It's not always a good idea to stay at home for a night on such a trip. Ellie Bennett, in her book Mud, Sweat and Gears: Land's End to John O'Groats via the Pub, says that she and her friend regretted having done just that - setting out from home seems like starting all over again, but with a better idea of what you're letting yourself in for! On the plus side, as well as your own bed, it's free accommodation, free use of the washing machine (!), and plenty of space to spread out in! Anyway, we managed to drag ourselves up and out this morning without too much trouble.
Today started with a trip to Barkers Lane Primary School (where both Nathan and Joel are past pupils), to do an assembly about our trip. The school is following our adventures, and next week they're planning to see how many miles the children can clock up collectively on their bikes, round the playground! They're going to donate any money they raise to a charity (but having cycled nearly 55 miles since then, I can't remember which one!)
We were joined at the school and for the first few miles afterwards by Steve B, Churchwarden at St John's. We're so grateful for the support that many people are giving us - in prayer, in reading this and making supportive comments, and in Steve's case, coming out with us today. After he and our Steve left us, Nathan, Joel and I made good progress for the rest of the morning, and had lunch at Frodsham.
After lunch, we set off to negotiate Runcorn. This is where experience proved very useful. When living in Liverpool, I cycled through Runcorn a number of times, and still remember a lot of a fairly quiet route between the A56 and the Runcorn Bridge. It was a bit slow today, because it was quite windy, but we found our way to the Bridge with no real problems.
Widnes was a different story! We knew the place is one huge set of roadworks at present, as they rebuild the road system around the new 'Mersey Gateway' bridge (due to open this autumn) - but we failed to realise that they'd also closed a section of the cycle route along the St Helen's Canal. So we found ourselves cycling amongst heavy traffic through the roadworks, trying to follow the diversion to the cycle route!
Later on, we proceeded to lose our way in Sankey Valley Park, which I have cycled before with no problem. Today, that experience was no help at all! It took a while before we retraced our tracks far enough to find the turning we'd missed. Once we'd found the track, and crossed underneath the M62, it was very pleasant for a few miles to Newton-le-Willows.
After that, we were cycling busy roads through urban areas and industrial sites - not much fun! We eventually gave up at Orrell, where we will have to return in the morning to carry on.
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| 'The Assembly Crew'! |
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| Part of the Manchester Ship Canal, from the Runcorn Bridge |
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| The Mersey Gateway nearing completion - the cause of some of today's problems! |
