Day 23 - Garstang to Tebay

Quick facts:

Weather: H22 L 16 humidity 100% (fog at 7am time spot)

POP 24% during the day

Departure: Best Western Preston Garstang Country Hotel and Golf Course

Destination: Westmoreland Hotel, Tebay Service Centre

Planned distance: 51.7 mi 82.7 km

Planned ascent: 2,782

Planned descent: 2,152

Route: photo from Ride With GPS

For actual data on the ride see Ralph’s Strava file section.

Good morning/ Good day

After a good breakfast Jon, Ralph and I headed out with the  Yorkshire Dales National Park  a treat to find ahead of us.

Our first very pleasant stop was at the Capernwray Evangelical little community church where two grandparents and their two grandchildren were doing their share by scrubbing the wrought iron fencing. Ralph had a tour and marvelled at the beauty and simplicity of these rural churches. Their congregation is outgrowing the church. 

Rhubard and flowers for sale….

It wasn’t long before we were in Lancanshire. My first Impression is that it is a hard working town. The buildings had a sooty look reminiscent of the coal burning trains and factory furnaces which would have been the backbone of industry here. Mary Beateice Sweeney, Ralph’s and my grandmother,  lived  in the Lancaster  region. Ralph could remember visiting the area with his parents decades ago.

The weather was holding up as a cloudy day with no rain but to be on the safe side, Anisa chose covered pagoda in the town square in Kirkby Lonsdale and had a picnic lunch ready.  Jon followed up with ice creams for all.

Kirby Lonsdale (Cumbria) s a good example of the curved streets through these rural towns with old houses that may have seen centuries of families coming and going.

We were happily enjoying the smooth pavement of a quiet back road when we came to Road Closed signs and a bridge repair. Two stone walls were being built on both sides and the bed replaced.  The foreman quickly told us we couldn’t cross.  

My friend Robin took me on a dry stone wall “101” course in the community of Amherst Island in Ontario,Canada.  The community had a dry stone wall builder from Scotland come over to teach the technique.  I got into a discussion about the walls, the double wall technique and how fabulously straignt theirs were. The stop became a photo op with Martin happy to be featured with his wall on my blog.  

Martin Young from Kirby Stephen building the stone walls for the bridge. 

Across we went and on our way with another interesting story.

This picture was taken at the top of a steep hill.  The defibrillator was a nice touch of community concern for cyclists! 

Kendal

Yorkshire Dales National Park

Lakes District National Park

Rolling road in the valleys between high hills of the Lake District

Our destination was the Tebay Service Centre and the Westmoreland hotel.  Anisa was particularly happy to shop in this organic, locally grown food store.  There was a cafeteria beside the store featuring their products. Delicious steak and ale pies were had by several of us. 

The Westmoreland hotel had views of the valley, little nooks to sit in watching little waterfalls,  and despite being on a major M- road… it was perfectly quiet in my room.

Another good day “at the office”

Lorraine