I got an early start from Abington (no reason to stay really) and was on my way by 7.15. The route carried on up the old A74 and it was a beautiful morning, still cool but bright and sunny.  The old road and the existing motorway are quite far apart at this point and although you can see the cars and lorries in the distance, you can’t really hear them so it was very peaceful. A small deer ran across the road, jumped the fence and was away in the distance before I could get my camera out. The road was still climbing but very gradually and after a few miles the route had to make its way around Happendon services.

A bit further on it routes its way around the back streets of Lesmahagow, which is a town that existed only as a name on an M74 sign for me until now. It was rush hour and school drop off time as I battled with the merry throng before escaping back to the old A74. The towns of Blackwood, Stonehouse and Larkhall followed in quick succession – none of them places that I have ever been to before, by-passed as they are, by the M74.

I have never been to the next place on the route either which is the exotically named Chatelherault Country Park, whose main building was the hunting lodge for the Dukes of Hamilton. I stopped at the house after a detour into a local housing estate because some joker had twisted the sign round and had coffee and a scone in the café. The house itself is very grand and stands in a large estate. The route then heads towards Strathclyde Country Park and the lake, which is used for rowing races. The route doesn’t actually go to the lake but I accidentally did. It then goes past the Hamilton Mausoleum which up until now I have only ever seen from the motorway. Unlike the day before there was lots to see already and my book was in and out of my pocket every two minutes as I tried to navigate my way through Hamilton, Blantyre and Uddingston.

Not long after Uddingston, the route joins the bank of The Clyde and stays there all the way into the City Centre which was buzzing with people on this beautiful summer day. On the west side of the city I was on to a route that I cycle regularly and it was great to know exactly where to go for the first time in a fortnight – it was exactly a fortnight since I set off from Land’s End.

Around Scotstoun I encountered two chaps doing a survey for Sustrans and so I was an ideal candidate for them. Most of the people on this urban track use it for commuting by bike so the fact that I had used every inch of the 800 miles of track from Land’s End was a bit of a novelty for them. The fact that I had done it at my advanced age seemed to be particularly impressive to them – in fact they seemed surprised that I could do anything at 70. In no time at all I was back home and it seemed as if I had never been away – but there is more to do and more fun to be had! The distance covered was 66 miles with an ascent of 2,400 feet.