Day 1 Oxenholme to Slaidburn

The 2003 cycle tour got off to a rather inauspicious start for Calum and I. Torrential rain marred our progress down Maryhill Road in Glasgow as we wound our way to Glasgow Central. By the time we got on the train we were well and truly soaked, squelchy socks... the lot. We took the 10:38 to Oxenholme, no problems this year with the train and as we sat and looked out of the window the weather improved slightly so that by the time we had to start cycling again the rain had stopped and we had a dull cool afternoon. We followed the same route I have used several times before, taking the B6254 over to Kirkby Lonsdale. This road is not hilly but is sufficiently undulating to make progress slow, especially on the first day out. From there it is a short step on the horrible A65 to reach the relative quiet of the A683 south and then on to quiet lanes to reach Upper Bentham. From here it is only 12m to the hostel at Slaidburn, a breeze you might think...... wrong. It's a surprisingly stiff climb up on to Catlow Fell. I once did this in the teeth of a southerly gale with horizontal rain, it's no joke. Today however the sun greeted us when we reached the summit at 1400ft so we were able to relax at the roadside for half an hour or so. It's all down hill from there and we arrived at 18:15, Alan was already there but no sign so far of Bert and Trevor. They arrived later after suffering some navigational difficulties so we wasted no time in sampling the wares at 'Hark to Bounty'.