Day 10

Monday, June 19
Ecclefechan to Motherwell
137km

It rained intermittantly last night and it was still raining when we woke up, had breakfast and packed up the tents.  Everything was pretty wet.  Aparently it rains every year in Ecclefechan.  Last year, someone on the trip got pnemonia on todays ride!

With that in mind, Roe and I were in full gortex attire as we headed out for the longest ride of the trip.  Given the weather, Keven ofered a shorter, but less scenic option for today's route.

A few km out of camp, the rain stopped, although it was still pretty overcast.  The scenery was lovely though.  Huge grassy-green rolling mountains, with little clumps of trees and sprinklings of sheep, goats and cows.

At 37km we arrived in Moffat, where we had to chose either the short or scenic route.  We chose scenic.  The views coming into Mofat were too impressive.  We had a snack in Moffat, and then climbed, steadily by gently, for 10km to enter the Scottish Borders region.  From there, we had 25km of steady downhill, back into another scenic valley.  The afternoon was filled with lovely vistas.  It only rained on us once, for about 2 minutes.  Not bad at all.

We had a nice lunch at a small coffee shop in Biggar.  After lunch, we faced a stiff headwind for 30km, which made for some slow riding over undulating terrain.

The last section of the ride was on major roads between Lesmahagow, Larkhall, and Hamilton.  The roads were very rough and jarring.  Not fun.  At one point we rode on a cycle path which had long raised bridges over expressway on and off ramps.  Big city cycling at its best.

The sun was shining as we arrived in camp this afternoon, so all of our wet tents and clothes are drying on the lawn.

Lovely dinner of meat and veggies at a carvery tonight.