Part 2!

Spending a night at home gave us the chance to catch up with family, fix any mechanical bike problems and restock our daily food supplies etc.

Day six saw us all freshened up and ready for part 2 of our Lejog. There seemed a renewed energy boosting the team, perhaps knowing we were half way there and still had so much more to give. 

The team met up at Ulverston Victoria High School, bags all loaded back into the support car and we were off on our way again, cheered off by some of the pupils.  Later that day the Sixth Form pupils received an assembly from other members of Team Alice covering the very important subject of signing on to the Bone Marrow Register which is at the very top of Alice's Bucket List of things to do.

Our journey took us out of Ulverston and north through Cumbria to Windermere.  The first pit stop of the day was at Windermere School where the team received a hero's welcome from the pupils as they cycled up the driveway, and then coffee and of course cakes!  Day six also brought with it a change to our support crew with Vicky swapping her duties with Alastair for days 6 to 10. Vicky and Alice did provide a welcome surprise for us all though by joining us at Windermere, and then all the way up to Carlisle.

Pit stop for vital spares at Biketreks Ambleside

The next challenge of the day - tackling Kirkstone pass in some pretty windy, but thankfully dry conditions. After Kirkstone and Ullswater the terrain is mainly flat for most of the way to Carlisle.

In Carlisle we were very fortunate to call at the home of the McKnespiey family for lunch. Paul had been riding with us from Ulverston, a lot of the time at the front, for which we were very grateful.

After copious amounts of sandwiches, cake and gallons of coffee in Paul and Emma's beautiful kitchen it was time to finish off the day and cross the border in to Scotland.  Vicky & Alice waved us off on our way, and we made our way North.

After a fast blustery ride through the borders we finally arrived at Moffat, a lovely B&B Buchan Guest House run by Chris and Brenda. As Chris is a fellow cyclist he knew all that we needed including washing all of our cycling clothes, a very welcome bonus!

Day seven saw us cycling on the old road next to the M74 for several miles before we turned west towards our ferry. So far we had been very lucky with the weather during the first 6 days, Scottish Borders are relatively flat this meant we were exposed and just at this point we encountered a huge hail and rain shower, a tough start to the day for sure.

A disused railway line near Johnstone had been turned into a new cycle path so this safely took us on our route to Greenock where we picked up the ferry to Dunoon. 

A short ride from the ferry port of around 15 miles brought us to Loch Eck and our resting point for the night, the Whistlefield Inn.  With the bunkhouse next to the pub, it was a quick case of bike cleaning and great pub food before bed.