Day 13 - Annan to New Cumnock

Black Thursday.  For me that is.  We invite our landlord Steve, who has been very helpful, to be in a photo with us in front of our B&B. As I wheel my bike from the back I see the front wheel is completely flat. We return to the garden and I replace it with a new inner tube. After the photo I am about to mount and see that the back tire is also flat. So, the only option is to replace it with the tire I had just changed for the front. Amazingly it holds the air. We can only assume that someone had let out the valves on both tires in the short time they were out of the shed while we packed. Too coincidental. “It must have been that fat bloke we saw loitering in the back garden”, helpfully suggests Simon. By this time our early start has been squandered. It is already approaching 10am

We continue to Dumfries. As a precaution I get a new tube fitted on the rear wheel and we coffee at a Costa in a lovely square. The sun comes out. Humphrey generously buys a bottle of Bruichladdich for the trip and equally kindly carries it in his capacious panniers. Things are looking up!

We divert from our route and take the northern A road towards  Kilmarnock. Good advice from Steve at breakfast. Although quite busy it enables us to catch up for lost time. There are still hills but they are rounded, not steep. They are vivid green and dotted with sheep and gorse of the freshest yellow.  I go to the top of a rise ahead of S&H to take a photo. As I stand on a dry stone wall to get a better perspective for the shot, it collapses. I fall headlong into a ditch, narrowly missing the barbed wire fence but catching my face on the posts. Our First Aid kit gets its first airing and the plasters stem the blood coming from nose and cheek.

As we approach New Cumnock I sense that my rear tire has deflated. We limp another ¼ mile to a rather expensive and pretentious lodge on a golf course that specialises in weddings. We get a separate cottage so we can stow the bikes. While the others bath & shower  I replace the rear tube with the new spare I had bought in Dumfries.  It is starting to rain again. Never has a Bruichladdich tasted so good at the end of a long & frustrating day.  However, we have completed 58 miles in fairly difficult conditions and still a head wind.  Who said it was easier going from South to North?

Simon Sez

A day of troubles for John & his bike.

I have no memory of Dumfries save that Humph bought a bottle of our favourite Islay malt, the Bruichladdich. We then went north off piste. We had tea in a fish & chip shop opposite an undertakers. The proprietress used to be a solicitor's clerk and couldn’t understand let alone explain why she was now working in fish ‘n chips. Humph begins to resemble a meat pie. Everywhere we stop he is on the hunt for meat pies, hot or cold.

I could murder a cigar