2001: Glasgow to Ennerdale
~ in aid of Muccopolysacharide (MPS)

:: Day One:
With the entire bikes etc, loaded into the mini bus on Thursday evening, everything was in place for a 06:00hr start on Friday morning. We arrived at Bell’s Bridge in Glasgow just gone 09:00hrs (the place we’d finished our journey from Inverness 12 months earlier). It took us nearly half an hour to carry out our final preparations and checks, before setting off on our 253-mile ride back to Ennerdale.

The first day turned out to be one of those I think most of us would like to forget as it was mostly through urban area’s with all the problems of the last twenty miles of last years ride i.e. no signs, signs turned around etc. After nearly 8hrs in the saddle plus lots of debates and back tracking we finally reached our accommodation in Ayr at around 17:30hrs, 56 very frustrating miles behind us, thank goodness.

:: Day Two:
We knew this was going to be the longest and toughest day of the ride, but we hadn’t anticipated just how long and tough. After a good quantity of the local brew the previous night, off we set just after 09:00hrs. The first couple of miles were along the sea front and was that sea breeze needed (just how much we were about to find out). We didn’t have to long to wait, as it was up and over a massive hill to a place called Maybole. From Maybole we headed on to a small village called Crosshill, where we started the longest climb of the ride, up and up for close on 5 miles, by which time a head wind had got up, followed soon after by rain. Again once reaching the hilltop it was a steep decent down to not much above sea level. This was again followed by another 3 mile climb and the wind seemed to be getting stronger or was it my legs getting weaker, I’m not sure. Once reaching the highest point the road started to run gently down for the best part of ten miles towards a place called Glentrool. We never quite made it into the village as we bearded left at this point onto a 26 mile off road stretch of the route, which eventually led us to our second over night stay in Castle Douglas. This part of the route was very picturesque and probably the best section of the whole ride; but with 79 miles behind us and a few of the riders' sense of humour rapidly disappearing I was quite pleased to see Castle Douglas!

This was a good hard days cycling behind us and in my opinion an excellent one, which was everything the first day, failed to provide. We had beautiful scenery with nice quiet country roads and tracks to cycle along. Weather could have been better but can’t have everything; "after all we were in Scotland".

:: Day Three:
Another 69 miles ahead of us, but today the terrain and weather were to be well in our favour. We set out again around the 09:00hr mark and headed towards Dumfries, a journey of just over 20 miles. This part was quite hilly, but nothing compared to the day earlier. Once through Dumfries we headed south towards the Solway coast, where we turned and headed in a north easterly direction, close by the Solway to we came to Annan, where we stopped for a bite to eat (and a pint). We’d made excellent time, as we had a good breeze behind us and we hadn’t seen a hill of any note since we left Dumfries nor were we to see one again that day. After Annan we pressed on through Gretna and back into England, then on to Longtown before turning south and into Carlisle via Rockcliffe. We completed the days cycling around 16:00hrs, we’d only cycled 10 miles less than the previous day and in over 4 hours less.

:: Day Four:
This took us out of Carlisle via the excellent new River Caldews cycle way to Dalston, from there we went on through Raughen Head, Hesket Newmarket and into Caldbeck where we stopped for a bar meal (and a pint). There was an almost ghostly feeling about the whole area, not an animal in sight, in fact we could not remember seeing an animal in neither the whole of Cumbria or most of Dumfries for that matter. It really hit home how this terrible foot & mouth disease had totally devastated these areas. We then headed along Caldbeck Common, before turning left and through by Over Water Tarn, down passed the Castle Inn, on through Embleton, Lorton, and Loweswater before hitting Fang’s Brow. Eventually reaching the top of Fang’s, we only had one good climb to go. Up through Lamplugh, over the Leap’s, descending into Croasdale, down into Ennerdale village and then to The Shepherds Arms for some well earned sandwiches, chips and a pint (or two), before heading home to rest some very tired and weary limbs.

On the whole it had been a long trail and the lads patience had wore very thin on many occasion’s; but in my opinion, due to the Foot and Mouth crisis, most of the lads had not had the opportunity to get out and about - to get enough training in, as in previous years. Apart from the first day the cycle ride had been a very good one, a good challenge, but maybe with a few less miles per day, we would have been able to take in a bit more of the surrounding areas.