Day 10 Moffat to Loch Lomond

Feeling a little smug with ourselves at having worked out the optimum clothing to wear whilst attempting to cycle during a hurricane the previous day we opted for the same attire (expertly laundered by the Buchan Guest House) and strode manfully toward the bike shed fortified by a breakfast of kippers and haggis !

Deciding on the longer of the optional routes to make sure we reach 1000 miles by the time we reach  JoG we started off by facing straight into the headwinds we thought we had left behind yesterday. Lots of cursing and pedaling later we were congratulating each other on reaching a top speed of about 11 miles an hour into the oncoming gales ! 

Satisfied feeling didn't last long because Nick picked up 2 punctures within a 10 yard stretch of road just as the heavens opened. Patching things up we proceeded to the lunch stop and grabbed a quick bite to eat whilst jesting about who was going to have the next flat as things always come in threes - ha ha ha !  

Little did we know that within the next 30 miles of "scenic cycle path" we would have racked up another 3 punctures between the 4 riders  in our group  - Nick got his hat-trick but not before Gareth had cycled over some smashed glass bottles kindly left strewn across the cycle path by some pro-cyclist locals. 

Almost the final ignominy of the day came when Gareth manfully trying to fix his puncture was pestered by a constipated Rottweiler called Ronny who was being taken for a walk by his Romanian owner and seemed intent on leaving us all a reminder of the city by his puncture repair kit ! Not a pretty sight but we were not going to argue with the eight stone leviathan who looked exceptionally grumpy as his owner was explaining his stomach problems (the dog's not the owner's) !!!!

Anyway after picking our bikes up and walking through 100 yards of broken bottles we set off again and made some progress toward our final destination before being abruptly halted by Mike (the Manx Missile) and Martin from Bristol both suffering mechanical failures.

The last 5 miles (was it only five ) were completed very slowly with each of us expecting yet another puncture before we finally reached the end of the cycle path and had to carry our bikes up some slippery steps to the main road before heading off in the wrong direction to try and find our B&B for the night!

Eventually made it to our digs and after starting to dry out we felt  pleased to have survived the 85 miles in one piece - hoping for better weather tomorrow and less trouble with the bikes