78 miles.6:58 hours of cycling. Average speed
10.4mph
It was a cold morning with a brisk north easterly. We had
a great breakfast, after which the receptionist gave Pete £20 for our
charities. We climbed steeply out of Moffat at first and then steadily with a few runs down
for about 25 miles.
We were again slogging along a B road parallel to the M74
for miles and miles. The riding surface was truly awful – something they
appear to specialise in in Scotland. It was well maintained, but made out of very large
chips of stone set into tarmac - the bike bounced around all over the place. At
times it was almost like riding on cobbles and at one point the bike shook so much
that one of my panniers fell off.
We stopped at Blackwood for lunch – a corner ship with
nowhere to sit – and then struggled through heavy traffic in Hamilton, getting
a bit lost in the process. We were cycling along a pavement trying to avoid the
artics when we were flagged down by a police woman. I feared a telling off but
actually what she wanted was help to push a broken down car out of the traffic.
We were happy to oblige.
We eventually made it to Camberslang and picked up the
cycle path along the banks of the Clyde. We bowled along with about 25 miles to
go thinking that we had an easy finish. All was well into the centre of
Glasgow, but after that it became difficult. We kept getting lost and
eventually were forced on to the A814 towards Dunbarton.
We ploughed on with Dunbarton feeling like it was getting
further away not closer but eventually found the last cycle path of the day,
which Pete managed to pick up a bit earlier than I did.
The Abbotsford Hotel in Dunbarton is well-run and had
everything we needed.
This was the first day of the trip which felt a bit
boring more than anything else. I had expected great countryside in Scotland
but it had not delivered so far.
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