WTF???

​7am

Pete awoke refreshed and raring to go at 6:30am. What else do you do with a nice cup of tea but check your email and social media? First thing he sees is that his booking for Friday at the Cally Palace hotel has been cancelled due to an invalid credit card. This is of course utter nonsense as he’s booked all this through a reputable online booking app and his card is fine. Calls the hotel to be told they did have a cancellation but no explanation as to why. They will look into it and call him back. 

Stress levels right now are quite high! Does he share the pain with the others over breakfast, or does he keep quiet…?

9:45 am

Splendid breakfast including fine black pudding. The three set off a bit lazily for a relatively short 65 miler. Today’s route followed a sizeable section of the Lejog route last year, through some of Englands loveliest, and mostly ignored, scenery between the north Pennines and the Lake District. 

Andrew’s train made it to Carlisle before the trio, who were lunching at a pub in Armathwaite that we’d stayed in last years trip. So he decided to find his own way out of Carlisle. The other three navigated the mean streets of Carlisle, festooned with too many George crosses for comfort. Then, just as they had cleared the town, Merv realised he had a puncture. He changed the tube but then noticed that the tyre itself was a bit past its use-by date. ‘If only we had a spare tyre’ says Merv. ‘What?’ says Pete, rummaging around on his panniers, ‘Like this one you mean?’. ‘I’ll buy it off you’ says Merv. So, new tyre, new tube, 30 minutes expended, and off they trot for the last 20 miles. Now those of the party that had been watching the forecast realised this may have spelled trouble due to a band of incoming rain. So the three got their skates on into a headwind into Scotland at Gretna and due west to Annan. The roads were wet, but amazingly they missed the rain. On arrival at tonight’s guest house they were met by Andrew who, though only half an hour ahead of them, had endured two downpours, one of which had required shelter in a bus stop! So maybe a puncture isn’t such a bad thing after all. 

Dinner in a pub that resembled Pete’s old 1970’s school common room (The Anchor, est 2013) and sold only Scottish brews. But it was decent food and generous portions, and the staff were great, so no complaints. 

Best news of the day was a call from the Cally Palace to say they had reinstated our booking for Friday. Turns out the problem was the way the booking app handles new credit cards. Very poor design says Pete who spent half his career finding design flaws in software, much to the annoyance of his teams who were the designers! He’s quite proud that he’s not lost his touch and can still break stuff! At least he’ll sleep better tonight, as will Merv who admitted over dinner that he’d been a bit worried about that tyre for two days. 

Bit of a boring entry for the reader but, for the team, that’s actually good news. 

66 miles

3488 feet