Day 6 - Carlisle to Cabus - Up and down

Distance - 76 miles
Total distance - 515 miles
Average speed - 11.8 mph
Maximum speed - 35.0 mph
Time - 6 hrs 25 mins

Another 7am alarm call greeted us in our Ibis room in central Carlisle. A tricky decision had to be made last night. Close the room window and roast, because we couldn't get the air con to work, or leave it open and struggle to sleep, because the Carlisle revellers were being a bit lairy and noisy. In the end the window was left open, until it got closed again 5 minutes later! In all honesty a decent sleep was had by all and after tucking into a breakfast that had been bought from Tesco the night before we went on our way.

We spent virtually the entire day on the A6, the traffic on which varied greatly. Initially it was very frustrating, very up and down. Therefore it was difficult to get into any real momentum. To quell this frustration I made a stop at the Toffee Shop in Penrith to refuel on some vanilla fudge. Some of the best fudge around. Then we headed towards Shap, vaguely aware that there may be a more sustained climb ahead. And there was. Bigger than we were expecting. In a way this ignorance made it easier and we simply launched into the climb. And climbed a bit more. Then more. Eventually we reached 1400ft, our highest point on the journey so far. Hopefully it will stay that way. But the view across the Eden Valley and towards the Pennines was pretty spectacular and made it all worthwhile.

From then we had an enjoyable downhill section, soon making it to Kendal where we stopped for lunch. Then it was onwards to Lancaster. Here the road became a bit dull, if honest. With little more of note we made it to our pre-booked campsite just outside Cabus, in Lancashire. We made it just in time to watch Andy Murray lose, while having some lovely pub grub. The tent awaits. But first I must stretch, ready for tackling another urban section tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be more fun than Glasgow.

Lastly, the eagle-eyed amongst you readers will have noticed that we have topped 500 miles. So unless something goes badly wrong, we're over halfway. Another milestone. Milestones are good.