Stats: 79.54 m, odo 785.3, max speed 33 av speed 9.8. Time 8:05:16, total time 10 hours.
Earliest start yet and rewarded by seeing a red squirrel, the first time I've seen one in this country. A cool and cloudy morning and perfect for a really good pace over rolling hills to Brampton. That was the 30 mile point so shopped, had a cafe break and got my last English transit stamp at the Post Office. Also turned in my novel and bought another at a charity shop - and then saw two others! Just like buses...
The sun came out as I left and it was really good cycling all the way through the rest of Cumbria. This is very different county to that of the Lake District, and far quieter - probably my most traffic- free day so far. It seemed easy to get the miles in too ( I'm sure the rest yesterday helped) and I'd done over 40 by lunchtime.
The hills got steeper and suddenly I came through forest to the signpost announcing the Scottish Borders.
Made it through Newcastletown and then saw the sign for Hawick - 18 miles, the same distance as the hard push to Hawes. This too seemed to go on for ever, not helped by my running out of energy and also a shower of rather persistent rain. But made it here though could not face another 12 miles to Melrose tonight, much as I would have liked to get there. So potentially another hard push tomorrow to - hopefully - get over the Forth Bridge... But that's for tomorrow.
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