LEJOG Day 17 - Rest Day

Some of Thwaites finest

At the Millstone at Mellor

And today truly was a rest day!

Back at it tomorrow- 60 miles to Kendal!

LEJOG Day 16 - Rest Day at Home

Rest, recovering and checking up.  Home, watching the torrential rain today.  Repacking for the Northern half of the trip has commenced and the shopping for restocking is done.  An early Steak Night tonight and a ‘Please yourself’ day tomorrow.  Will be interesting to see how the muscles and the weather report are tomorrow!

Absolutely pouring out

6:00 this morning

Managed to find a bbq window!

Quiet relaxing evening with no cycling gear to wash!

LEJOG Day 15 - Manchester to Home

Last day of this first 5-day section and then home for 3 nights!  That’s going to feel different!  Going off route today to head for home and making our way over the first of the Lancashire hills.

Still sore, but maybe a couple of days off the bike will help!

Getting out of Manchester was not nearly as difficult as getting in was  We took the cycleway along Princes Street and Deansgate and then we turned left along the River Irwell and then that was the city - done!  We followed a single track along the river and then through the woods which was a bit of an obstacle course really, some extra gravelly paths and really muddy bits and then we went onto the Outwood Trail -happiness is a smooth bike path!

Rail trails have typically been really good

Just like in Italy

A pretty good trail

Passing over a motorway 

A random mounting block

How nice when we don’t have to wiggle and lift our way over the gate!

First day of rain, real rain!  Oh, wait a minute!  We’re back in Lancashire!  Soaked, absolutely soaked, really soaked.  Got off the path in Tottington and asked an elderly gentleman where there was a cafe.  He pointed to the library and said, ‘Just there’  Okay, we’ll try a library cafe, especially when we’re soaked and freezing!  Had a very nice Full English second breakfast (better than the first, btw) and realised that part of the reason that I was so cold was that the vents in my jacket were halfway open and the rain was pouring in.  I piled on the clothes afterwards - my ‘windsheeter’, neckerchief, full finger gloves and closed vent jacket.  As we left town, I was blowing on my fingers to get them warm, but after the climb out of Tottingtom I warmed up and after several more climbs over the moors, I was toasty.  This was the first time when Steve said, ‘We’ve got a climb coming up,’ when I said, ‘Great, let’s go!’  We went up over the remote, rainy, windy moors up above Blackburn on our last push (well, okay, there were a couple more last pushes) to the house. 

Top of a climb photo (aka rest stop)

Looking over the moors

It’s 

At the top of the climb

It’s amazingly beautiful up here

Gorgeous views all the way up

Misty but can still see for miles

This canal is no longer in service..

Time for the rain shoes, he says.. 

Okay here we go!

Amazing to get home!!!  568 miles so far and we’re calling this our half-way point.  Throw all the laundry in the washer, turn on the fires and go to the pub for a late lunch!  Now we’re going to relax for a couple days (well, Steve is pulling out the lawnmower) and heal…

They were pretty when we started

His rain jacket blocks the view

Shower caps are good for pedalling

We made it, half way there!! 

LEJOG Day 14 - Nantwich to Manchester

Nantwich to Manchester today, 45 miles and 4th day of this 5 day mmm section.  We are 488 miles in at this point and Manchester will bring us to 535.  60s / 19 degrees today and only 925 feet of climbing.  8.5 miles of unpaved road though…

Brian mentioned that he met up with a couple who had done 126,000 miles on a tandem - that is some serious cycling!  242 miles a week for 10 years.  We’ve done more than 10,000, but not 20,000 - guess we’d better get going!

We’ve been talking about the various reasons for doing the tour - to do the route, to see the country, to get fit, to transition into retirement (which I’m sure Steve will chip in about at some point) and another adjunct aspect is managing diabetes.  And we have now proved that you cannot out-pedal a bad diet.  If there’s pita bread or potatoes the night before, even knocking off 50 miles won’t bring Steve’s blood sugar down into the normal range.  The ‘3-legged stool’ of this particular puzzle is on-plan eating, exercise and getting rid of the excess weight - if any one of these go off track, back in the bad blood sugar range.  Surprisingly (and thankfully for Steve), while beer affects the weight, it doesn’t affect the blood sugar!

The route was mainly gentle today, meandering across fairly flat farmland and virtually traffic free country lanes.  Many many farms again today.  We left Nantwich along the River Weaver and eventually onto the Weaver Way.  Saw our first signs of the ‘industrial North’ as we went through Winsford, dodging fishermen with their PILES of gear.  Each to his own when it comes to hobbies, but don’t block the trail with your stuff and and then ask, ‘You can’t get by that?’  ‘No, we’ll just get off, shall we?!’  Numpty.

We were at an AirBnB last night so no cooked breakfast.  We had leftovers and then made several stops on the hunt for breakfast - either not open till 10:00 or not open or done with breakfast for the day!  We finally restocked at Waitrose and had a coffee.  Stopped at a massive garden centre at High Legh, might be one of the largest I’ve seen - but they were done with breakfast.

Plenty of tracks again today to keep us on our toes.  Some pretty good tow paths by the canals.  The only pushing was in Manchester City centre. 

