I cycled to Chorley Railway station to catch the 16:45 Manchester to Edinburgh train. My plan is to travel as far at Carlisle then Change trains for the next leg of my journey. I bought a Chorley - Edinburgh return ticket as it turned out cheaper that way. I’d bought the ticket earlier in the week and was able to get a cycle reservation. When I got on the train there were people sitting on the flip up seats in the cycle storage area. One young lady offered to move but the other two stayed firmly sat down meaning that I had to stand with my bike. It seems that a cycle reservation is meaningless and there are no facilities to identify the area as being reserved. When the ticket inspector arrived he helped out by asking the man in the corner to move and let me park my bike.

Chorley Railway Station

One person had already got off the train and the young lady who’d offered to move was able to stay as the bike didn’t need the full area. I reached Carlisle and needed to catch the next train from platform 3. It was the 19:17 to Glasgow via Dumfries.

Carlisle Railway Station

I was now on a Scotrail train and there was no problem getting my bike on as there were few people on the train. We trundled through the dark night and just over an hour later I was the only person to get off at my destination of Sanquhar.

ScotRail bike storage

It is an unmanned station and I was the only person on the platform as the train pulled away and continued its journey to Glasgow. The weather was gloomy and dark and looked like rain would start at any time. I set off SE along the A76 through the town. There were few people about except for a couple of groups of teenagers being rather noisy. As it’s a Friday evening I suppose that’s to be expected. As I left the town I also left the streetlights behind and was glad of my high intensity front light giving me a wonderful view ahead. There must be a price for this and I don’t know what the lamp duration will be. The road surface was annoyingly rough making for an uncomfortable ride. Eventually thing smoothed out as I approached Mennock.

Deserted Rail Station at Sanquhar

I now had streetlights again but the threatened rain started to fall. I reached the left turn onto the B797 and was now on the minor unlit road winding through the mountains. I soon had to stop and put on all my waterproofs as I didn’t want to arrive at my planned camp too wet, even though it’s not very far away. I had the whole road to myself and didn’t see a single vehicle as I rode to my camp. The valley widened with the river on my right. Either side of the road had decent camping spots but I kept away from the river side and turned off to the left to avoid the river noise. The rain eased then stopped as I pitched my tent in the dark. By now it was after 21:30 so I had rather a late evening meal.