Day 7 – Wednesday – Melrose to Penrith - June 9th

^{The day Owen arrived}

For the full map of where wehave been , etc take a look at gavs Garmin page !http://connect.garmin.com/activity/36496640

The day started with an unusual twist in the tail, with Toby being pursued by two ladies from Australia who are keen Morris Dancers. Never one to shy away from the limelight, Toby was soon entertaining them with tales of the Bampton tradition and how he danced every bank holiday in the village with the longest tradition. Obviously to many of us, this was complete gibberish but they seemed to his village ways…

A full breakfast yet again was on the table by Princess, with bacon as today’s added bonus and over breakfast we compared sores and blisters. Some it must be said are suffering more than others

After the long wet miserable ride that was yesterday morning, today started slightly grey, but quickly brightened up into a fairly fine day. Within minutes the first (but only puncture of the day) occurred about 5 miles out, just to get us back in the swing of things…….

85 miles lay out ahead of us, with the A7 to Carlisle, and then the A6 all the way to Penrith Therapy centre.

The rain held off and it actually brightened up so the next stop was Langholm around 8 miles from the Scottish border, with another spread laid on down by the river.

We all left reasonably close together for the final (and more hilly) climb to Penrith with most going to ASDA at Carlisle where a £425 was yet again raised by Pete, Sim and Taity being the star attraction.

The first riders arrived at Penrith just after 3pm, Andy and Dino being spurred on by the fact that they are no longer able sit down any more……

The Fire Fighters Charity Centre at Penrith had the pool and Jacuzzi on for us, and slowly most that wanted to got a swim or just a chill out in the Jacuzzi…….

An excellent meal afterwards laid on by the Centre of lasagne, garlic bread and fruit salad, topped off the ride.

The time is now 8.35pm and we are all off for a bit of a group hug and to reminince and compare sores…….

Owen arrived around 3pm and has since spent most of the afternoon giving the bikes a thorough service - nice one :)

More pictures should be on the website shortly on flickr when we can get to a part of civilisation with a memory stick that works and a bit of time J – click on the link through the gallery page…

Don’t forget you can follow every live update on twitter, just look at www.twitter.com/heroesride