Bike Touring, Fahrradreise Schottland 2020 mit E-bike und Hund (#4): der Lake District, England
Wow, that was the worst night of rain I've ever experienced in my life. It just poured for hours. Every 2 seconds there was lightning. It must have poured from 11 in the evening until after 4 We saw about a thousand flashes of lightning. I've never seen anything like it.
Especially, at one point it started to rain into the campervan. and I was so glad that I wasn't in a tent. I really would have swum away. We looked at the app forecast later on and 50 millimetres came down .
You can't imagine that. We then thought that maybe the river will flood us, because we slept right next to the river. Then we went out in the rain at night and checked. But we couldn't see that much. But you can see that the river came up quite a bit.
It's already quite large. And Zuri was also really panic-stricken by the thunderstorms. But now everything is sunny again.
Wow Where are we now? In Wind.. We are now in Windermere, a tourist hotspot, but it's super nice here, just lots of people. Windermere is the largest natural lake in England and is situated in the Lake District, one of England's 15 national parks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The area is said to be a model for the Shire of Lord of the Rings. The area is also called English Switzerland or Little Scotland. We were really lucky with the weather, because the region is the wettest region in the whole of England and actually it's always raining here. I also got a first taste for the steep roads that were about to await me in this area. Yes, Emma has now gone back and for us we are now going to cycle to Scotland. We'll now cycle a little bit through the Lake District We still have about 200 km to go and then we are in Scotland.
I think it will take about two days. Let's see how the weather plays along. But so far it is already super hot. Zuri Hello?! Where is Zuri? Hellooo Now that's a cool bike path. No cars allowed. Let's have a look at this stone circle. The stone circle dates from the time around 3000 BC.
and is therefore one of the earliest stone circles found in Britain. Why it was built and what purpose it served remains a mystery to this day. I don't know, do you hear that? I hope this is not a thunderstorm. Let's have a look. Let's continue cycling. Here you go Thank you It's heavy load, you've got there Are you going on a travelling... Yeah, to Scotland Have a good day Thank you for the advise They just told me that I can't go along the cycle path, because the bridge is closed and then there's only a very, very small path down and up and that this is impossible with the trailer.
So I had to turn around and I am taking the car road now. And it is raining We are now in a café because we want to wait a little bit. I don't really know if the rain...
How it develops. It's thundering all the time. Now I have found a vegan cake and a cappucino. Today, it is.. Monday - Wednesday is "Eat out help out". That means everything is 50% off, so to speak, because the other 50% is taken over by the government. And then of course it pays off twice to stop for a while and wait for the rain to pass by.
Now the rain has got a bit worse. Zuri is hiding in the dog trailer because it's a bit too much for her with all the thunderstorms. The heaviest rain has passed. Now we continue cycling Let's hope the drizzle stops soon.
She is a bit scared because of the thunder. Okay and now we're going up the next hill. So, we're going to walk slowly over here now, and then we'll have to carry Zuri over. Oh, she made it. Someone was impatient.
All right. Phew, that's pretty steep. Phew It's beautiful here! Do you see the rainbow? Super beautiful! Look at those mountains! Madness Cool! Do you see that? There's a couple of individual cows, grazing with the whole flock of sheep. Oops. A few escaped sheep too But Zuri is quite chill there Sheep, that's the wrong direction. We have to pass that way.
Whoa, look at that view. The sheep is drinking from its mother. This is a baby sheep! Oh, you are not supposed to run in front of us. This is going to be difficult
Whoa, see that road going up back there? That's going to be difficult. How beautiful! It thunders all the time. I hope there is nothing more coming down.
Oh oh, look at that mountain. I hope I can get up there Wow, it's super steep. No, Zuri 13 % gradient that's too much. I have to push it up. But I think it's just a short distance.
We have made it up the mountain Do you see that? 13 % gradient You can really only see it on others... Well, you don't see it so much on the car. And now it's just as steep on the other side. Yay Wow, it's steep This is super steep 25 %? Oh God! Wow. Whew. I'm actually glad I didn't have to go up this side.
