Day 8 – Sunday 18th – Condor Green to Keswick
Well had a lovely evening meal with the team, lots of banter and good humour, great pub, I can thoroughly recommend the Stork at Condor Green.
Then it was a long but not very good night’s sleep (every radiator in the room was full on drying kit, every window wide open) and then up for the slightly later start at 9 am. Good breakfast, porridge and bananas, and ready for the off. Despite the lack of sleep, we were feeling good, as today we go through the wonderful Lake District, which we know quite well.
Sat Nav was in good favour today, I think we have finally built sufficient relationship with the machine which means I will look back fondly on our struggles together (rather than throw it in the sea at John O’Groats, which has been my plan over the last few days). Although I have noticed it has also tried to work on our relationship, but its attempts to impress me by pointing out local supermarkets at seemingly random times have not worked.
The start of the day was a bit drizzly, but soon cleared up into a lovely sunny day, as the Lake District came to us, all we had to do was pedal and follow the purple line (on the Sat Nav), our day (as per the last 8) laid out for us. Start when told to, stop for morning tea when you see the ‘brew van’ on the side of the road, stop for lunch when it’s time, stop for afternoon tea when you see the brew van and check into your Bed and Breakfast when you get there. Bags all in the room courtesy of the excellent Peak Tours staff (Graham, Andy and Johnny). All we have to do is pedal, and boy has there been a lot of it! Life is simple now and I’m beginning to forget what else I used to do all day.
Hills though are a big problem, going up I am of course referring to! I am almost a specialist in heading down them and don’t mind the flat bits but going up just hurts. And the going down bit is a poor payback for the effort to get up them (maybe another metaphor in life is emerging – will work on that today, note to self). Which got me thinking, what about a KERS for bikes? KERS being a Formula 1 device that taps into the car’s energy and releases additional power when you want it, ie when going up a hill. I have many ideas for this ground breaking device that will revolutionise cycling, and have analysed all the advantages and disadvantages of the many engineering solutions I have come up with many times over in my head during the hours and hours of cycling, and have concluded the best solution is to buy a motorbike.
Speaking of hills through, we have tried many different strategies for getting up them, but none of them will EVER involve walking up them! No Sir not on this trip, no hill is going to beat us! Obviously they all involve whizzing down the previous down section as fast as possible and trying to carry enough momentum as possible, but then what do you do? A) Attack it before the up and keep on going? B) roll to a natural near stop and then change down gears and get stuck in C) Stand or stay seated? D) Go for it or relax? Often the answer is just drop down to the bottom gear and just get a rhythm going. Often in my head I sing the song Dory (the forgetful fish from the film ‘Finding Nemo’) sang – ‘Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming’ (in the film after has had a frightening experience she finally remembers the key bit of information, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney) – anyway enough of this nonsense…
We are now half way through this little adventure, and we have now cycled from Land’s End to the Lake District. No small undertaking in itself! Michaela and I cant believe it, not really sure even this has sunk in yet. Is this real of a dream? Michaela is just wonderful, its not been easy for her, but she has provided a huge amount of support and encouragement, which I hope in some small way I have paid back, and when I asked her why she is doing this, she replies for the Hunger Project and to support you…just fantastic…
We got in about 5.30 pm into a rainy Keswick, stretched, showered and hit a local Italian restaurant to find Stefan inside, having arrive at Keswick around 3.30pm (‘we took it easy today’), having walked around the town and generally describing the day as ‘easy’. After much banter and me failing at psychologically bullying, eg ‘ah well the hardest is still to come Scotland is all up hill’ and ‘your legs look tired’ he departed and we finished our meal then bed. However tomorrow I’m going to let his tyres down…
So tomorrow we run out of England and head into Scotland past where Robin Wood lives in Dumfriesshire. That was England, we have run out of England – how mad is that? England was that all you had? Was that the best you could throw at us? Scotland do your worst, we’re ready!
legs developing well...
Look we're here!
Lake Windermere
Thank you for everyone who has supported us, we are doing this to raise money for The Hunger Project UK (Tim and Mark) and to support them in doing their work to end persistent hunger in the world – something that like cycling Great Britain, some people consider to be impossible…and it’s not
Click on the below link to see our route, as slow day, lots of those hills!
Day 8 - Sunday 18th August - Condor Green to Keswick by Bike27 at Garmin Connect - Details
