F#%k Day 5

I had set an alarm the previous night for 6:45. Giving us time to get up, pack up and head to the bottom of Loch Lomond for breakfast. Today's plan was to get as far south of Glasgow as possible. F#%k day 5.

My alarm went off but I was already awake from the persisting down rain. I hit snooze and got some more sleep. Half an hour later, it was still raining. It wasn't until 9 am that the rain had gone off and Becky was up... Surprisingly, to go for a week.

Nothing really great happened in the packing up process apart from seeing a swan washing its self (quite humorous) and that the sun popped out. I had awoken to feel deflated. Tired, hungry and exhausted from the last few days riding. I wasn't really in the best of moods and getting going on the bike was really tough. After about 5 miles of trying to get into the swing of things, this bluey white stuff started spraying up from my back wheel! I must have ridden over a piece of glass or something? Smug me, shrugged and thought the tubeless tire sealant would seal it. So I let it do it's a thing, waited a while and then pumped it back up. It was fine for another 5 miles till we got to Ballsack (Balloch) then we had some breakfast and a chat at a restaurant with a view.

As soon as we got back on the road we hit another towpath. BOOM blue/white tire seamen started leaking out again before I knew it my tire was flat. We did the same as before and limped to Glasgow city centre. At this point it was 4:30 pm and we had only cycled 18miles. F#$k day 5.

In Glasgow, we heard to a vegan veggie restaurant we found when we were last here in March. We had come up to compete in the Red Bull Neptune steps. A swimming assault course up 8 lock segments in freezing waters.
The restaurant is called Mono, it's amazing. The food and warmth cheered us up. Even though it had been sunny all day.

After our banquet of food (I had two main meals, tofu fish and chips and a pizza) we get ready to head out of Glasgow. Pumped up my tired and headed away. No more than a mile down the road my tire was completely flat. I was losing so much air that my tire beads where coming loose and so I couldn't pump up the tire without a tubeless pump.

We pulled over into a children's park on the outskirts of Glasgow and I began the filthy tubless to inner tube change. As if matters couldn't get worse, the nut on the tubeless valve was jammed and we couldn't unscrew it. Eventually, I managed to force it off but to the expense of the thread of the valve. This cause further problems because we still couldn't get the valve out! I needed some pliers or something to force it off. Becky tried her best at are threading it. And we got it most of the way but the last 4mm was completely seized. I took the wheel to the closest house I could find and lightly asked if the lady who answered the door had any pliers. She was quite flustered having a sweaty handsome man at her door, covered in blue/white tire seamen and holding a wheel while asking for man tools. But she came through with a toolbox and very shortly after I had the dn valve out.

Barbra (my bike) was up and running again!! It was 20:30 by the time we where moving again and we wanted to get away from the curse of Glasgow. So we cycled till midnight till we found a suitable place to wild camp. Eventually, we came across a perfect spot in the ground of Chatelherault Country Park. Thankfully it wasn't raining and we went to bed having only done 50 miles in 13 hours... Fuck Day 5.