The weather was warm and sunny as the last three days have been. We set off at a really good pace and got 20 miles in not much over the hour having crossed the Manchester Ship canal at 9.30.
We were approaching Atherton.
That's when things went wromg. We took a wrong turning and ended up in a housing Estate. Instead of turning back, we decided to follow a track which would bring us into Atherton. Unfortunately the water board had dug it up and it was a mud bath. To make matters worse, as we got back on a decent surface, Mark punctured!
Repairing a puncture to a muddy tyre is not pleasant. We used several wet wipes .
After half an hour we were sorted and through Atherton.
We pushed on to Horwich where we stopped at a Turkish café which was being run by an Albanian couple.
They were really nice and we had Turkish tea.
We pushed on into Preston. This was very complicated and involved a Large park and the old tram way to the north and a very nice coffee shop. None of this would have been possible withlout the cycling Preston map from Lancs CC.
All of this was very time consuming and quite slow, but we were able to weave through three motorways on a single cycle path.
Finally, we were able to get on the A6 and get our heads down for the last 20 miles. We got to Lancaster for 5.15
The B&B were not there when we got there. We waited half an hour before someone turned up. Apparently the tourist board had not confirmed my booking.
Marcos Italian gets a special mention on account of the nice pasta and free wine.
Data
Today's mileage 80
Ave speed 13.0 mph
Toltal mileage 472
Ride time 5 hrs 52 mins
David
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