Day 7. Rock on! (Jony)

Look, I know I've gone on about how hard this is and I don't really expect much sympathy from the great working public since we are, essentially, on a jolly. But somewhere up near the Lake District is a big old hill called Shap Fell, or maybe Shap Moor. Even in a car on the M6 it's a bit of a climb, though the scenery is classic hills, sheep and stone walls. Our route took us up the A6 which, unregarded, criss-crosses the motorway in different places but follows more or less the same route up the Fell for several miles and about 350m, say 1000 ft, of vertical climb.

I genuinely did not think I had the energy to cycle up this monster and was dreading a very long walk. Until, that is, I put on the headphones and fired up some classic Supertramp. I have written elsewhere of the amazing motivational power of music: something with a bit of a beat can quite simply make it possible for me to keep going, even to speed up, when my body is saying No - stop!

I think that Jan was really quite surprised at how I leapt up the road from my customary position half a mile behind her. We reached Penrith in fairly good time and now have only one more leg to ride before having a well-earned rest day at Clare's on Friday.

We saw this little poem at Lowther Castle where they had an outdoor poetry installation wittily entitled  [Add text here]. 
I must say, never has a poem 'spoken' to me quite so powerfully...