Blog/Updates

Day 25 – Pooley Bridge to Haweswater

Actual distance 19.42Km or 12.07miles (or 25,893 adult male badgers)

Total Ascent 445m (or 2,225 red squirrels)

Today was wet, but really good. We woke in a warm and cosy home, had a lovely leisurely breakfast then set off back to Pooley Bridge to start part 1 of todays route. We set off from the Pooley Bridge Inn and headed off on foot up Heughscar Hill when we met up with Amee (our host last night) and her two gorgeous dogs (Oliver and Walter). We walked with her across Askham Fell before going our separate ways, but only after she kindly provided us with a hot cup of tea and cake!

We continued down onto the road and into Bampton where we stopped for lunch in the Bampton Valley Stores, a lovely and very welcoming general store and coffee shop. We happened to pop in our of the rain at the same time as two groups who were walking Coast to Coast and chatted about our respective journeys over lunch. As we were leaving John joined us having walked up from Haweswater to join us. He had been in the local pub in Bampton whilst we were in the cafe, and took us in there before we left the village to meet a gentleman who was the chair of the local drystone wall association. He kindly took time to explained to us how the drystone walls are built which was fascinating.

We continued the short walk up to Naddle Farm, our base for this evening and met Annabel who is the visitor experience manager here at the RSPB centre. The site is a conservation haven working to improve the locality for wildlife, water quality and for people. We were treated to a hot drink on arrival, then shown around. Annabel had kindly arranged for us to use the centres yurt for the night and an area of adjacent field.

Just as we were finishing our drinks, the Littlewood family (some of Bethan’s friends from home) arrived at Naddle Farm to joined us for phase 2 of today’s journey. We all hopped onto our bikes and cycled down to the car park at the other end of the reservoir. It was a nice short ride with a couple of manageable hills. Having said our goodbyes, Phil and John (with Hattie tagging on for the ride) headed back to Pooley Bridge to collect the van, whilst the other half of the team relaxed in the yurt.

Dinner this evening was an extra special treat. We welcomed the inspirational Fell Foodie who popped by and cooked us an incredibly delicious curry on a camp stove complete with rice and flatbreads- an utter treat. It was truly inspirational to taste just how amazing camp cooking can be. Thank you so much Harrison for coming to visit us this evening!

Having said goodbye to the Fell Foodie we retired to our portable hide (or our roof tent on the van!) to see if we could spot some of the local badgers which Annabel had told us about. Sadly despite clear badger paths in the field, we didn’t spot any this evening.

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Day 24- Carlisle to Pooley Bridge

Proposed distance 46.93Km or 29.16 miles (or 93,860 uncurled Cumberland sausages)

Total Ascent 666m (or 2,220 daffodils)

Getting back to it after a rest day was never going to be simple, but it gave us time to organise and repack the van which was increasingly essential except now we appear to have a single trainer on board that nobody recognises…….

We jumped back on the bikes this morning and headed out of Carlisle confusingly on the route 7 cycleway, which is also the route 10! A fantastic initial run of 10km along smooth tarmac set us up for a great day. The two cycle routes parted for a few kilometres and we (well Phil, though he denies this) chose to take route 10 for this stretch. Unfortunately this lead us to an incredibly muddy cow field where Ollie and Hattie quickly became completely stuck in the mud and unable to cycle. They were rescued by Jennie who managed to extract their bikes from the bog and push them to a slightly less squelchy part of the field. A reasonable stretch of mountain biking followed with no falls and good bike handling demonstrated by all (maybe all this cycling is paying off).

At the first opportunity we headed back to the 7 and took a shortcut up a sharp, muddy path to the road. Unfortunately this section took its toll on Hattie‘s ankle and she started to struggle to cycle. We continued along the route 7 along quiet country roads, with rollercoaster style short steep descents immediately followed by short equally steep ascents – great fun!

We continued dipping and climbing for a further hour and managed over 25km before we stopped for lunch. With her ankle now fairly sore, Hattie stayed with the support team whilst the rest of us continued to our finish point. Once we reached the end of our planned route, we realised that pushing on just a little further would allow for an ice cream (and pub) at the end, plus a shorter walking day tomorrow. With a little persuasion, and with the knowledge from Jennie (our chief navigator) that there was one more ‘little bit of up’ we ploughed on. Within a couple of minutes Ollie astutely noted the 12% gradient sign……

We met our support team at our new cycle finish point and, reunited with Hattie, finished the day with a quick 1.5km walk into Pooley Bridge for a well deserved drink and a lovely ice cream from Chestnut House. Suitably refreshed we headed back to pick up the van from Ratlingate campsite before driving to stay with Mike (DC for Eden District) and Amee (and their two gorgeous dogs!) who have been amazingly generous in opening their home to us, feeding us and providing us with beds for the night. Thank you both so much.

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Day 23- Rest day in Carlisle

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLLIE!

It’s been a very special rest day today as it was Ollies birthday!

We started the day with a lie in which we all desperately needed! Once everyone was awake we headed outside as the girls had set Ollie a very special treasure hunt to give him his presents from them (a brilliant Wilby tradition). They did a fantastic job and Ollie utterly loved it even if we did all get rather wet in the rain!

