The day of the morning of the day we had been counting down to had finally arrived :-0 There was a rough plan of attack for the first hour or so, which was to see me meeting up with Rob at about 9.30 so an early(ish) start for me then.
We were going to take things nice and easy the first day to iron out any niggles that might show themselves. So up the A61 from Sheffield through the woods and onto the M1 north. Motorways are ok but they can so easily become dull on a bike. Carried on through up to Leeds with no issues and then onto the A1 and a first stop at Weatherby. Weatherby is admittedly only about an hour up the motorway, but as it was Rob’s first big(ish) tour taking it easy and chilled was important.
- Rest break at weatherby services on the a1
A couple of miles south of Weatherby there was what could have been the start to soggy ride north - it wall went very dull and the start of a drizzle. Im not a great fan of waterproofs if I can get away with it, but at the stop decided to put on mi jacket - Now Rob on the other hand was taking no chances - Jacket and his amazing waterproof clown trollies!!! So wish id got a photo of the pantomime of him getting into them 
Stood chatting to a bloke for a while who was on his way to Newcastle on a Triumph.
Then as everything was looking ok we were off again up the A1 up to Scotch Corner.
Now one thing about putting on watherproofs is that when you try to second guess the weather it always makes a fool of you - about 5 mins out of the sevices at Weatherby it totally dried up and by Scot Corner an impromptu stop was needed as I was sweeting so much inside my jacket in the now warm sunshine - so if I was sweating with just a jacket on god knows how Rob felt 
Onto the A66 (based on an old Roman Road route) at Scotch Corner - this has to go down as on of the best cross country roads. Its mainly single caridgeway with a few bits of duel caridgeway, but the route it takes from Scotch Corner across to Penrith near the northern Lake District is stunning. Slowly climbing passing close to Barnard Castle then onto Bowes with panoramic views of the Yorkshire Dales on one side and the Lake District hills in front of you. The road carries on climbing through to Stainmore and then what goes up……
As always a fuel and rest break at the only filling station on the road near Brough is needed - I always say the filling station is at Brough, but actually I think its closer to Appleby, but everyone always knows the one I mean. By now my bike was showing an air temp of about 78
Fuel Break at Brough in the sunshine
The sun was sooo nice we chilled here for quite sometime after fueling up at a cost of £1.03/l
From here it was onto Penrith and then North up the M6 and into Scotland. Our destination for the end of day one was a compsite on the Solway coast to the South of Dumfries, so as soon as the border post was passed it was a turn left onto the A75 towards Dumfries.
The bikes were both going well, and the weather was getting hotter by the hour.
Get held up for quite some time just outside Dumfries as there were some major and complicated roadworks going off. My legs by now were getting blasted with all the hot air coming from the fan, but eventually progress was made through Dumfries and onto the A710 - the Solway coast road.
The A710 is a cracking road. Narrow, with twists and turns, and ups and downs and then views of Criffel to the right and the Solway to the left. We passed through several small villages, one of them being New Abbey - where we stopped for a cheeky shandy cos it was soooo nice and sooooo hot.
view from the abbey arms pub
abbey arms pub at new abbey
the bikes at new abbey
Dont know about Rob but I was sweating like a sweaty thing - but the shandy hit the spot big time. It was nice sitting there chilling watching the world go by for an hour or so - now that I can handle
15/20 mins further on was Sandyhills. The A710 for me just got better and better in the afternoon sunshine, narrow in parts with twists n turns, and views through the trees of the Solway coast line - spot on. Pulled into the campsite and instantly liked it lots as the warden gave us a discount cos we were on bikes - two for the price of one (he must have know we were from yorkshire - and there are only one set of people tighter than the Scotts!)
sandyhills campsite
sandyhills campsite
what a view from the tent
sandyhills
arty shot of the bikes
Had a couple or few beers at the local bar and did chilli and rice for t and then crashed for the night after having a quick route plan for the next day
daily - 209 miles
total - 209 miles (now thats a suprise)
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