13 % was really something 25 % could have been trouble not so sure how I would have come up. With pushing. I'm really wondering how I can have after only four days.. How I can't have any more breakpads? Well, I mean, the mountains are really... Well, they are really something, but it is squeaking a bit now. That would be enormous. I really haven't ridden that much yet.
I just had a chat with two locals. They were quite young. In their mid-twenties. They have recommended a place for the night to me. They live directly at the lake and they said that they always go on holiday here too. Because of course this is a very, very beautiful region But this year it is much, much more crowded. Normally you always have foreign tourists and this year you have only English tourists and that all campsites are booked until the end of September.
That they wanted to use a camping site themselves, but that they didn't have a chance. It's quite intense. I am having a cider now, so that we can charge the battery again. We are about 5 km from the bridge. And that's where we'll sleep tonight. I don't know if you can see this, but there is lightning all the time and that's why I have decided to put up a tent after all, because I don't want to get rained on again.
But I don't think you can see that. Unfortunately. Oh, that was a big one. Did you see that? That was our sleeping place It actually thundered quite u bit last night,and it also rained so it was pretty good that I had put up the tent. That's where my sleeping place was. Quite idyllic. Good morning! Hellooo You have a good view here.
The farmer has a good view. Another small lake. We will have breakfast here now. Very, very beautiful view with the mountains. Hm, Zuri.
And here is this small stripe. That means, if cars come by, they can just drive past, In case you are interested what I'm eating now. I brought some Tartex from Germany. I love Tartex and before I set off I also baked some German bread with lots and lots of seeds because that will keep me full for a long time I have 4 more slices, Really the perfect view Hello, Zuri Are we continuing? Zuri ist resting a bit in the shade.
Hellooo Zuri. Hellooo Helloooo Hellooo oh oh, here comes another really steep hill. Let's see if we can make it up there.
Or whether we will have to push again I don't know if you can see it but it's pretty steep. So we have to push up now. But I think we are almost at the top. We are following the cycleroute 10 all day. and so far it's really good.
They are all very, very small side roads. Uh-oh, quite steep again. Oh Zuri! That's it already? Just a little refreshment? You may not believe it, but after 40 km we found the first café. Now we are having a coffee break in the sun on the car park. But it's better than nothing. In 6 km there should be a bigger town and there we will see if we can find a bike shop because it's still making this noise all the time.
I don't know if the disc brake is bent Because of all the hills. Maybe because of the 25%? Let's see. Zuri just had chicken. Oh that was yummy, huh. That was sweet That was really sweet in the cafe. They gave chicken to Zuri 3 times. She didn't want to leave. The nice cyclist helped me through a barrier again. It was a very, very tight turn.
He had to lift the trailer twice to get me through. And he is also doing... He has come from the north of Scotland and he's sort of heading south.
But he kind of does it only in stages and drives with the car in between. But he warned me about the Mitches, about the Scottish mosquitoes. He said there is no remedy that helps. I am curious. This is really a nice way into the city. I am thrilled! By the way, what I can also share is I have changed the solar panel, which is now 30 watts.
On the last trip I took 24 watts with me. And the 30 Watt panel manages to charge my mobile phone with GPS on and with display on and the 24 Watt panel was not able to. So that's clear progress. So that kind of took 5 minutes. He did a bit of work on the brake blocks here.
on these here and has centred them properly. And now all the noise has stopped. The squeaking Now we go on to Scotland Ice cream for dogs... oh yes!
Look at that. Dog ice cream for Zuri. This tastes delicious, huh Zuri. For lunch I always take fitness bars with me.
I have to say, so far the tastiest and also the most filling but unfortunately also the most expensive are the ones from Seitenbacher. But I still have quite a few others with me. Let's see how they all taste. and fill up Otherwise I am really glad to be out of the city. It was so loud, so stressful. Now it's really quiet again. Oh God,
I can really take a breath. It's really nice. We are also close to Scotland. I don't know, maybe another 15 km or so We are cycling parallel to the motorway The cycle path actually takes a huge detour diversions, so probably 15 km around it. But I'm riding the Komoot route now. That way it is only 3 km to the next town. I would like to charge my batteries again, because then we are in Scotland and then there is nothing for the next 50 km.
