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What a crap day! Woke up to find it raining with more rain forecast, no surprise there. Wasn't as bad as the previous day, and after a good fry up at the YHA we got off to a good start along the track through the woods. After about 8 miles out of Keswick I noticed my back wheel was wobbling quite a bit, then disaster struck when Adrian had a blow out on his back tyre, no injuries but no way of repair without getting to a bike shop. After deciding that 2 of us would carry on and 2 would get a lift to Halfords in Penrith, I then noticed that in the time spent at the side of the road, I'd got a puncture myself! Although it could have been repaired, with the wobbly wheel and Adrian's typre needing replacing, we decided to stick together and get both bikes sorted at Halfords. After several miles walking and then a lift off Mr Swainson senior we arrived at Halfords to be told that it would take over 2 hours to sort. Glen and Paul went on ahead, me and Adrian had to wait it out in McDonalds. Halfords said 2 spokes were broken but they didn't have any spokes so would have to put a new wheel on, as my rear brakes were also a bit knackered I got them changes there, and for that and the new inner tube I was charged £60. Adrian was charged £27 for a new type and fitting. Riding away from Halfords were were just wanting to get out of Penrith and catch up the other two, who kept sending pictures of them eating pub grub, but we quickly found what useless incompetence tossers Halfords are. My rear wheel soon started wobbling again, Adrian's disc brakes were rubbing a lot which they hadn't previously. Frustrated we carried on regardless with the intention to write and complain about the incompetence of Halfords (which I knew about anyway and always use the specialist bike shop in Northallerton rather than the big shiny Halfords with it's numpty staff). I found that pedalling offset the wobble a bit, and soon we were making good progress and headed up Hartside, the big climb into the Pennines. After 15 mins of good climbing, it was my turn to have a blow out, the rear type popping. To say I was pissed off is an understatement. Couldn't see any damage to the type at first, so changed to iner tube and started putting air in, then saw the rip in the type along the rim, and no more air would go in, to ride that would only have burst the new iner tube. We still had some 15 miles to get to Nenthead, including a lot of hills. I phoned someone in the C2C guide from Nenthead who does bike repairs, but he was in Scotland until the early hours, but reckoned he could sort the bike out in the morning. After walking a mile up the hill and realising it would take another 4 or 5 hours to walk to Nenthead, I phoned my parents to see if they could drive out and take me to Nenthead, using the bike rack on my car, which thankfully they agreed to, although it would take 90 minutes to get to us. Walking up Hartside wasn't too bad, and I was thinking it didn't look too bad to cycle up. At the top the cafe was closed and it was cold with the wind, I told Adrian to go on and enjoy the 5 miles of downhill, so after an energy bar and swig of rum, I set off walking down the hill, whistling all the way. Quite an experience! Gutted to miss out on the downhill! After 4 miles I began to feel a bit of chafing from walking with wet cllothes on, another mile and my parents turned up armed with a flask of coffee, and we were off to Nenthead. Met the others in the Miners Arms, our accomodation for the night, at 7-45pm just in time to get some food. If I'd kept walking I would have got there about 11pm with no hot food and far worse chafing! After a few pints it was time for bed. Things can only get better!
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