Day 3 - Chester to Southport

Day 3 of 'Hugh's Attempt To Grow A Beard', er, i mean 'Hugh and Catherine's Three Peaks Cycle'. And both are coming along nicely!

The day's 97km ride into Lancashire

After leaving our campsite at 10, we breakfasted by a roman amphitheatre in Chester and headed northwards towards the Mersey. Cheshire, depite being almost as far north as Sheffield, tries its hardest to seem like Hampshre with quaint villages covered in bunting and more badly-driven range rovers than the top gear car-park. Across the Mersey things felt distinctly more northern though, with unintelligible scouse accents and big, grey council estates the norm.

That's not to say that crossing the Mersey was an easy thing to do. The whole region was criss-crossed by motorways, train tracks, industrial estates and rivers - all of which are barriers to bikes. We eventually found a route onto the bridge, but quickly found ourselves in the middle of four lanes of traffic chaos, no bike lane in sight. Thankfully we survived the ordeal and enteted Merseyside.

Once out of the chaos of Widnes we found some nice country lanes and headed north. We stopped for lunch after a bit of a climb and could still see the hills and mountains of north wales that we left behind the day before.

Every day a touring cyclist burns about 3000 calories in the saddle, which all need to be replaced somehow. In the afternoon we decided, in true english style, that this was a hole only tea and scones could fill. Luckily the nearest pub supplied us with an afternoon feast fit for a cycling king.

The last 20km were flat, cloudy and open; almost like we were back in boring Norfolk. We crossed the third motorway of the day and entered Lancashire. After some confusion we found a campsite for the night just west of Preston. The campsite was run by two of the nicest people in the world. They took us in, put the kettle on and showed us the way to the nearest shop. Despite the lack of a shower block and high number of midges, how could we really say no to this lovely old couple? I do hope all northern people are this lovely, and its just us folk in the south who are such callous, cold-hearted bastards.

Stats:
Todays distance: 91km.
Average speed: 19.1km.
Total distance ridden: 216km.

Sunburn score: 4/10.
Midge count: 5/10.
Rain level: 1/10 (One shower all day!)

Beard index: 4/10 (getting there).

Dinner in the sun.

Day 2 - Llanberis to Chester

Map of the day's 109km ride with two category 3 climbs!

After such a nice day yesterday, today was always going to be a disappointment. But we did not expect the biblical rainstorm that drenched us to the bone just as we started the days cycling.

We had set off, after a late start, at about 11, stopping for a pastry-filled breakfast in Llanberis at the bottom of the hill. After waiting for another shower to subside, we started off to the south east towards Pen-Y-Pas, a 300m col. Only a few minutes later though, the heavens opened again. The entire road surface was covered in an inch of water, itself being bombarded by millions of huge rain drops, almost deafening the sound of distant thunder. The barren gullies in the steep mountains on either side gushed with raging water. In some places these streams of water collided with the wall at the roadside, cascading onto the slope and turning into half-river, half-road. Such an awesome sight almost made up for such a thorough soaking.

Escaping the rain...

After gratefully finding a bus stop for shelter, we waited out the rest of the downpour to ease off and continued slowly (or, for the welsh speakers among you, 'araf-ly') up the hill. We then descended through a cloud-filled valley and almost 5km of lush forest into Betws-y-Coed.

Cyclists more than anyone (except frequent Little Chef visitors) know that what goes down must come back up. We rose up from 'Betsy' for almost 20km through rolling moorland before, joy of joys, another long and pedal-free downhill. By this stage we had left the rainclouds behind us and were racing into glorious sunshine. This helped to dry us out no end, but rain penetrates deeper than rays, and by the time we found a campsite just south of Chester, we found most of the stuff in both panniers was soaked.

At the campsite we set the tent out, strung up a washing line to dry the wet gear and started on another pasta dinner. In search of something to wash down another bland meal, and somewhere to watch the Germany-Italy game, we headed to another village pub. In contrast to the night before this place was a posh affair, with wooden beams, pretentious artwork and expensive pints (This is England, after all!). And after a day of cycling, a good pint seems to go straight to your head, I can tell you.

Calorie-filled dinner at the campsite

All in all, it was an epic days cycle. Despite the hills (a full 1400m of uphill) we managed 105km in about 6 hours. With breaks discounted thats an average of 19kph - not bad for the first true day of cycling. If we keep this up, we will be in sight of Scafell Pike by Saturday! Tomorrow should be a much flatter day as we head up beyond Liverpool to just south of Preston.

Stats:
Distance: 109km
Total Distance: 129km