Stopped at Lockerbie. Thought the disaster might be more obvious but the only evidence I saw was a sign to a garden of remembrance. Bought breakfast stuff at Tesco's but couldn't find a cafe open. Continued up the very quiet road beside the A74 (M.). It was wide and quiet but it also had a cycle lane! Stopped for a Costa coffee and chocolate twist at a motorway service station (fortunately accessible from the road I was on). Cost nearly as much as my breakfast stuff -- need to watch these extravagances.
Although the road was pretty good to cycle on it was a bit on th
e dull side. Following on fro
m Costa I had a "serial" breakfast at various stops: baguette and banana; cheese sandwich; an apple and a pear; yoghurt and juice; and apple puffs. Rainclouds kept coming over bringing rain and the wind veered westerly then towards northwesterly. Each time the clouds came over the wind picked up.My general direction during the day was nor-norwest, so it was "mostly in my face". After about 42K at Beattock the road was uphill for the next 18K to Beattock summit. Not at all steep -- about 220m climb in total. But the further up the hill I went the more exposed I was to the wind.
Especially when the road headed in a more westerly dire
ction which it did several times. The road then undulated for a bit. And here it was very windy. At Abingdon I really had to struggle on the road crossing the A74(M); I was even struggling to pedal at 10kph downhill!Mostly the road was the old A74. At some points one of the previous carriageways was now the road and the other (or half of it) became the cycle track. Sometimes t
he cycle track beside the roa
d and others it meandered away from the road. It was always quiet but it was boring especially with the headwind.After crossing the A70 the old A74 was still a dual carriageway but they were mowing the central reservation so the outside lane on each carriageway was coned off for miles and miles. Just as I got onto it a convoy of three HGVs came up behind but there was no way they could pass me in the restricted carriageway, so I pulled across into the coned off lane. It pleased the three drivers, no end and they thanked me profusely! I stayed in the coned off carriageway for miles.
Towards Hamilton the roads got a little more interesting as the Friday evening traffic built up. I surprised myself by finding the campsite in the country park straightaway.
I'd planned to eat out so I walked towards Hamilton. I passed a Toby Carvery but thought I'd try and find something more interesting so I carried on walking in the general direction of Hamilton. Walked for ages but found nothing (I looked at the map afterwards and I should have headed towards Bellshill which was nearer and probably more interesting). So I went back to the carvery.. A bit naff but I enjoyed it. At least in a carvery with a buffet you could eat cyclist sized portions! And it was good value: £16 25 with wine. Towards the end of the meal I started to feel faint. The third time it had happened in the last 18 months; always in similar circumstances, relaxing towards the end of the meal having had two glasses of wine. It would seem to be my BP dropping. My hypertension seems to be related to stress and the GP I had before I retired thought I might be able to do away with the medication once I gave up work. So, I just sat there, waiting for it to pass, which it did after about 10 minutes. I finished my pudding and left feeling perfectly okay. Walked home and went to bed.
Campsite: Caravan & Camp site, £4.75. Good site, clean facilities. Well laid out. Nice setting.
Statistics
Distance 123.86 km (77.0 miles)
Time 8 hours: 41 minutes: 33 seconds
Average Speed 14.2 km/hour
Maximum Speed 37.8 km/hour
Distance from Lands End 1074.0 km
Total Time cycling 68:08
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