Day 24 - Tebay to Gretna Green
Quick facts
Weather: Raining hard as I type this in Tebay. H17 L11 Winds SE 17kph Humidity 93% (but it IS raining )
Departure: Westmoreland Hotel, Tebay Service Centre
Destination: The Gables Hotel, Gretna, Scotland
Planned distance: 53.2 miles 85.1 km
Planned ascent: 1,385 ft
Planned descent: 2,024 ft
Route: photo from Ride With GPS
For actual metrics see Ralph’s ride in the Strava section of the website.
Good morning/ Good day.
We are starting out high in the fells of the Lake District. I love this part of England. I was here in May 2022 walking the 182 mi (293km) Wainwright's Coast to Coast. I will be crossing my “footsteps” on my bike today in the town of Orton. Walking in England is just as great an activity as cycling. I highly recommend Wainwright’s path if you like that sort of thing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_to_Coast_Walk
This is the section of the walking path we are cycling through today in Lake District National Park. Orton is between Shap and Kirkby Stephen in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Wikipedia photo credit.
Back to cycling! Look at our ride profile today. Who couldn’t enjoy that! Ok. It is pouring rain and I am grateful for my disc brakes.
Ralph can visit all the churches we pass and I can stop and smell all the roses - and there are a lot of roses in England. Jon will be so far ahead with his long legs and ligntly loaded bicycle that we will see him as a speck in the valley. Anisa, like our personal protective angel, will suddenly appear with her card load of bananas, crunchy bars, drinks…. and a good (sheltered) lunch spot she will have found along our way. Ralph and I are really going to miss her when she and Jon head off on the rest of their holiday tomorrow.
Thank you so much Anisa. You “pop up” at such great moments!
Back to today.
Ralph and I set off at 9:00 with Jon promising to catch up later.
It was misty…. not raining, but one very nice tailwind as confirmed by the windsock on the M6 when we passed over.
…. we were being blown across Wainwright’s path between Shap and Orton!
It was early but I still regret not going to the chocolate factory in Orton that I had visited in May. Eighty varieties of chocolates to choose from when I was there last. We left town by a different route and I missed it .
https://www.kennedyschocolates.co.uk/orton-chocolate-shop/
When we were in Orton we were officially back in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Lovely countryside.
The town of Corsby Ravensworth popped out of the farmland with the large Crosby Hall greeting you. I was tempted to go into the courtyard and explore but it has become several personal homes now.
St Lawrende church on the other hand, steeped in history, has welcoming signs and toilets to use.
Always a nice feature for cyclists. It's funny how I begrudgingly give 50p to use a public toilet but happily donate £1. to the churches I visit. They make it easy with electronic tap.
Our next stop was at Brightside Barn Art Studio and Gallery where Tim Watson is a water colourist and Catherine Beckett is a print maker.
https://www.brightsidebarn.co.uk/
They have renovated a listed barn that they have done a super job of renovating into their studio. I loved Catherine’s original cards of wild flowers and bought several which I have already used as thank you notes.
Tim showed us round brown balls that appeared to be acorns but are actually galls produced when on a tree as a result of wasps. These are the foundation of a black ink used for 1,000s of years. Tim recited the ancient scripts that used this ink. I think the Magna Carta was on the list. He is now using this ancient method to produce ink to use in his watercolors.
He had a particularly striking piece of the high ridge walk I completed in May. Today I will be again in the area of the Lakes National Park and it is a grey, wet morning as is depicted in the piece. I bought the painting. Tim will arrange to have it shipped home and it will be my aide memoire for 2022 - my hiking and cycling year in Britain. I can picture myself at the spot the painting is depicting… looking at the summit off in the distance.
A day is not complete without a good English castle. The one at Penrith will do fine. We didn’t know at the time that there was a castle in Carlisle too.
As cyclists we were always looking for free Air. In Penrith at Arragons.com Sarah helped us out.
Thank you Arragon’s Cycle Centre.
Anisa caught up with us in Carlisle where she was high on a rampart as we cycled by.
Unfortunately we spent too long enjoying snacks and the Carlisle Castle was closing as we arrived. We literyweee inlyballowed to peek in the outer courtyard.
Ralph had also taken a side trip to Cambrian Radio - BBC to see if his fundraiser was of interest. It was not .
Built on the site of 3 Roman forts, the Duke ofLancaster is the active regiment now.
The Kings Own Border Regiment has vets that still come for ceremonies-. This year marks 900 years, since 1092. We were given a very brief history lesson by Emma, of which I remember « 11th century is Norman 13 is medieval »
I found it very interesting to be told that the line of Hadrian’s Wall is behind the fort…the stones are not. They were seen as very useful building bricks and can be found in Carlisle Cathedral and other buildings along its path.
Land’End 478 miles .. John o’Groats 360 miles…. We are much more than halfway to our next corner.
Jon came cycling from the Gables Hotel in Gretna to greet us at the « Welcome to Scotland » sign and Anisa took lots of pictures for us. A nice milestone of our trip.
Old Toll Bar Café where apparently 10,000 marriages have been performed.
My chicken supreme finished off the day nicely.
Safe travels
Lorraine