That's 53% of our journey done- the captain ( who has done this twice before) told me when we finished that it was at this point on his first trip that he realised that he might actually do it so let's hope that's true.
We've travelled through 10 counties in England.... Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria.
I'd like to say this was an uneventful day and we got to Carlisle by 7 pm and were having dinner at 730 pm and so an early night was had by all..... But I can't.
We started off in Warrington at 830am our earliest start. First major town Wigan were we all got a bit lost so managed to lose some time ... A high note from the captain we did see the VW Stadium home of Wigan FC.
Leaving Wigan we were heading
for Preston during this part of the ride, one of the team ( Marco) decided to call it a day. His Achilles were badly inflamed - a bit sad but for the best for him. The rest of us then decided to crack on to Lancaster which would be our first stop of the day and a bit over 50 miles into intended 120 miles. We made good time. Hoorah.
The captain decided our brakes were not working properly and found a Bike shop to service them, while we had lunch in Sainsburys cafe. A bit of fuelling as we had a big climb ahead at Shap ( 1400 ft and a climb that last 10 miles). When we went back to collect SS Galaxy she wasn't ready as the mechanic was helping another customer and they were having a problem with the back brake cable. They didn't have a long enough cable for a tandem... Lesson don't go on a long journey on a tandem without spare brake cable!!!.... They did a bit of a fix on it but not great. The shop did try to find a brake cable at some other shops in Kendal but no luck. This wasted an hour and a half. So the good time we had made was pointless....
Next stop regroup at Kendal before Shap... Made good time and arrived in Kendal about 4. Entering Kendal we hit a pothole and our lights, and water bottles went flying... Luckily not us.. When we stopped we the SS Galaxy had a broken mudguard to boot!!
We were only going to stop for toilets but we had a call telling us that a cycle shop might be able to help us, so we pop along.
Mistake they didn't have a cable long enough but cut the old one before realising. So they have to use a too short cable but manage and the brakes are better by the time that's done it's 5 pm. In the shop we meet Luke who's also doing LEJOG, so the captain invites him to join us if he can keep up.. He has lots of bags on his single.
Off we set to Shap... It's not so bad just a long slog. On the way up we learn that Luke had started in Cornwall 3 weeks ago with 5 friends spent a lot of time there before his friends decided not to do it and he set off on his own from Bristol taking 3 days to get here which was similar to us. His bike and pack weighs 120kg. We reach the summit together but our descent is far quicker. When he catches us he's amazed at our speed. We all cycle onto Penrith were Luke decides to call it a day. We still have 17 miles to go to Carlisle.
The rain starts making these miles long especially without the mudguard - I get a very cold wet rear end... The captains ok though( I'm his mudguard). The last few miles are hard navigating through Carlisle to our bed isn't easy but we've done it and on a big high as we're over halfway. A fantastic pasta feast was provided by Marco but not an early night as we'd hoped.
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