Day  9 / 16            Tuesday.  Aug 29.

Kendal to Longtown 

Distance:        102. (Km) 

Time:      6:47

Average Speed:            15.1. (Km/ hr) 

Ascent:               1151. (m). 

Heart Rate:          103. (beats / min). 

Cumulative Distance:           889 (km) 

Cumulative Ascent :           8392. (m) 

Punctures so far : 0

A tough day today through a beautiful area with mixed weather.

Set out at sunrise, knowing the type of day that was ahead of me. Faced with some hilly streets at this early hour with Kendal still quiet below me.

Within 3km I was on the busier A591 and officially entered the Lakes National Park. The roadside cycle path brought me through the villages of Stavely and Ings. At this point the first band of rain crossed my path but didn’t last for long.

The road rose continually before me to 180m ASL and over the crest I was welcomed to the town of  Windermere which isn’t actually on the lakeside.

Beautiful morning light over Windermere on my left hand side. At 18km long it is the largest lake in England. It has 18 islands and folktale of a lake monster referred to as Bownessi (Bowless is the town on the lakeside)

I followed the River Rothay upstream along secluded roads and cycle trails.

Next came the much smaller lake, Rydal Water. William Wordsworth lived here in Rydal for 37 years just up aside road off my route. The lake was on my left all the way and looking calm and peaceful.

Next in line came Grassmere as I still cycled along the main thoroughfare, the A591.

Another climb faced me, the second of the five Garmin regarded as majors today. In fact it wasn’t the worst of the day and in time the crest appeared, and a bit of morning sunshine. Great views all around up here.

Once over the top Thirlmere appeared ahead. Thirlmere is actually a reservoir for Manchester. My planned route was to cycle up the western side of this lake on paved and unpaved tracks. But in recent months I had read of issues with free- movement along here. I’d hoped a bike could get through but a sign left me in no doubt. So it was a matter of returning to the A591 and pedal on.

At the top of Thirlmere (42km) I pulled in for morning break and shelter from another bank of mist passing over. A young man, Dan, who had been out for a mountain run came over and engaged. His girlfriend was finishing her 5-day hiking trek over the fells today. Had a great chat till rain passed.

Now I moved away from the lakes and headed north eastwards. I was on busy A66 for a while but then hit off to the left into ‘wild’ country well serviced with paved trails. 

Black clouds kept approaching from the west but sunshine prevailed as I moved on, up and down, on a remote road seeing only sheep and other touring cyclists.

By 70km I was feeling peckish again and availed of a wayside bus shelter for my repast. Even though I was generally descending from here it had its share of sharp rises.

After passing through Dalston I hit the outer limits of Carlisle where I cycled around by its castle originally built in 1092.

Moving through Carlisle was straightforward enough with a good grid of cycle paths. For the previous few hours we had a black sky but brilliant warm sunshine. Knew that clouds would overcome at some stage. Just as I was negotiating the very busy Kingstown Interchange down it poured. I had to hop up on one of the traffic islands and get wet-gear on. All passed off within another 5km.

I took a quiet side-road for the approach to Longtown and came by Arthurets Church dedicated to St Michael and All the Angels.

Relieved I was to turn into Main St Longtown and spot my accommodation, The Sycamore Tree.

It had been a tough tough day and glad I had reached my destination.

Tomorrow is my Rest Day to recover from the exertions of the last 9 days. 7more to go.

So, there’ll be nod Blog post tomorrow. All will resume on Thursday.

Thank God for the health and thank God for the energy.