Day 2 - All cycling, yes all 208km of it...

We were up at 7am for breakfast, and set-off for the Ferry to Gourock at 8.45am (the Ferry port being only 1.5km from our Hotel). The weather was awful, which meant we all had to get into our winter jackets, gloves, tights and thermals for the first 2 hours of the day. The rain continued throughout the entire 208km ride, but fortunately remained a light rain without any serious downpours, and the fact that it stayed warm throughout the day made it bearable and not too dangerous.

Ferry crossing from Hunters Quay to Gourock.



There was no Peak to ascend today (Scafell Pike comes tomorrow) so it was a case of churning out the kilometres in the saddle from start to finish, all 208 of them. From Gourock we cycled down to Kilmarnock, to Irvine, across to Dumfries before the final leg down the A76 and A75 into Carlisle. Due to the rain today there aren’t a huge amount of action shots whilst on the bike i'm afraid, however we’ll make up for that tomorrow… One comical shot of the day involved Mark and Fred trying to change Mark’s inner tube after a puncture (after Mark warned us that it "Only took 2.5 hours to change a flat last time")

“Have you ever seen an inner tube before Fred?”.



After his big shock with the 2 bicycles yesterday morning, it was great to see Tom really getting into his role as the “Support Crew Manager". He only got lost twice today (twice in 7 minutes yesterday..), but having him here to look after food, bikes, bags, packing etc etc is a tremendous help. His love of the wild animals in this part of the world knows no ends. The look on his face having seen a dead otter on the road was priceless.

With his older brother Mark, “AKA Mr Organised and Reliable” in charge of tonight’s accommodation, we were all expecting great things. “We're staying in the Travelodge next to Junction 44 of the M6 (Southbound)” Things weren't looking up.. On arrival at Junction 44 of the M6 they became even worse.. We couldn't see a Travelodge, and after about 10 minutes it became apparent that our ‘hotel’ was on the OTHERSIDE of the M6. Then someone suggested “Can’t we just quickly run across the Motorway?”, and as three of us turned to Tom to start hurling abuse, it became apparent that it was in fact Mark who had put forward the clever suggestion, clearly out of embarrassed desperation at the whole situation. After around 30 minutes of failed plans, false underground tunnel entrances, and not-so-clever ideas on a par with running across 8 lanes of traffic, we decided to pack all of us, 6 bikes, all our bags and cycling gear into the landrover to drive up and down the M6 to get to our home for the night.. Mark is definitely losing the “Best Accommodation Booking” award of the week award so far.. This shenanigans taking over an hour..

"If we climb over this fence and into the field, i think i can get to the Travelodge"




Tomorrow we cycle around 55 Miles to the base of Scafell Pike, ascend and descend England’s highest peak, before continuing around 45 more miles to our place of rest at the end of Day 3, Grange over Sands.

Total distance cycled in 2 days : 388km
Total calories burned cycling in 2 days : 13,385