Land’s End to John O’Groats – Day 14

May 27, 2024

Ride Stats:
https://cyclemeter.com/8c43cf9d11bd7f12/Cycle-20240527-0904-38130

After breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee in the campground’s Brew Room while waiting for the rain to stop, I decided to dawn my rain gear and head out into it at around 9am…as the forecast was for rain off and on all day,

The ride north out of Bridge End Campground was wet, wonderful and challenging. The route I chose “looked” to be more direct… The first 6km’s were through rolling countryside…but once I got to the intersection with the M6, the challenge began. Not only was it raining and a headwind, but I starting climbing up into a range of mountains…and it was cold…but absolutely beautiful! While I was climbing I could see the other route option down I the valley…and it appeared to be flat…oh well!!
The route followed, more or less, the M6 for the next 10km’s before angling north west to the town of Orton, where I stopped for breakfast at a lovely cafe…and tried black pudding for the first time. If I had known what it was made of, I would have probably decided against it, but TBH it was quite good.

I certainly worked for my breakfast afterwards as the route climbed steeply to a high ridge, where I saw a number of hikers…and some with good sized backpacks. The gradual descent off the other side of the ridge took me through several quaint farming communities and eventually to Penrith…where I was blown away by seeing a Tim Horton’s coffee shop as I entered the town…and I just had to stop for a coffee! I was surprised at how big it was and the fact that it had a covered drive thru…something I’ve never seen in Canada.

When leaving Penrith, I decided to take the more direct A6 to Carlisle instead of the meandering route on the GPX file route…reason being that I had a tailwind, the width of the road was very generous (for the UK) and it wasn’t very busy, as it paralleled the M6, which most of the traffic seemed to be on…and as it was high up on a ridge, I was treated to views of the Lakes District NP (another destination that, if I had more time, I would have ridden through…).
It was the fastest 30km’s I’ve ridden on this ride so far!

Stopped in Carlisle to pick up some food and a copy of a local IPA, then steamed through the last city I’d ride through in England. After a brief climb out of Carlisle, the route opened up and treated me to a steady headwind as I approached the border with Scotland at Gretna.
After the obligatory photos at the border, I continued north into said headwind for the final 10m’s to a campground that I had previously booked at Fitzpatrick-Fleming, called Bruce’s Cave Campground and Caravan Park.
Although it was largely filled with what appeared to be mobile homes and large caravans, it was quite a nice campground and I had a good pitch…right beside the well maintained campground comfort station…and right in front of a beautiful old mansion.

Due to the winds, I took advantage of the sheltered washing area and cooked my dinner there, then chilled out with my still-cold IPA…feeling good to finally be in Scotland!