We then headed into Carlisle in search of a gluten-free brunch which we found at Foxes Cafe Lounge. Ollie had requested a trip to the cinema with snacks to watch the latest Pixar film as his birthday treat which he really enjoyed. We had a wander round the toy shops of Carlisle, followed by a mandatory trip to the playground before heading home via the shops to grab some pizza for tea (which ended up mildly incinerated in the industrial oven!)

We were surprised and delighted to welcome David, the Chair of the Ratlingate team and his son Jamie. We had a good chat before we all got a birthday present as he took away our dirty laundry and washed it for us (we had taken it on a day trip to Carlisle today in the hope of a laundrette to no avail!)

Having figured out the projector, the younger ones settled down to watch Ghosts before birthday cake and bed. The older team serviced the bikes and repacked in preparation for tomorrows leg to Penrith!

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Day 22 – Lockerbie to Carlisle

Actual distance 47.18Km or 29.31 miles (or 85,782 female golden retrievers)

Total Ascent 314m (or 2,326 medium Costa coffee cups)

Our last day in Scotland started a little slowly as we had to wake Ollie up and he was very reluctant to get going until we reminded him that his birthday is happening in Carlisle tomorrow, so it was very important we make it there! Suddenly he was inspired to ride!

We left St Ann’s in the drizzle, but by the time we made it to the start point in Lockerbie it has dried nicely! We followed cycle routes 74 then the 7 today, travelling along roads that run parallel to the A(M)74. There was a mixture of B roads with space for a cycle lane at the side of the road and empty country lanes roads. The path lead through a small hamlet called Hollee, that Ollie couldn’t pass by without adapting the sign for a photo!

The hills today were generally long and gradual, and we remained dry and comfortably warm. We were therefore able to make really good progress and reached Gretna Green for lunch in high spirits. We ate lunch in the park (the children’s choice of course!), and watched a few groups heading into the Registry Office we assume (from their attire) to get married. Once we had our lunch we had to ensure we were suitably fuelled for the shortish afternoon by testing the (possibly) renowned Scottish delicacy of battered Mars bar which was surprisingly good!

We sped out of Gretna only to have to do an emergency stop, not realising that the English border was quite so close! Photos taken, we then continued along route 7 on one of the most un-scenic stretches of road we had encountered yet adjacent to the M6. We quickly started to miss the tranquillity of Scotland.

Despite some fairly tricky head winds (or ‘Hedwigs’ as Hattie termed them) we still made it to Carlisle in good time and celebrated with a Costa before heading for Ratlingate Scout Campsite – our home for the next 2 nights. After tea we had a visit to welcome us to Cumbria from Eddie Ward, the County Commissioner. We had a good chat and made a fuss of Honey (an Instagram star we found out!) before pitching the tents in the hall ready for our day off tomorrow!

Tomorrow is Ollie’s 10th birthday (that he has reminded us of pretty continually for the last 3 weeks!). We therefore have a busier schedule than you would expect for a rest day, filled with treasure hunts, brunch, cinema trips, a Lego shop, cake, presents and a movie night (assuming the birthday boy gets his way!).

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Day 21- Abington to Lockerbie

Actual distance 52.35Km or 32.53 miles (or 349,000 black tip reef sharks)

Total Ascent 266m (or 295.6 macaws)

Staying at St Anns Scout Campsite

It was a relatively early start this morning. John, our support, went to do his 214th park run and completed one of the most difficult runs in Scotland- Lanark Moor and came home with a respectable time. Impressively one of the runners he met there had already heard of The Great Woggle JOGLE through Facebook!

The rest of us were also up bright and early to strike camp and make breakfast before we had a special guest drop in- ‘Sharkey’- Andrew Sharkey, Scouts Chief Commissioner for Scotland. It was lovely to meet him and he even consented to be interviewed by Ollie- available here.

Just before leaving Abington Jennie went for a quick wander to the village shop and saw a red and green macaw and a yellow and blue macaw flying in the sky opposite. They were settled in a tree when she came back out of the shop, and sadly the photo she took was such poor quality that we all think she’s gone a little mad!

We headed out relatively early for us and headed south along the 74. Today started with a moderated climb (through sun, with wind and driving rain for a short time), followed by a lovely downhill run into Beattock. We had therefore managed a whopping 30km before stopping for lunch at a convenient pub.

The afternoon was more difficult due to the weather. We had been making good progress, but with 8km to go we hit a severe and persistent headwind and heavy rain. The pleasant day’s cycling quickly became very tough, especially for Ollie who had to really fight to continue against the elements. We were all very relieved to see Lockerbie in the distance and more importantly the John and the car!

After picking up the van from Abington we headed for St Ann’s campsite where we were pleasantly surprised to find Mitch, the incredibly handy and affable camp warden, along with Mariann the DC for Dumfriesshire, Janice the District badge secretary and Fred, the District President who had made a warm fire and greeted us with an even warmer welcome. We were shown around the campsite, chatted by the fire and exchanged badges. We even had an impromptu photo shoot!

