DAY 5 - CRIANLARICH TO NEW LANARK

Wowee! I lived the rock & roll lifestyle last night, all tucked up in bed for 21:00.

I was up before 7:00 this morning in preparation for an early dart.

I left Crianlarich just after 8:00, hoping beyond hope that my knee and bike would last the journey to New Lanark.

I cycled alongside a very moody looking Loch Lomond for over an hour. It looks stunning even in bad weather. It’s much better than Loch Ness in my opinion.

I followed the A82 all the way to Dumbarton where, I left the roads and headed along the canal on Route 7 of the National Cycle Route. Using the bike navigator on my phone, I followed the canal into the city centre of Glasgow. Boy, do I not like cycling in cities, especially that one!

With my phone battery fast running out, I made it to just before Airdrie, quite a way out from the route I had planned, and when the battery in my phone, died, I had to do a bit of guess work to find the correct road to get on towards Lanark, but I found it in the end.

I did see a couple of different aspects of Glasgow today that I haven’t seen before, like the botanical gardens which, put my view of the city in a slightly better light. Although there were still plenty of things that reminded me that I just wanted to get past the city and on the road to New Lanark again.

I think I managed the final 15 miles to New Lanark in about an hour which, I was really pleased about.

Coming down the final downhill stretch for what seemed an eternity, filled me with dread for what I will be facing first thing tomorrow.

All in all, today has mainly been about surviving. The journey and my body!

Tomorrow comes the fun part of coming back to England, via plenty of hills!!

Today is vote day to see if Scotland wants independence from the rest of the UK. Even though I’ve seen the ‘YES’ placards outnumber the ‘NO’ placards by about 100 to 1 on my trip, I believe there is a lot of pressure on people to vote ‘yes’ so the ‘no’ voters aren’t being very vocal in their views for fear of any repercussions. Anyway, it wouldn’t surprise me either way but, I’m guessing they will say NO…….Just! I’ll find out tomorrow if I’m right or not.

I almost forgot to mention the room. Result! I’m in a double room all on my own. I’m liking the Scottish youth hostels!

DAILY MILEAGE – 89.2 MILES