Madge asked about getting into and out of big cities.  We’re in Manchester tonight.  The book called today’s route fragmented and that’s pretty accurate.  As we came closer to the city centre, we rode along first the Trans Penn ine Trail (another rail trail) and then along the Bridgewater Canal for several miles.  Then it got really fiddly.  The gpx route went to a different part of Manchester than we were staying in (it’s a big place).  So we switched to Google (bike) maps.  Took us mostly on cycle ways, but as we got closer to the centre we just got off the bike and walked (when it’s tricky to find our way, we get off and walk).  Loads of people out on a Sunday made it even more interesting.  But we made it to the lovely Ibis Hotel on Portland Street in plenty of time for our evening out in Manchester.  

Nantwich to Manchester

Along the canal 

Loving the willow trees

Remnants of the industrial north

Bridges and locks

 Corn fields

Sheeep!

Look at the state of th tosh

Beginning of the industrial north

Along the River Weaver

Hedgerows groomed and ungroomed

Been planning this one since we started planning the trip and Steve said we were stopping in Manchester.  Going to Six by Nico’s which has a tasting menu with paired wines.  Jess and Matt have been to the one in London and recommended it.  Nice treat while we’re in the city.

Steve’s Letters From… today:

Morning LFA’s and welcome to this weeks edition which comes from an Air B&B in Nantwich which is a small market town in Cheshire. That we are here as foretold in last weeks edition means the cycling gods are still with us on LEJOG 2023!!

Most readers are probably reading the great blog that Katherine has been doing meticulously with an update every day so I won’t repeat that  here or this will get a bit long even by my standards!! What I will say is we have completed a little under a half of the route in terms of distance and number of days and all is well. It’s mostly enjoyable but has its challenges as you would expect. It’s allowing us to experience this country good and bad at close quarters and by modern standards slowly.

Next week …… Manchester (just under 50 miles) today so there will be some “faffing about” with bike paths, the inevitable “not designed for a tandem” gates, Monday Highcroft (30 plus), Tuesday & Wednesday are rest days ( well laundry, service the tandem, repack for the colder second half etc), Thursday Kendal (62 and over half way) Friday Penrith (30 but over Shap but it’s been done before), Saturday Gretna Green (40 odd) so next week’s edition, cycling gods permitting, will come from there which means we will be starting the penultimate section of Southern Scotland the last one being the Scottish Highlands. Have a great week. Steve and Katherine.

LEJOG Day 13 - Bridgnorth to Nantwich

Today’s route - 3 climbs

Outside the Parlor Hotel, Bridgnorth, Low Town

Morning pedal through the misty forest 

Pub in the banks of the River Severn

Wrought iron bridge 

Patiently waiting while I take pictures!

Some fancy field grooming going on here

Newport, but not as I know it

Looks like really tall weeds, but there’s miles of the stuff!

Cows

More cows (and a farm on every corner)

Neat route info from Komoot, the roads and the surfaces 

Breakfast room

Long awaited coffee

What a place to read your paper!

We’ve given up on cafes and gone straight to pubs

Our room for the night

We’re over the garage

Tudor buildings everywhere

Ebenezer’s craft beers, something for next time

Had a very nice dinner at The Crown

Enjoying his Shropshire beer

Very cozy spot, with soft seats!

Nantwich

So many oldy worldy buildings

Another cow

Moving from the West Midlands to Cheshire today, 52 miles with ‘some’ hills.  Wondered yesterday if we’re getting stronger and the answer is yes, there is a noticeable improvement - not massive, but there is a difference.  Yesterday’s pushing was mainly due to obstacles, impossible turns for tandems or a hilltop turn.  We do have a new hill phrase, ‘It looks steep, but I think we can manage it’.  Progress indeed, but legs are still sore.

Going back to the discussion regarding the journey or the destination.  A couple of times I (the navigator) have thought, ‘If we just go that way, we’ll take off X miles.’  But on this trip, what are you going to do if you get there early?  We got to Gloucester at 2:00 and found out.  Get into the room, have showers, have a wander about to check out the town, see the cathedral, fall into a pub for a ‘scoop’ as Steve says and then realise you’re STARVING and it’s an hour or more before any of the restaurants you want to go to are open for dinner!  Another reason to not rush the journey.

Today’s route took us through the Bridgnorth Low Town, along the river and then followed a bike path for 5 miles.  It was a gravely, muddy bike path, but it was better than some.  It did feel a bit like 4 wheeling on 2 wheels though!  Lovely misty morning as we pedalled along the last parts of the River Severn (for us), through the forest and then followed the Silkin Way rail trail into Telford.  Telford is a ‘new town’, a purpose built town with things like bike paths running throughout.  We rode all the way into town on a bike path, stopped for the Costa coffee that I’d been wanting for 400 miles, picked up the bike path and left town on a bike path - no fighting traffic!  Loads of roundabouts though…

One of the interesting things about rail trails is they look like there is a really steep hill and instead you pedal up an amazingly gentle incline all the while wondering where that hill is!  That first steep hill in the map, wasn’t - such a treat!

Then we got on the country lanes.  Today there was almost no traffic, some hills, a couple good pubs.  It was 52 miles so it was a long day, but amazing to say this one wasn’t brutal.  

At one point I said to Steve, ‘We must be seeing 10-15 farms a day’.  He said, ‘No, we’re seeing 10-15 farms an hour’.  I started counting and he was right - farm after farm seems like around every corner…

We’re in Nantwich tonight, at an over the garage Air bnb.  Surprisingly the 8/10s walk into town and back wasn’t too bad.  Nantwich was really pretty with loads of Tudor buildings, cobblestone streets and beautiful flowers everywhere.