We had hot dogs and campfire bananas for tea, accompanied by a mug of hot chocolate… just what was needed to warm everyone after such a cold and wet end to the day. We even found time to play cards, read and sew on some badges this evening!

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Day 20 – Merryton to Abington
Actual distance 41.07Km or 25.52miles (or 23,878 bicycles)

Total Ascent 574m (or 7.65 wind turbines)

We woke today, had egg butties (cooked by Ollie) for breakfast, then headed off back to Larkhall (Merryton) to start our cycle.

The kids found a playground (the first of two today!) as soon as we arrived at the start and disappeared whilst we took the bikes off the car.
We picked up cycle route 74 again and followed it all day! Within a kilometre we hit our first steep climb. The road continued in a similar vein with teasingly brief descents, followed by further climbs winding around cattle filled farm land and fields filled with large wind turbines.

We stopped for lunch in Blackwood in a park with an excellent playground. Clearly the hills hadn’t tired the children out enough as they certainly made the most of the facilities!
After lunch the road levelled out for a while, before hitting our biggest hill of the day; a steady but persistent ascent directly into a head wind. The wind was described as being ‘the worse thing yet’ by our youngest participant, and certainly caused quite a challenge for small legs. It meant the last 18km was fairly tough going for all (and for another cyclist that we overtook) despite a fairly nice cycle path.
We finished the day in Abington, initially taking refugee in their village shop where we stopped for an cuppa (and the children bought and ate far too much chocolate!). We then settled in pitching our tents on the grounds of the community fire station. A little alfresco cooking and dining followed and we were soon comfortably ready to sleep.

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Day 19- Milngavie to Merryton

Proposed distance 49.07km or 30.5miles (or 505,876 Tunnocks Caramel Wafer bars)

Total Ascent 704m (or 586 Scottish Red Deer)

We woke this morning at Auchengillan with a very different view out the windows to when we arrived. The mountains had completely vanished in the clouds and the climbing wall and activity areas were barely visible. It had rained most of the night, but was more of a wet mist as we packed the van. We took the opportunity to thank Claire for the support and headed back to Milngavie.

We were greeted at our start point today by Sandy and Neil from 20th Glasgow (1st Milngavie) who helped us immensely by escorting us to the canal path on a far safer route than we had plotted. Impressively they arranged not only to have a deer wander through one of the estates we were cycling through, but also to stop the rain allowing us a fairly dry day!

We parted with them as we turned off the Forth and Clyde canal, and continued into Glasgow by a very scenic route following national cycle route 754 through beautiful architecture alongside the river Kelvin. Ollie raced a local runner through one of the parks, who kept an incredibly impressive pace and (because we made him wait for the rest of the group to catch up) she narrowly beat him! We then moved to route 75 and headed alongside the Clyde through Glasgow, stopping at a lovely picnic spot adjacent to Merchant City.

The afternoon was spent meandering along route 75 and then route 74, with occasional busy roads and some tricky climbs that caused small legs quite some stress! For any cyclists (Dan) we even had a short section on pavé to keep us entertained at one point! Ultimately the final ascent was too much for the youngest pair, but ever determined to complete the day, Ollie and Jennie walked up the final steep section whilst Bethan and Phil powered on up the road.

We spent the evening with Sandy and some of the team at the 20th swapping stories, doing a spot of bouldering and playing Jenga whilst refuelling ready for tomorrow- sadly our penultimate day in Scotland!

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Day 18- Dumgoyne to Milngavie

Actual distance 11.75Km or 7.3 miles (or 5,269 adult swans wingspan)

Total Ascent 186m (0r 1,268 iPhone 14s)

A slightly bitter sweet, busy day today.

Due to the sneaky cycle stage yesterday we had less distance to do today than we had originally planned, so most of the team had a well deserved lie-in in the comfort of the Lomond Mountain Rescue Team HQ. Once awake there was time to do some TLC and hair washing before breakfast baps from a shop down the road. However, Phil was up early to take the car into Glasgow to see if he could get it fixed. Whilst it proved rather costly (needing new brakes all round and new front tyres), it now doesn’t squeak and hopefully will stop more easily!

After brunch we joined up with Sandy and his dog Breagha (our second Breagha of the journey- both beautiful!) from the 20th Milngavie to complete the last stretch of the West Highlands Way. The walk was the possibly our easiest yet, with a gentle amble into Milngavie mainly along a disused railway line. It feels really good to have completed our second long distance trail of our journey.

On reaching Milngavie we met up with John Leeks who has taken over as our support team today and Sandy treated the team to ice cream at the excellent Colpi.

Whilst Phil took the train back to Partick to pick up the now fixed car the rest of the team stocked up on essentials before heading to Auchengillan where the amazing Claire showed us into a huge accommodation block for the night. We had salad, fresh vegetables and fruit with dinner.. foods we have really missed for the last week!!!

Sadly this morning we not only said goodbye to Dan as our support. He will be sorely missed and his antics on his folding cycle will not be forgotten (especially his King of the Mountain awards on Strava!). We also temporarily said goodbye to James today who has also popped home to support Cara whilst she undergoes treatment on her knee and recuperates. We look forward to having them both back with us next Thursday on our mad adventure!

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