Thursday 27th April. W8D7

Strange to be writing this from the Metal Bridge Inn in Carlisle, not least because as week 8 closes, I'm back south of the border, and slowly winding my way back home.

The Metal Bridge is a BritStop stay popular with motorhomers because of its location on the border, the decent meals, and the large car park with a small toilet block. There is a river walk available, much used by the dog walkers (about 50% of motorhomers in my experience), but I declined as the wind and drizzle made it unappealing. 

But there's comparatively little (literally) to write home about from today's travels. After a good breakfast at the Hopetoun Arms I sat poring over maps and apps trying to plan the final stage of my wanderings. Various plans and half plans that had filled my thoughts for the last few days hadn't come to fruition. As I noted earlier I had lost the opportunity to visit Cate's Castle, the cool slightly drizzly days weren't conducive to country walks, and an anticipated visit to my old friend in the Yorkshire moors proved unsuitable, so I was left with an unusual spell of time-filling before the final push home. And the dilemma endures even now as I digest my meal at the Metal Bridge.

I was able to accomplish one  bit of tourism, with a drive to Wanlockhead, a twin village to Leadhills, and home to the lead mining museum. The extensive exhibits about the history of the lead mines, as well as the explanations of the geology, are  very detailed and engaging, and the picture of the life of the community from the eighteenth century onwards was fascinating. Unfortunately I had missed the underground mine tour by 15 minutes, and the next one would have been too late for me to stay. (I also realised, as I recognised a sharp turn in the road down to the museum, that I'd tried to visit here before, and indeed had written a note on the road atlas 'closed on Monday', though my addled brain can't for the life of me work out when that was - it's a very old road atlas!) Robert Burns had visited here in 1759 and was taken care of so well that he paid his guide in kind, by writing a poem to him. 

So I had a coffee and a Tunnocks caramel wafer in the museum cafe (the biscuit for no reason except that you can't get them south of the border, even though I'm not that fond of them) and backtracked through Leadhills and followed narrow, pretty, cross country roads  through the glens to Moffat, because my host the night before had said it's the cheapest place for fuel in the region, I topped up with diesel, and in passing had a preliminary look at my total mileage to date (over 2600 miles), and made an estimate of my average fuel consumption (around 25miles/litre).

I still had the dilemma if how to plan the rest of the way home, factoring in a stop with Frankie and family in Letchworth, while allowing for her ever-busy weekend family activities. She gently chided me for my constant changes of timetable, but will gamely put up with me at the weekend (I hope!) That leaves a trip for tomorrow that's a bit longer than my usual plan, to spend another BritStop night at the Castle Bar and Grill, close to Boston Lincs. 

And so to bed - no electric blanket tonight, but I expect I'll survive! 

😴