Day 4

Well the ear plugs did not mask the sound of the sheep and chickens this morning. We were glad to leave the campsite even though it was a hard climb out if the valley. In fact we can say from a cycling perspective we are glad to be leaving Cumbria behind. It has been very hard work :0)

Bobby had looked through the maps the night before and informed me that we would have an easier start to the day as we would be following the river valley. This was bang on so bobbies map reading skills have improved since his lack of skills in 2012 and the silsden hill incident ;-)
About 7 miles in to the day bobby suffered a flat tyre. We stopped in the entrance to an old farm and seem to attract the attention of various passing cyclist. Cyclists are a very friendly and helpfully bunch.
In what other sport would the ladies stop to offer help. I reckon it was the site if a stranded bobby that attracted the ladies ;-)

We passed out of that valley in to another and had the joy if following another river. Oddly it seemed a lot more of an effort to follow this river until the pennies dropped. All rivers flow down hill but we were cycling against the current ( up hill, DUH! ).
At the head if the valley was a very steep climb and we had to get off and push for a mile and a half. At the top we passed under a viaduct and just after that a long freight liner cement train passed over, which was a sight to see.

Once over the tops we had a lovely long down hill towards Hawes. Although in to the wind our Avg speed went from 7.2 to 8.6.
We had calculated that at 18.5 miles into today's cycle we would reach the halfway point of the Whitehaven to Whitby route. We duly stopped at 18.5 miles and had a brew and some lunch :-D

This should have been the point of no return be we both agreed that that point had been reached just after we had done the hardknott pass as there is NO way we are going back over that on bikes.
We dropped down in to Hawes to pick up provisions. When we rejoined the route we found we were on the tour de France route. The road surface has been replaced and we had a very pleasant 5 miles on  the route, wish more of the roads were like that.

The last 7 miles to Redmire were  lovely long gentle down hills.

The campsite is an improvement on the previous one. There are only two groups of DofE and us so very quiet. But more chickens :-(

There is no phone coverage here so the lady here at swan farm has kindly given us access to there WiFi to do the blog. Many thanks to Rachel.

We had tuna pasta for dinner then out to the Bolton Arms pub for a couple of well earned pints and time to look at the next days maps. Met a lovely couple on there holidays and there dog Oscar.

Stats for today
miles: 35
avg speed 9.4  (,less pushing)
max speed: 34.6
cycle time: 3 hrs 44 mins
trip time: 6hrs

Well that's all B road fans. Thanks for your continued support and interest.