John O'Groats to Lands End

Follow me on a cycle ride from 'End to End' with Maps, Info and Tips

Welcome to the Down the Lane 'Extras'
Supplement features & Articles to the Down the Lane Website              

JOGLE route - Crawford to Carlisle

Day 10 of my end to end cycle ride

Cycling down B7078 Scotland
A typical scene going down the B7078 alongside the Motorway

Today was a good day, well, at least until I got to the south side of the English / Scottish Border. I was once again on the B7078 for most of it, with very little traffic and it was mostly downhill all the way. I thought I'd make Gretna OK., but unsure about the cost of accommodation there with all the tourism etc. thought I may have an outside chance of making Carlisle. Off I went from Crawford, with a purpose!

lt's strange how although you're going at a much slower speed, you notice the changes in scenery far more on a cycle I found on my journey and it was very much so on this day. I started off in high rolling but fairly bare hills, into high rolling hills with forest, then onto flat.

I have to admit that after hours of the B7078, I was getting a bit bored with no navigation to be done as such, but come the end of the road and the Cycle Route goes off the road and follows a few very pretty lanes in a semi-circle around to Gretna.

Gretna was not at all how I imagined it to be, not as green and fairly built up, but nice all the same. I turned a bend and came accross the Signpost I'd seen many times in my web research on the route, 'Welcome to England'. I've done the local Council here a favour by photoshopping out the black smears on the sign as it's not exactly the best of them!

Welcome to England became welcome to the rain and being petrified cycling down the A7. I managed two miles of that before I decided to turn off wherever I could and find some smaller roads skirting it. My first attempt at this meant me turning around after two miles, it was throwing it down by then and I was fed up!

I finally found a way round and suddenly ended up in a large Business Park 'somewhere in England'! A couple of lads sitting outside a McDonalds pointed me in the right direction and before I knew it, I was more or less in the City Centre.

Rather than stop there and pay a lot for a B&B, I cycled on and just past Carlisle Football Club found a B&B which suited all purposes.

It's odd how an imaginary line of a Country's border can have. Suddenly the roads had gone from quieter with considerate drivers to traffic mayhem and the drivers seemingly not caring less about a Cyclist just out to have an adventure or a good time. Everything seemed to become more urgent and got to get there quicker.

I was to find this isn't the same all over England, but for this day, I was happy with myself, I'd cycled 66 miles through sun, wind and rain and still managed to walk about a mile to have something to eat that evening.

Toulouse Monument B7078 Scotland
I'm still looking to find out what this represents (on the side of the Cycle Path near Lockerbie)

Lane just north of Gretna Green
Following the Cycle Path around to Gretna

Scotland to England border at Gretna
Welcome to England, clear blue sky, 10 minutes later, chucking it down!!

_______________________


400 miles just north of Carlisle


End to End
Articles
The Route and Diaries and finally..


______________________

Brooks Saddles

See them at Evans