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Housing estates, roundabouts, retail parks & rain
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Housing estates, roundabouts, retail parks and rain After a fun night in Guy's bar myself and Carl slept as well as you can 2 metres away from the A6 with artics pummeling past all night. It poured with rain all night; so much so that the Royal Lancaster Show which was scheduled for Billsborrow was cancelled. Phil woke us up at 8am (when we said we would be ready to leave...sorry Phil) with toast from his mums. Packing up the tents was pretty miserable and getting to the toilet involved a sneaky dash into the pub across the road. We said our goodbyes to Phil's mum and headed off into the driving rain once again. I have to say, though, that the rain isn't half as bad as you think it would be when cycling. With lycra tights and a waterproof all is well.
The mornings cycle has to be rated as one of the worst parts of the journey. Instead of the rolling glens and sea lochs of Scotland we had urban depravity at its worst with housing estates and McDonalds every ten yards. The roundabouts were ultra scary; especially the ones going onto motorway junctions where a lorry could easily crush a poor cyclist to smithereens if you not carefull..just as well we are all careful eh!! We went through Preston, Wigan and then into Warrington. By Warrington we were getting hungry but the horrible roads dispelled most of the hunger and we resolved to get through the town before stopping for lunch...and guess what. Just as we were leaving Warrington a Morrisons arose out of the rain like a mirage. I have to say that if I was ever doing this trip again I would try and get Morrisons to sponsor me lunch everyday. The food is great (lasagna was the dish of the day for me...especially the lasagna buttie with English mustard..) and now we have learnt all the tricks from the pensioners (such as filling a cup with hot water as well as your tea pot so you can brew a second cup and that you are allowed one free sachet of sauce with each main meal) it is very filling and cheap. We have also developed a taste for the cakes in the Morrisons café...I hope this sweet tooth wears off when I stop burning calories like a Range Rover burns petrol.
We eventually finished our changing and water bottle filling in the toilets and got on our way south again. Slowly the environment changed into Cheshire. It's a shame the weather didn't change as well. The roads were nice and I went on a bit of a power burst the last 30 miles to Whitchurch which I did in a couple of hours with no breaks. I went into town as my rear wheel has developed a bit of a buckle that I need sorting out before going on but the cycle shop had already shut. In Whitchurch our little group split up as Phil went to meet Angela while Carl and myself went to a beautiful little caravan park to meet Matt and Kim who had driven down with the caravan to meet us for the night. We had a great night in the van with lashings of spag bol and red wine from Kim and Matt's recent trip to France. In fact it was so good we resolved to tell Phil we were having a rest day to relax a bit...there was much entertainment of the 'Dear Phil' excuses that we could come up with to explain this but in the end when we spoke to Phil in the morning he was as keen as us to stay another day (him in his nice hotel in the countryside). In the end it was just as well we did stay as during the last 20 miles or so of the day my bike had developed a bit buckle in the rear wheel. I cycled off down to the local Whitchurch cycle shop where the kindly gentleman said he would fix it for free...well that would have been great if he didn't rip the rim to shreds overtightening the spokes...he then truly irresponsibly sent me off down the road without telling me. It was so bad that the wheel could have fallen apart at any point. As he had no spares the Matt and Kim support team had to be called in for a trip down the road to Shrewsbury where fortunately there was a great little bike shop that had the exact replacement rim I required and had mechanics time to fix it for me on the spot...phew!! So after a nice day walking around Shrewsbury we retired to the caravan and Kim made the biggest Toad in the Hole I have ever seen preceded by Shropshire Blue cheese and biscuits and succeeded by trifle and then apple crumble. Definetly cycling food...thought I was going to burst afterwards!! Another 11 hour sleep in the caravan followed by a late breakfast of bacon butties and we were ready for the road again...
Day 10 & 11 Bilsborrow to Whitchurch Miles 74.34 Average 13.1 Hours on bike 5.4 Max speed 32.8 Total distance 681.77 There are also new pics that have been added to the previous 3 entries from Phil's camera. More thumbnails ...
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