Our map Reading was incorrect! Day 8 was to be our longest day yet, 95 miles! From the Lake District to 10 or so miles north of Dumfries!!

It was a very eventful (and despite the long distance) a very enjoyable day. The weather was kind to us mostly for a start. Had some tough hills to start the day to get out of the Lakes but what goes up must come down and we had a fun downhill section passing a flock of old school minis obviously out on car club drive- about 50 of them in total, all in gleaming condition and kitted out- they were going the other way to us and were a joy to watch passing by. They were then follow a few miles down road by a whole host of American hot rod style cars, lesser in numbers but all crazy looking and in outstanding condition - again putting a smile on our faces.

We then rattled on towards the border, a big milestone for us both to reach the homeland! After many a mile we crossed into Gretna and came across the much anticipated “welcome to Scotland” sign as you can see in the below photos. We stopped here for a late lunch after putting a big push in that morning/early afternoon then pushed on up to Dumfries and then onto our B&B for the night a few miles outside Auldgirth where Kyle’s dad met us. We then, after checking in and getting changed, went for dinner and it was again good to see a familiar face and have someone to share our stories with - especially when they get you dinner :P for which we again would like to thank Jimmy very much!

Back to the B&B which was on a farm out in the middle of nowhere and straight to bed after our new longest day under our belts! With our trip to Arran the next day ahead of us.