The Cycle Path
Cycle Log
Day 9 - Sunday 27th June 2004
Carlisle - Tushielaw
A quiet morning for the A7 so used the 'historic route to Scotland' to Langholm via Longtown with a forest of orchids in the roadside verge north of Esk mingled with Ox-eye daisies vetch, and pink dogrose. Up the Esk Valley along a section of the National Byway strewn with wild flowers and prematurely unmown verges (there is a connection!) Eskdalemuir is one of the wettest places in Britain and naturally it briefly rained.
Popped in to the garish, flagstrewn Samye Ling Tibetan Monastery to cancel my booking for overnight accommodation. It being just 3pm I was keen to get past Ettrick Pen and the watershed of the Esk into Ettrick Water. A landscape mixture of high but dumpy hills, open fells and swathes of forestry. Few settlements, fewer people, but lots of sheep and cattle with following calves. A relaxing and rewarding landscape in its simplicity of form and great roads for cycling with steady rises and long freewheels - touched 36mph on one drop!
Pushed on in the sudden rain to Tushielaw surrounded by Laws of all types, no Bens here. I hope to get closer to one hill called 'The Wiss' but that's for Monday and a full bladder…
