To our great relief we woke to a calm dry day in Silloth Lifeboat Station... Although the sun was not shining, the lack of headwind and rain were a huge relief following our previous day's drenching...
This was the start of our longest day yet for 2013, with over 165 km ahead of us. The immensely frustrating thing however, was that as the crow flies, we would only cover around 50km during the day! As with many other estuaries and inlets around the coast of Britain, the Solway firth involves cycling huge distances in entirely the wrong direction in order to get to your destination (see below).
With our expedition likely to total over 7,000 km by the time we have returned to London (further than cycling from London to Sudan!) it was suddenly dawning on us that sailing or even rowing between stations might have been a better plan!
We set off through the cobbled streets of Silloth heading due east at the start of the day...
Getting our heads down, we made good progress across what was relatively flat countryside, and began churning through the miles.
Stopping briefly at Costa for a coffee and some breakfast, Rad noticed that one of the bolts holding the cleat to the bottom of his shoe had fallen out, which needed replacing urgently. The nearest cycle shop along the route was in Dumfries so we set off immediatley in search of this.
At some point along this section of the day we crossed into Scotland... a huge and symbolic step in our trip, yet surprisingly with no road signs or any indication that we had done so!
Our route then took us along a number of cycle paths which Rad had brilliantly included within our itinerary, including this one along the river Nith, as below...
After taking some directions from a local cyclist, we arrived in Dumfries and quickly found Kirkpatrick Cycles. For anyone looking for bike repairs / spares in theDumfries area we can certainly recommend this fantasic shot. Ross very kindly gave us the necessary bolts to repair Rad's shoe and a spare free of charge, before sending us on our way.
Shortly afterwards we stopped off for lunch at a farm shop, to refuel, rehydrate and recharge before the afternoon ahead. While very tempted to take a duck with us in the handlebar bag, we decided against this ingenious plan, and forged ahead.
We were soon back on the road and arrived at our first station of the day; Kippford RNLI.
Whilst taking a photograph outside the station we were met by a very welcoming chap called Jim, who we soond found out was the operations manager of Kippford RNLI.
Jim rocked up on an legendary motorbike (pictured below!), and proceeded to invite us to the yacht club for a cheeky pint. Frankly it didn't take a huge amount of persuasion to bring us around to the idea and we were soon sampling a great local ale! Kippford was having it's annual sailing regatta week and the place was buzzing.
For those readers who have not been to Kippford before, the best way we could describe this fantastic little hidden gem, is being a smaller version of Rock / Salcombe in Scotland... Situated on a beautiful estuary, very welcoming and friendly people people and more crew clothing than you can shake a stick at!
Following a quick pint and £82 of generous donations from various members of Kippford Yacht Club, we were soon back on the road again. We ploughed on through stunning rolling Scottish hills and with the sun now out, at last heading in a westerly direction and a pint in us, things were starting to look up...
At around 5pm we at last arrived in the pretty high street of Kirkcudbright town (below), famed for it's arts and crafts. After taking directions from one of the RNLI crew who we bumped into on arrival, be soon found our way to the crew room in town...
John Collins kindly met us at the crew room where we would be spending the night, and having shown us around, led the way in their RNLI Landrover (with us following behind on bikes) down to the Lifeboat Station itself. The station is situated out of town, some four miles away at a point further down the estuary which is accessible at all tides. The approach led us down a down a long rough gravel track... 
John gave us a tour of this Historic station is the longest serving station in Scotland. The station now houses an Altantic 75 rib with twin 115hp engines all the bells and whistles.
Uniquely the rib is on a ramp to allow quick launching, into what John explained is the third fastest tidal race in the British Isles.
View down the launching ramp and across the Dee Estuary...
View from the station out towards the isle of Mann (in the distance).
Following the station tour, John and his family very kindly had us back to their home for a hot shower and a delicious dinner and our first Whisky (or three!) having entered Scotland.....
After supper, a slightly wobbly cycle ride took us back to the crew room in town to the sort our kit, write the blog post and prepare for the day ahead....
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