Further on and we were soon to find ourselves on one of many converted disused railways which ran almost all the way to Aintree and I have to say you would have had no idea you were cycling through Liverpool because I saw none of it (thankfully – I hate cities).
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Liverpool, honest!
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Still Liverpool, honest.... (and sunshine!)
Somewhere just before Aintree we spotted a Sainsbury’s supermarket and in true holiday touring style called in for a coffee. After Aintree we dropped onto a canal for a short period and it was most definitely a drop – more steps and rather steep, thankfully there was a tyre rut down one side for the bikes, but it was so steep that the tyres had no grip and were skidding down it… I was grateful that it was only a short section and that there was no-one at the bottom when my bike and I arrived there rather more quickly than I had planned. Just as we were trying to decide which canal it was, we came across a mile marker saying “Leeds 119 ½ miles”, so with that question answered we carried on a touch until we met a couple of other cyclists – I wanted to know if there were any benches further up the trail or if we were best using the grass at the side of the canal – there were none, so after a quick chat, we found a suitable grassy spot for lunch and had lunch in the sun.
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Then it was out on to the flat lands of north Cheshire and south Lancashire and both of us had forgotten exactly how flat that way (we met at uni in Preston many years ago…) We were also very grateful for a certain hedgerow which whilst it blocked our view, also shielded us from the wind because each and everytime the hedge disappeared or our route swung round into the wind, our speed dropped drastically….
After a blackberry picking session (for breakfast tomorrow) Southport soon arrived and we quickly found the start/end of the Trans Pennine Trail and got chatting to another cyclist (
Nick Walkley) who was cycling the TPT trail raising money for the
James Watson Fund For Brass Players.
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Not quite the end of the trail for us, but it isn't really the start of the TPT for us either... Still we may as well get the photo at both ends because we will be cycling all of it... won't we?
From there we could see the rain heading in but amazingly it missed us completely. We were north of it and heading away from it thankfully – reading Nick’s blog entry he got rather wet in it! Heading out of Southport I spotted a sign I should have stopped to photo at a RSPB reserve, it was on the gate and said “Wildlife only”! From there it was onto the campsite and time to get the tent up before the rain arrived on us, which we were fortunate to manage to do. The campsite was £10 for the night for the 2 of us, has a single toilet & wash basin (hot shower going in for next season) in a summer house and a kettle in the unmanned reception area (along with tea, coffee, sugar, milk powder etc) and a book swap/50p donation area. They also have picnic benches, so Stuart is happy!
http://www.strava.com/activities/194296306/overview
Thanks again.
looking forward to your next adventure ..
