Day 8 – Sunday 29 July

Kendal to Hawick

This was one of the longest days yet at just over 93 miles. We set off after packing up and talking to a chap in a neighbouring tent whose airbed had sprung a leak. We had tried to help by blowing it up with our airpump. He'd had an uncomfortable night. We were not relishing having to cycle over Shap Fell on the A6, but as it turned out the road was comparatively quiet, most traffic being on the motorway. We reached the top up a steady gradient without too much difficulty and then enjoyed a long downhill stretch through Penrith and criss-crossing the motorway several times, eventually taking to a dead straight lane running all the way into Carlisle, with the M6 a constant companion on our right.

Liz had 'phoned ahead to our friends Richard and Margaret in Carlisle, and had arranged to met them at the cathedral for the morning service. There she attended a presentation to one of the vergers who was leaving. She took Richard back to their house to collect his bicycle so that he could join us as we cycled in.

Unfortunately we had already met up with their son Matthew on the way into the cathedral, where we found Margaret, so we left a message with her to say we were cycling on to Longtown with Matthew. At one point as we rolled along Matthew asked Mick haw fast we were going, and he said, "Oh, about 20 miles an hour", to which Matthew just gasped. Well, we had been cycling for six days and were in the swing of it. Margaret drove back to their home and caught Richard in time to direct him straight to Longtown where he joined us just as it started to rain. Margaret had by then driven out and we all crowded into the van for a picnic lunch.

Eventually we said our goodbyes and Liz drove off for the campsite at Hawick. Mick and I set off over the hills on a smaller and somewhat hillier road that was almost the same length as the A7 but much quieter. It rained most of the way so we got to Hawick quite wet but the campsite had good facilities though the midges down by the riverside were persistent.