With our alarms set for 7.30am we set ourselves the (retrospectively) rather ambitious target of an 8 o’clock departure. All was going well until about 5 minutes to 8 when Elsie, doing a quick once-over on the bikes and giving the tyres a bit of a pump up, soon found in her hands a deflated back wheel and damaged innertube. Puncture number one of the Great Adventure.
Alasdair – our chief Technical Support and Safety Advisor of the trip - was thankfully on hand to consult on why this had occurred and soon between the pair of them, the bike was fixed and ready to go. Lycra and sunglasses on, suncream applied, we set of for Loch Lomond on what was a beautiful summer’s morn.
Just over 20-miles down, we agreed we would stop in the little village of Tarbert and have a cup of tea seeing as the empty gas canister at the campsite had not stretched to boiling water before our departure. This was to become a habit in the days to come (even once we started having a cup when we woke up before we left the campsite)… The tea was accompanied by large amounts of Tesco’s-own granola which we seemed to have a special skill for consuming rather quickly. (This snack was a key runner in the closely fought battle for best energy food topspot. –Unfortunately it’s attempts were somewhat blighted by the fact that we ran out of the stuff on day two. Sadly, no more was to be found in the Tesco stores from Glasgow to Wales and so it eventually lost out to fruit and nut mixture…!)
We knew from the outset that getting through Glasgow was going to be the biggest challenge of the day. Once this was done, we’d be well over the 70 mile mark and well on our way to the next night’s camp at Abington. What we didn’t quite envisage however was what actually was to happen…
Finding ourselves a nice wee cycle path along disused roads all the way along the banks of Loch Lomond, we were very enthusiastic about the National Cycle Network and what it had to offer. Leaving the track just outside Glasgow (we couldn’t see where it continued on to) we re-oriented ourselves using the good old Google Maps directions/map combo. Making good progress into Glasgow using these (although admittedly on quite busy roads) we spotted the National Cycle Network accompanied by signs to Glasgow Central off to the left. Preferring this to the road route we had been on, we decided to go for it.
We soon found ourselves by the canal where there was a handy little bike shop where Elsie was able to purchase a spare inner tube (following the morning’s incident). Whilst doing this, Elsie also started chatting to the guy in the shop who duly informed her that there was in fact a cycle route all the way through Glasgow, and what’s more – all the way to Carlisle! Excellent, we thought. A sure way to avoid all the busy Glasgow traffic and get onto our route south (Abington being on the way to Carlise of course). This theory worked well and we soon found ourselves on the banks of the River Clyde and the BBC buildings in the very centre of Glasgow. We were incredibly pleased with our cycle route discovery.
Ruthie looking very pleased with herself in central Glasgow
Now the next challenge was to get out of Glasgow and to rejoin our route to Abington. This part didn’t go quite so smoothly… The cycle shop man had informed us that the route 7 led south to Carlsile. We duly followed these route signs, direction Paisley. In a treasure-hunt-like fashion, we were continually looking out for the next blue, white and red square sign on a lamppost in the distance to indicate we were still on the right track. This involved chatting to a few friendly Glaswegians at key junctions where the cycle track seemed to disappear entirely. A local would usually interject at this point (seeing our suitably lost looking faces and gestures) and point us to the corner the track had randomly taken to the left or a couple of streets away where the path continued unmarked. Making good progress towards Paisley, Elsie thought it would be a good idea to double check the whereabouts of Paisley in relation to Glasgow – to confirm that our Carlisle-route was foolproof. It was the opposite. Paisley is in the SOUTH WEST of Glasgow you may be interested to hear. We needed to exit Glasgow from the SOUTH EAST. Effectively we’d done a U-Turn from central Glasgow Westwards to Paisley. Wooops!
Just to add to our slightly tricky situation, it started to bucket rain – the term ‘bucket’ here is totally accurate – combined with a thunder and lightning storm to top it off. Searching for the Paisley tourist information or anywhere to get a detailed map of the area took us to the train station, to the town hall (where I slipped in in my sodden lycra and fluorescent gillet among a wedding crowd and was told by the friendly receptionist I really wasn’t supposed to be there but here was a map anyway) and eventually back to the train station.
We reflected on our choices: spend ages getting lost in an unknown part of Glasgow without a decent map and still a good 30-miles from where we needed to get to, go back into central Glasgow and then try and get out of it again to the East (would have taken at least a few hours) or get a train to the nearest equivalent exit point and get on our way to Abington. We opted for the latter. Already 4.30pm we decided it would be best to get moving. What’s more, by doing our special scenic route via Paisley, the mileage we actually cycled that day added up to the same as it would have if we’d taken the correct route through Glasgow…
Disembarking the train at Larkhall, we were told by the friendly local pharmacist that Abington was ‘nae far at all’ and we’d be ‘there in no time’. She was however used to travelling the distance by car! The last 20 miles or so seemed to drag on a bit but we came to learn that that is generally the case on days of this length. We eventually arrived, a little later than originally intended, but with a few lessons learnt along the way - about map-reading, the geography of Glasgow and general commonsense. We were greeted very enthusiastically by our Support Team who excelled themselves that evening by providing tea on arrival closely followed by delicious and generous helpings of pasta : ) Day number two, job done.
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