Scotland

we started off from Carlisle at around 8am, with a slow drag up to the Scottish border.  Scott, one of the members of the group has persisted with running red lights throughout the trip, and therefore made some time up to be the first 'Scott' in Scotland...  We stopped for the obligatory photos at the 'Welcome to Scotland' sign, and then cracked on.  a quick break in Gretna, and we made good time to the first water stop of the day.  We heard the news that John, one of the Americans, had been knocked off his bike and had to be taken to hospital - we were uncertain as to his condition, but it was enough to ensure that both the DA vans were tied up between getting the lunch stop organised and John checked at hospital.

we continued the progress up to the lunch stop, 2 miles short of Sanquhar, and managed to grab some pasta and bread before making a call to get in with the quicker lads again.  The terrain had changed and we were following the A76 for the duration to get into Kilmarnock.  We had to deal with less hills, the roads were 'rolling', much like those on the way into Carlisle yesterday, and the hills to each side were quite awesome, with tiers of pine trees on the lower slopes of many.  We followed the A76 onward and kept a good pace up for most of the way, with Ben and Hunter again trying to better their fastest speed downhill - I didnt engage in this as my short legs cant get the wheels spinning fast enough, but i did manage 43.7mph on one stretch - quite exhilarating!

we kept the pace up until Kilmarnock, and headed into town to get a coffee, much as we had done the day before.  it was nice to stop and chill out having made such good progress, and we could get our first look at a town in Scotland.

Coffees drunk, we got directions up to the Premiere Inn at the edge of town, and that was that.  We didnt stay long enough to draw conclusions on Kilmarnock - some parts seemed a bit run down, and others seemed very nice - much like anywhere else.  I think what's more on everyone's mind is the fact that we are going to have wind and rain tomorrow for the leg up to Inverary.  Part of this also involves a ferry crossing from Gouroch to Dunoon, so the day will be slow as this crossing is around 30 minutes, and it's going to take some co-ordination along with DA to make sure we all get on the ferry and get across.  I just hope we dont get totally soaked.