Day 6: Nantwich to Garstang

Ok. That was an adventure… actually a bit too much of an adventure in the end, which I’ll get to.

The off

Things started well with one of my mum’s cooked breakfasts! I had a good night’s sleep in the campervan as well so was raring to go with a bit of light drizzle about as I set off.

Then… Cheshire. Is a neighbour to my home county of Flintshire and I used to live here (in Chester), so I know it’s leafy and beautiful. The route was fantastic though - even better than I expected - initially through leafy country lanes, then eventually beside rivers (the River Weaver Way is one of best things I’ve seen on her whole trip!). The river is spectacular and there are sections where you ride with beautiful rivers on both sides.

A minor issue here… a huge tree had snapped in the middle and blocked the route. Had never seen anything like it! I Had to lift the bike on to it and climb around the tree. I suspected it had recently happened - you’d expect warnings for something like that - so I used the magic of Twitter to message some vaguely relevant people, namely Cheshire Council, Sustrans (the people who look after the National Cycle Network) and the Canal and River Trust. The latter sent a picture on Twitter not long later showing that they’d cleared it. Very impressive!

Brie and grape sandwich

I didn’t go too far from Terry and Ali’s gaff so made a slight detour and headed over. Wonderful to see them! Lovely sandwich as well, on the finest bread with the best ingredients. These guys don’t mess about. I sat a sensible distance away - given my very smelly kit - but we had a nice chat and it was good to see the amazing things they’d done with their house. Maybe… pop over and finish ours when you’d finished up guys. Plenty of DIY to be done :)

East Lancs and North

I got back on track via a field (thanks Google

Maps!) and the cycle lane of the East Lancs road, probably after about an hour. It was a parallel route to my planned route so I didn’t lose much time. Then… country lanes…. several miles of mud (where I crashed - but managed to jump off as the bike hit the floor!)…. small chunks of gravel… really big chunks of gravel… cobbles… but sometimes perfect tarmac. The most varied - and fun - riding so far. And the canals, hundreds of barges.. rivers and locks. So beautiful. Just amazing.

The wrong choice

I got to Preston behind schedule and had a few potential problems looming. My main route viewer (showing a fixed route that didn’t include the campsite) - my Garmin - was on 3% charge. It had also started raining and it was getting darker.

I brought two good front lights with me on the trip, thinking I wouldn’t need them. One didn’t charge the night before (kaput), so I didn’t bring it with me. I then taped my spare light to the handle bars in Preston (I’d lost the bracket in the last few days - I think it fell out my bag)… but kaput. It had also broken. Unbelievable - I’ve used both without problem for a couple of years.

I went into KFC to get away from the rain and charge the Garmin (it has a wonky connection - I can’t do it on the road). I had the choice of getting a hotel in Preston or pressing on the 17 miles to the parent’s campervan. Obviously I wanted to get to my parents but I was the wrong decision… quite badly wrong.

I went back out into the rain, which by now had got heavier. Instantly hit slow diversions to the bike route due to works taking 14 months (!) on the Ribble river waterfront. It then got darker and darker and, though I got maybe five or six miles, the weather then deteriorated significantly as did the light. It got to the stage where I had to give up my trail route because visibility was literally zero through the forest sections.

I looked on Google Maps and switched to the A6. It was much better than I expected, torrential rain but streetlights and - though passing cars were fast - my two rear lights were working perfectly and there were intermittent cycle lanes. I basically time trialled to Garstang, just hoping that the route to the campsite had street lights. Guess what… it didn’t. It was too remote for a hotel and too far to get back to Preston, and I probably should have called my step-dad. I didn’t - another mistake I think - and rode miles down county lanes is a long way via my iPhone light in (now) a complete horrendous storm. I was safe - riding slowly so I could see the road and I moved to the hedge (off the bike) when the few cars that passed approached.

I was lucky to get home. My iPhone was very low by the time I got to the site and, though I had battery packs, the phone had water in and wouldn’t charge when I got to the campsite. Had it run out (which would have happened in a few minutes), my only choice would have been to use my spare rear light to get me to the campsite, which I suspected was the light in front of me (I would have lost mapping as well - Google Maps was being used to get me to the campsite as it wasn’t loaded into the Garmin).

At about 11:45pm - after travelling at a snail’s pace for hours - I saw a light. I was my mum, waiting for me at the end of the road with a torch. Oh my god! She was worried (correctly) that I wouldn’t find the site and the campervan and was standing there in the torrential rain. What a true hero!! I do feel like the worst son of all time though. It’s really terrible that she had to do this. This really wasn’t what I had thought would happen. I had tried to limp home knowing that I had back up plans at each stage and would be safe, but everything I hoped wouldn’t happen did and the weather just got worse and worse. Thankfully, the gorgeous Jules was tracking me on Find My iPhone so mum, John and Jules all knew I was safe… and going very slowly!

I needed the can of beer that mum and John gave me, put it that way.