Scotland" signs so named the land in between Scongeland.

The final leg was through Lockerbie and on to Beattock.  The road was great with a huge cycle lane for almost the entire 30 miles.  The sun was out and I had changed back to shorts.  Sure enough this was tantamount to a rain dance and it started to rain.  Fortunately it didn't last too long and was actually quite refreshing.

The campsite has a playground for the kids which is great.  The trains go past every 17 minutes to Glasgow.  Sleep well.