Wednesday 18th September

Left Keswick after a nice stay in a small B & B with very friendly owners who kindly dried all our belongings.Decided to head to Carlisle on the main A road to avoid a big climb - good plan as the road wasn't too busy and the climbing was fairly gentle. Stopped in a place called Wigton for coffee and met a group of friendly local cyclists who showed us a route round north Carlisle on a new cycle track which proved to be a lovely bit of traffic free cycling. After lunch,whilst waiting at a level crossing, we got talking to a friendly motorist who had done the End to End last year and got his map book out to show us a cycle route for tomorrow! He was impressed by our lack of luggage. Reached Gretna - Scotland at last! - another milestone done. A guy came along who wanted a photo of cyclists crossing the border so we obliged and in return he took a photo of us next to 'The Sign'. Serious headwind again this afternoon so despite level country,having left the lakes behind us,our trip along the northern side of the Solway Firth was hard. Finally reached our destination in Annan after 50 miles riding