Day 6 - Glasgow to Whitehaven

We chose to break day 6 in Whitehaven to give us some time in the Lakes the following day before heading to Liverpool. This wasn't going to work out, but we weren't to realise at this point. We got off to a late start in Glasgow, not getting away until nearly 1pm, which was a bit of a problem. After a brief stop for lunch in Dean Castle Country Park in Kilmarnock, the drive towards Prestwick was fairly uneventful. We came off the coast road onto the A713 to Dalmellington, which was a pleasant enough road.

After taking the B741 to New Cumnock we joined the A76 and then the A75 at Dumfries which is a pretty boring stretch down to Gretna Green.

One thing we did notice on arriving in Cumbria was the change in the roads. More specifically, that the roads in England don't give you places to stop and admire the wonderful countryside. We do have some stunning countryside in England, too, but it's far more difficult in some counties to actually stop and admire it.

From Carlisle we wandered east towards Brampton and then down towards Gilderdale Forest in the North Pennines, along the A689. We did manage to stop on Alston Moor and take some snaps of the views:

More suicidal sheep here too:



This was an entertaining road with climbs and twists and turns aplenty through the old lead mining areas, and we headed back up to Hexham via the B6295 for what we thought would be more of the same on the A686 down to Penrith. Well, the A686 is something else. I can honestly say that it could have got pretty hairy if I had been driving the Bora - it was a very challenging road in the fading light and I was glad to be in the Maserati, where I was driving well below the car's limits. A number of times we hit unexpected hairpin bends and corners that tightened significantly half way around. There were also a number of sharp bends just after crests which were "interesting".

We stopped for food at an excellent italian restaurant called Villa Bianca in Penrith and then headed on through the dark to arrive at Whitehaven about 11:30pm.