Henrikdoc

Today was the most relaxed and easiest cycling day so far👍. Gentle rolling terrain with minor hills and only 740m climb in 95 km.

A short lunch stop in the shade in the church grounds of Tilstock that we shared with a lady on her lunch break (we shared the church grounds not our lunch . I suspect her lunch was heartier than ours)

A minor diversion sign made us think a bit but we ploughed on regardless . Found some bridge repairs had closed the road for cars but NOTHING stops the bicycles on a mission . Some cows gazed at us in a somewhat bemused way as we negotiated the “barricade”.

Have renamed my Garmin “Gloria the sloth” as she goes to sleep for most of the ride and only shouts at me if I’ve gone off piste (probably what they all do anyway ). I think we’ve now mastered how the Garmin active route thing works . Amazing to think they not long ago you had to carry maps and bits of paper to tell you what route to take

Arrived at campsite (Delamere Forest ) nice and early for a change . Met up with an old friend for a drink in the pub down the road (I pleaded with him to pick me up rather than walk the mile and a half there – and back . He graciously obliged). Good to catch up after some years and chew the fat about New Zealand trips, Mountain biking and retirement.

Evening of pasta bolognaise cooking and then team planning for the final leg after Edinburgh which now needs booking. Interesting that a number of campsites still have toilets/ showers closed (which , as you can imagine, are an essential for us)

Tomorrow we negotiate around Manchester, Bolton and Blackburn.