Today’s Weather Gods: happy (sun, blue sky, mild).
Today’s Bottom State: anaesthetised.
Our route took us north, out of the town (or at least it did once I had gone back for the map) and up towards Bridgenorth. The first few miles were a little hilly but were through some great countryside with poppy lined roads, small villages and the smell of wild garlic heavy in the air on many of the wooded lanes. We entered Shropshire which John tells us is the dairy capital of Britain. There are certainly plenty of cows around and heading down a hill towards Bridegenorth we got a fantastic view of gentle rolling pasture that went onto the horizon. To all intents and purposes this would be flat riding for us and my legs eased a sigh of gratitude. But first we had to pass through Bridgenorth itself which sits on a hill and from a distance - with its ruined castle sitting high above trees - looks most definitely like another town that should be on my ‘places to go without a bicycle’ list (and this is despite the fact that our route through took us via Sainsbury’s car park so it did not actually show us its best side). Despite all the good, the day was not perfect. We had got off to a slower start than planned and when we stopped only a few miles from Bewdley to sort some minor bike issues we ended up staying much longer because of a problem with Paul’s pedals. By the time we had made a detour to Ironbridge for a bit of industrial heritage and lunch we were of the view that we would now have to head for Warrington some 20 miles short of Preston. (Incidentally, we ate one of Eleys ‘World Famous Pork Pies’ which it has to be said were very nice indeed. But I would love to hear from any foreign readers of the blog just how world famous they really are). It was decided: we were now heading to Warrington. But we had not reckoned on Telford.
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| The iron bridge at Ironbridge |
Our route took us through Telford by main roads and rings roads that were a bit heavy with traffic. However, it was all worthwhile because it took us to a direct route north for a few miles via country roads, or so we thought. When we got to the roundabout for the turning everything seemed correct except there were no signs to ‘Horton’, which was the village that appeared on the road atlas page that we had taken with us for navigation. There was only ‘Hortonwood’, but we took this all the same as we were definitely in the correct place. It led into a sprawling industrial estate. After some consideration we gave up on the map. And we gave up on the local security guard (‘never heard of those places mate’) and so resorted to the smart phone. This told us we were where we thought we were and it told us how to get to where we wanted to go. It also told me that using a page from a 2001 road atlas that may have otherwise been thrown away was not really the best thing for a 2012 cycle trip.
With the 3G smart phone as our guide we cycled through the grid of lookalike roads past the lookalike industrial units until we came across a narrow gap in what was a long and high hedge. It was a bit Narnia like as on passing through this hedge ‘wardrobe’ you were completely away from the industrial units and on an old lane, with old cottages, that took us to on to the villages we had expected to find . You can just hear the residents in this hedged-in enclave crying into their cream teas: ‘I remember when all this was fields’. So what with our trip to Narnia and our medical stops and other delays for bike tweaking it became clear that even Warrington may be too far for the day. And given that Geri had phoned to say she was having trouble booking a place for us to stay there, maybe someone somewhere was trying to tell us something. After a quick discussion it was decided that we head for Nantwich. This did have the benefit that it would allow us to make a small detour tomorrow to Sandbach for Paul to see his dad but on the flip side our whole schedule would now need to be revisited. Nantwich was far easier for finding accommodation and we headed off for what was now the last 13 miles for the day. It was the quickest, smoothest and easiest riding of the trip so far and we arrived here in good time and will hopefully be well rested. Our plan now is to head for Morecambe tomorrow where we will eat cockles, build a few sandcastles and maybe get John to kick sand in the face of any skinny wimps on the beach.
Interesting stat of the day: our top speed was 41mph! Ironic really, given how the day turned out.
The usual commotion of loading the car and we were off again. The intention was to head to Warrington that night which had already been adjusted from Preston. But as the day wore on, it was becoming increasingly apparent that even Warrington was going to be a step too far. I was responsible for booking that night’s accommodation and I hesitated until I was sure where the final destination would be. Sure enough at about 4 pm the destination was adjusted to Nantwich and I managed to find a little gem of a hotel call the Railway hotel. Not exactly 5 star but it had large rooms (Clover loved racing round all the furniture and it was good exercise after being cooped up in the car for most of the day.) easy parking, place to put the bikes safely, an indian takeaway round the corner and wifi to update the blogs! Another good day all round.
Geri and Clover (who are starting to lose track of the days already and we are not even half way there yet!)
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