Team Dave

Today has been a fantastic day! A real contrast to yesterday, the highlight being me finally beating Sparky at a game of pool in the pub after our evening nosh.
The day began bright and early with the intent of making up lost time. On the road by 9 the fog was well being burnt off, minimal wind meant we were warmed up and up to speed in no time. The road to Broughton contoured nicely along the valley with gentle undulations. From Broughton we climbed the Tweed valley through acres of forestry for a good while but at a fantastic gradient that enabled to keep the speed around 13mph. Climbing back into the fog as we passed the source of the river Tweed then revelled at 5 miles of fast descent to Moffat, grinning ear to ear at the bottom! 
From Moffat we picked up the B7074 that follows the A74 south to Carlisle and back onto roads we covered on the northward leg. Carlisle on to Penrith with big slowly undulating roads that are frankly boring but get from A to B quickly. At Penrith we felt strong enough to make it on to Shap. Yesterdays shorter ride really helped our bodies recover noticeably. Trying for accommodation in Shap it became apparent that a large number of walkers were in the village walking coast to coast enabling us to only just get somewhere to stay by the skin of our teeth! Otherwise it would have been another 15 miles further on to Kendal and a big climb on the way. As it stands we covered over 100 miles today that leaves about 170 more to do in the next two days. We really looking to getting back and going to work for a good rest again!