Arrived in Scotland - Day 7

Woke for a nice early start after a great sleep to see good weather yippee, and found myself in Kendal for yet another fried breakfast (and to purchase yet more food, mostly chocolate/pasta/chocolate biscuits & anything gooey!) before making an attempt on Shap Fell.  From Kendal the road goes up, and it goes up and it goes up some more - the road winds up through awe inspiring scenery as you will see from my photo, until you reach the summit at Shap Fell, approximately a 400 metre ascent.  Cold, raining and windy at the top of that really big hill but even that couldn't dampen the joy of making it..........

Almost as a prize, the wind then came behind me and pushed me on to Carlisle but with it came an awful lot of rain so the waterproofs had their first real full on outing and the rain covers saw some action too - good news they work as all was dry inside the panniers - excellent stuff!

Taking the back lanes to Gretna I found myself all at once stood on the border of Scotland.  Only 5 more miles and I arrived at my overnight stop http://www.brucescave.co.uk/.  The campsite in Kirkpatrick Fleming is on the site near the cave of King Robert The Bruce, where he sought refuge in the 14th century, so I wandered down for a visit to see this ancient monument, a worthwile amble.

82 miles cycled today and a very welcome bath at the campsite in celebration of my mileage to date and to have reached Scotland!

Total so far - 524 miles