I only have two half-full batteries at the moment. I probably won't make it. So, we are in Scotland Gretna This is the first town or village in Scotland. Yes, now again briefly for the record so that we know how many km we have cycled in England. So the speedometer is now at 7158.5 km.
Welcome to Gretna Gateway to Scotland Let's see if we can find around here, where we can charge. It is very very small. There is supposed to be another pub in 6 km.
That's where we're going now. Because there is nothing here in this small village. Nothing is going on The density of restaurants in Scotland should get me into trouble more often They're heading to the Scottish islands. They set off from Wolverhampton The first battery has run out now.
Now on the other one I have loaded today in the café. There are now 35 km left in EcoMode. So, it's half full. Now I hope that in about 3 km there is a pub, because the first pub that should be here is closed too. I think this is the only medium sized village, that is actually coming up today. I don't know yet whether I will get to the next town with the battery.
It would be good if it was open. Relieved and overjoyed we finally found a restaurant. But it had a few surprises for us. Hi, I was just looking where to put my bike Probably just leave it out there? You can probably fit it in here OK. Do you want some food? I guess you have a menu? Yeah, then I will just check... Zuri.
After Zuri had been spoiled in the English restaurants the picture in Scotland was completely different, which was to become a real problem, especially on the rainy days. Because unlike in England, in Scottish restaurants dogs are almost never allowed. Let's see what the Scottish gateways have to offer No Zuri. My first Scottish experience was also that in the restaurant there was not a single vegan dish, but even more surprising not even something really vegetarian. I was amazed when I wanted to choose the safe option of chips and suddenly the chef was standing in front of me and told me that the fries were also not vegetarian, because in Scotland everything is fried in beef fat and beef stock. And so I got only one orange juice.
We have been following Route No. 7 since this morning. Let's see where it takes us. In any case to Castle Douglas and then we'll see. We'll get there tomorrow.
Oh, there's the sea. Cool! There's England over there That looks super cool with all the moss on the sand. Crazy Although we are on such a back road, it is actually not so easy to find a place to sleep Here everything is deforested and there is all farmland It is also the official cycle route. Of course I don't know if cyclists would pass by here.
That means that it would be good if there was a side road somewhere where we could cycle in. The land somehow seems to be completely divided up and fenced off. There are no open corners here at all, no way in anywhere, no forest, nothing at all. This could be difficult. I am really hungry. I would like to cook something Maybe this is something Let's go in here. "Path" that sounds good
It's really not that easy. Everything here has been cleared, you are not allowed to walk on it and here the meadow is all fenced in. Let's see where this meadow leads to It's all fenced off. This is unbelievable. I think that leads back there to the cottage. It's really weird. There is so much meadow here,
but it's all fenced up. I think we have to sleep here on the path. Here on the side, then at least a car can pass.
This is really stupid. Well, this road doesn't looks like if anyone is going to pass here tonight. And that is why I have now built my bed here. And now let's have dinner. I'm really hungry and Zuri you are hungry too, huh. Zuri gets dinner first.
I took her 2x 1 kilo of dog food. Dry dog food. Unfortunately, she no longer eats the dry food since she got all the sausages Now I have to put on top some more crappy dog food, but it works and she eats everthing. It's crazy because no matter how much she ran, even if she ran 30 km and I only give her dry food, she won't eat it.
Tonight I have chickpea couscous. I always like to finish a packet, so that everything is not open at the same time. Together with soft tomatoes and olives. These are really handy. They are also super tasty, because they don't have so much weight and I always put vegetable broth in them. This gives it more taste.
Yes, let's eat. By the way, this is my gas cooker packs super small and it is made of titanium, it is from Snow Peak. And then you only need a gas cartridge That's all. You can expect a lot of exciting things. Among other things: Helen invites us and shows us her region.
Zuri has her first encounter with the wild animals of Scotland. We're ycling through the Galloway Forest, the largest forest in Great Britain and find that the only source of electricity has closed for the next 3 days. See you in the next video.
2021-05-15 00:21
