Wednesday 6th April 2011 43.03 Miles 4hr 07mins 10.25mph Average Speed 585.58 Total Miles Dad had a shocking night sleep as the man below his room was snoring incredibly loud, in fact Dad called me at 11pm and asked me to come in his room to listen to the snoring because I would not believe how loud it was if he had just told me! With a late blog entry last night we were very tired at breakfast and as the weather was looking much nicer today we figured a bit of a slower start would be ok so not on the road until 10am.
Leaving Eccleston we had to climb a bit up and down for the first 10 miles to Up Holland which was certainly ‘Up’ in fact all three of us had to get off half way up a hill that the sign post said was 20% gradient! We continued on to St Helens before we stopped for lunch in a pub having done 21 miles. I had a panic attack in the loo when locked in a cubical the lights went out and it was pitch black with no windows! Not long after St Helens we came across some major roads with traffic at lights resembling a starting grid at the grand prix. Crossing the Runcorn Bridge we were joined by Brian who was concerned about crossing the bridge as there were two teenagers that he saw kicking a cyclist that was in front of him. Safety in numbers we crossed it fine.
Then we had to make our way through Runcorn on smaller roads with the aid of Google as our map told us to follow a busy road that we did not fancy. Unfortunately, after climbing a hill we realised we needed the road underneath us and had to off road down some steps to reach it. Also, Google maps told us to go down a bus lane through a huge bus terminal the wrong way and with several busses heading straight for us with the drivers wagging their fingers at us and shaking their heads I had my second panic attack of the day!
It was a huge relief to arrive in Frodsham back in little villages on quieter roads. We took a breather on the roadside to recover from the stressful episode when Mel another cyclist stopped to talk to us. He cycled LEJOG a few years ago and was swapping stories with us for a while. The next village we came across was Helsby where we could not resist a rest on the wall out the front of a pub and enjoyed sipping a shandy in the sun, lovely. With only 5 miles left we set off and found our B&B on the outskirts of Chester.
We made ourselves at home and took a short taxi ride into Chester town centre. We walked all through the town and looked at the old style Tudor shops which were double level and then wandered down to the river edge to watch the herons surveying their supper and the Salmon jumping clear from the water making their way upstream. We dined in an authentic American style restaurant which made a nice change and we sat outside as it was so sunny today, we were even down to T shirts at one point.
Leaving Eccleston we had to climb a bit up and down for the first 10 miles to Up Holland which was certainly ‘Up’ in fact all three of us had to get off half way up a hill that the sign post said was 20% gradient! We continued on to St Helens before we stopped for lunch in a pub having done 21 miles. I had a panic attack in the loo when locked in a cubical the lights went out and it was pitch black with no windows! Not long after St Helens we came across some major roads with traffic at lights resembling a starting grid at the grand prix. Crossing the Runcorn Bridge we were joined by Brian who was concerned about crossing the bridge as there were two teenagers that he saw kicking a cyclist that was in front of him. Safety in numbers we crossed it fine. 
Then we had to make our way through Runcorn on smaller roads with the aid of Google as our map told us to follow a busy road that we did not fancy. Unfortunately, after climbing a hill we realised we needed the road underneath us and had to off road down some steps to reach it. Also, Google maps told us to go down a bus lane through a huge bus terminal the wrong way and with several busses heading straight for us with the drivers wagging their fingers at us and shaking their heads I had my second panic attack of the day! 
It was a huge relief to arrive in Frodsham back in little villages on quieter roads. We took a breather on the roadside to recover from the stressful episode when Mel another cyclist stopped to talk to us. He cycled LEJOG a few years ago and was swapping stories with us for a while. The next village we came across was Helsby where we could not resist a rest on the wall out the front of a pub and enjoyed sipping a shandy in the sun, lovely. With only 5 miles left we set off and found our B&B on the outskirts of Chester. 
We made ourselves at home and took a short taxi ride into Chester town centre. We walked all through the town and looked at the old style Tudor shops which were double level and then wandered down to the river edge to watch the herons surveying their supper and the Salmon jumping clear from the water making their way upstream. We dined in an authentic American style restaurant which made a nice change and we sat outside as it was so sunny today, we were even down to T shirts at one point. 
No comments:
Post a Comment