Day 16 - Slaidburn to Windermere

The route is pretty straightforward so we'll get that out of the way. The day was far from straight forward: Slaidburn High Bentham Low Bentham Right turn to Wrayton Straight over to Kirkby Londsdsle A590 to Kendal A591 to Windermere Setting off from Slaidburn I knew there was a climb but the forest of Bowland is on a serious hill. The weather was against me too with a vicious head wind and driving rain. I had pretty much all my layers on and my waterproofs and I was still cold. Stopping to concede that I needed gloves and rummaging in the pocket only to find two right hand gloves. No matter how I tried to wear the right hand glove on my left I couldn't operate the brake so had only mits on. In the end it took two and a half hours to go 11 miles. After a restorative bacon butty in High Bentham there were still 28 miles to go and it was one o'clock. This was going to be a long day for me. The rest of the day was a hard slog in icy rain and with no views of the Lakeland fells I just had to peddle. The only thing that kept me going over the last few miles was the thought of a hot shower and dinner at the hostel. Of course when I arrived there had been a power cut all day. No food and no shower. After losing my temper with the chap on reception I walked back down the hill to the pub at the bottom. I must have absolutely stunk! After a long drag back up the hill full of burger and Blue Bird ale I apologised, showered and went to bed!