Easy to leave Carlisle from the centre - down to the Eden bridge and turn left just after on to Route 7.
B 7060 fine apart from some nasty potholes. Took the (forum) recommended diversion west after Lockerbie.
Lovely road. We were passed by a total of 8 vehicles between Lockerbie and Beattock.
Our fastest day: 8.9 mph moving. 8.0 overall.
Sorry you must have hit rush hour on the road to Beattock If you thought the surface on R74 was bad today wait til you go over the summit tomorrow Met a Lady today also on LEJOG Carlisle > Moffat you might have passed her earlier?
Whatever I am, wherever I am, this is me. This is my life
An easy day. Up to Abington and then the Clyde valley was good. The 704 ok. Didn't like the 706 and came off it on to minor roads for the last few miles.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
Route 7 to Inverness. Got a bit lost Picked up Route 1 and took the Black Isle option. As it was a Saturday afternoon stayed on the main road to Cromarty and kept to the coast road from Nigg. Even used the A9 into Tain.
Another good day apart from the cold East wind which really made itself felt on the Black Isle.
Used the B road instead of the cycle route through Tongue.
Lovely ride along the loch. Quite a lot of small ups and downs.
Then the shock of the series of hills at Bettyhill. Like being back in Cornwall again. Not sure about Route 1 when it comes away from the A road. It is a straight road and we had a lot of fast traffic. It was going home time and it seemed to be used as a cut through.
Road surfaces on a couple of Betthill downhills and going into Thurso were awful.
Now we are home. The bikes are not back yet, but they said it could take a week. Flying back made for an easy "winding down" day.
We did 1009 miles, 49208 feet of climbing as recorded by my Garmin. When planning the route I found differences, sometimes large ones, between the route planner's elevation estimates. I may return to this, if I have time.
I was mainly pleased with the route, if we did it again there are some bits of A road I would avoid, some I would include.
I found I did not know enough about cycling routes through towns. The information may be there, but is in different formats and often not easy to read.
I have more respect for Sustrans' routes than I had before I started, though I still would not follow them everywhere. But if they take what appears to be a pointless diversion, I would do more checking before discounting it.
Bikes were an old Galaxy and a Specialized Vita, both geared 48/ ?/28 and 11 - 34, which we found adequate. We broke wheels on our usual road bikes when doing training rides, so I acquired these to give us a more "touring" spec bikes.
I used top/top gear for about 10 miles in total, Jan never used it. Bottom/bottom, probably 50 miles' worth.
No punctures, both bikes on Schwalbe Marathon Greenguard 32 section.
I used Germolene a few times, Jan a tub of Assos cream. Neither for major problems.
We both had the equivalent of 2 off 15 litre panniers, which took all our stuff with a bit of space left over for the day's sandwiches.
We were so lucky - we didn't use our waterproof trousers and overshoes. We had half an hour's downpour in Lancaster, and a few drizzly bits, and it got quite a lot colder as we went north.
The best bit? Just doing it, it is a wonderful experience.
But somewhere, maybe 45 miles into the day, cycling along a country lane, miles from home and with miles and miles to go, I realised I didn't feel my 68 years, I felt young again.