Tailwinds, Tunes and Trailers!

We're in England! I know that because I rather clumsily hit my head on the "welcome to England" sign......

The day started well - we awoke to sunshine for the first time! We left the rather remote hostel, and its' mice, bats, broken beds and angry neighbour, and made our way southeast towards Dumfries on quiet winding roads and a big tail wind pushing us on our way. With renewed enthusiasm we broke out the iPod and strapped the speakers to the trailer, and cranked up the Foo Fighters for a few miles. Almost perfection - until the rain came along and spoiled our fun.

Undetered, we pushed on to Dumfries and stopped for a foot long subway (Me) and the largest coffee in the world (Andy W). Refreshed, we climbed out of Dumfries and caught our first glimpse of England in the distance. Then disaster struck.

Making our way steadily down towards the River Exe, the connecting bolt on my trailer broke, sending the trailer into the verge, and bits of bolt flying all over the road.

The problem had started whilst waiting for the ferry to Arran when my bike fell over, bending and bucking the connector in the process. I managed to bodge a fix, and we were able to carry on unhindered.

A few miles later and we were in Gretna, complete with its' many "Marriage outlets" and, more importantly, the Welcome to England sign, where we took the opportunity to share some Maltloaf, Andy W deciding that we must eat half in Scotland and half in England. Not sure why but we did just that, and were both rather pleased with ourselves for doing so.

From there was a straightforward 13 miles into Carlisle for our overnight stop, fighting the Bank Holiday traffic in the process.

Tomorrow we skirt the Lake District which should prove a tough test. Before I go tonight though I just want to thank all of you who have texted and posted messages of support since we started. We really do appreciate it - and it helps keep us both going when the rain starts, the wind blows and the hills arrive!