LEJOG day 9 (Peter)

An unusually quiet day at the office! The expected rain did not materialise, the wind abated somewhat, and the hills were gentle and few and far between. So riding conditions were much improved.

Riding through the territory between Manchester and Liverpool is hardly scenic, and the parts that we covered between Middlewich and Preston were very much the areas in which they used to “weigh” the Labour votes not "count” them.

We did, however, pass over one real gem, the Manchester Ship Canal. It was beautiful, quiet and empty this morning, but it was easy to imagine the freight that must have passed over the years from the “dark satanic mills” of industrial Lancashire.

I was reminded too as we neared Preston of a lovely Aularian, Roger Wilcock, sadly no longer with us, who lived in Preston, and who took pleasure in riding his Honda (I think) bicycle at enormous speed between Preston and Oxford. Two and a half hours was about par for the course, but I think he once almost did it in two. It made me realise that it’s taken us 8 days to do what Roger would have done in a few hours on his big beast.

Tomorrow we’re heading for Kendal and the Lake District, with yet more dire predictions of rain from the Met Office. We trust they’ll get it wrong again!