Heading North

…….finding out some family history at Ruthin was a real boost, Aaron was over the Moon to have discovered some ancestors…… so it is still difficult cycling away from Wales, we had such a brilliant time, Llyn Fynnon will remain a highlight for the entire tour I think, but also the thought of what else we might discover kept us going, though we were feeling a little in the doldrums as we cycled further and further away from the Ogwen valley and the majestic atmosphere of the Welsh mountains…..

We will return…..

So for now we continue heading North stopping just outside Chester this time in a proper campsite to have  few days to give the bikes some TLC…..wash our clothes. It was strange to be back in a city it really did feel odd….seeing all the shops and having absolutely no interest in any of it except the Roman ruins….. Both of us feel so out of place in this mad environment, and we were ready to push on and get up to North Cumbria for some more walks in the mountains and I knew a secluded campsite off the main tourist haunts that would be just about perfect……

….Well we were heading to Cumbria and growing more excited for that with each passing mile…..though cycling cross the Wirral was……..and I have to add that we were still full of the wonder of the Welsh mountains…..So the Wirral was just a place to cycle through….the cycling, the rhythm of cycling was uppermost in my mind, So we just let the miles roll beneath our wheels talking as we cycled about our favorite sci – fi shows, cosmology and philosophy.

When it came to cross the Mersey though we had  a double surprise….firstly and with utter awe…. visiting the wreck of the recovered U-Boat 534 located in several separate sections by the ferry terminal….utterly unexpected and fascinating, sadly I have no images to share of this. But for anyone interested it is  a fascinating place so I have added this link to the official website……hope they don’t mind…..

U Boat 534

Our second surprise was  meeting with  fellow cyclist Paul who was interested in our bikes and so we got talking about the tour….where we had come from….where we where going. Well anyway Paul asked us where we were staying and we said that we planned to cycle a ways along the coast and eventually find  a secluded wild camp for the night.

Paul would have non of it and invited us to cycle a ways further than we planned to his home in Formby to meet his family and stay with them for the night, so we set off along the industrial coast of Liverpool which eventually turned into a fab coastal cycle path.

Now Paul seemed quite keen to get home and we were already fairly worn out….with 15 miles to go and Paul setting quite a pace……fine if you have only yourself and the bike but we were both pushing 50 lbs plus of touring gear. though we somehow kept up…..Paul later realised, but it was ok, just an unexpected dash at the end of the day, and we later learned out that his job kept him from home for a month at a time…… he is  a deep sea diver working in the North Sea, so it is totally understndable as he was on his way home for the first time in  month.

Paul and his family were fantastic, and we all enjoyed swapping stories……They fed us much pizza and beer….so much pizza in fact they insisted we take the rest for lunch the next day.

Here we are getting ready to leave…..nearly start which was great we had some miles to put under our belts that today……But later on once I had found some frames……actually from the Range in Preston, I posted three framed drawings from the cycle tour as a thank you…….

Cycling North ….again first through coastal pine forest and then onto the proper sea front. The road was as flat as it could be but the wind was a fierce side wind and we found ourselves sand blasted as we hugged the coast heading for Preston…….This was the flattest bike ride I have ever done

Preston was much the same as the wirral….a place to cycle through and by the river we found a quiet little dell by the river to make our wild camp…only slightly disturbed by some jeers and protestations of…. ‘Hobo and why don’t you get yourself a home you hobo’s’……obviously missing the point and the rather expensive equipment we have with us….. and well ignorance is found everywhere…….

We decided to cycle the Lancaster Preston canal route. Leaving Preston with terraced houses backing onto the canal each with there own jetty and boat….This was fab. This part of Preston was terrific……