I woke to a cool morning, with lots of condensation in the
tent – evidently it had been a cold night with little cloud cover – fortunately
I hadn’t noticed at all, tucked up all warm in my tent. I was keen to get going
this morning as I knew that I would see my wife at the end of the days’ ride!
Friends of ours; Claire and Eug had suggested some time ago the idea of the
three of them coming to meet me somewhere on my trip. We’d originally decided
we’d meet in the Welsh town of Welshpool, but due to my falling behind the
schedule we’d had to re-think the plans. I’d managed to put in two long mileage
days and so was potentially only a full day behind the original schedule, and
we agreed to meet in Chester, or just outside the town at a nearby campsite.
The days’ riding was nice and flat, although quite built up
and industrialised; with towns blending into one another and lots of business and
retail parks – with the ensuing traffic too! Still, the people I met were among
the friendliest! I was cycling through the town of Preston when at a set of
traffic lights I was aware of a young guy leaning out of the passenger window
of a small car – back home I would instantly think it would be someone about to
try and push me from my bike, (and I’m from sleepy Cambridge) but this trip has
taught me that 99 out of a hundred times, people are friendly and nice. Anyway,
this young guy was clearly in the car with his dad, and the two of them were
enthusiastically asking questions about my trip and the charities I was raising
money for (the custom designed cycling jersey I was wearing was a help here)
and as the lights turned green they leaned out of the car, shook my hand and
gave me a handful of coins to go towards my charities! I was utterly
flabbergasted, and genuinely don’t think you would get the same reaction in the
South, or the South East/East Anglia!
Later, as I was cycling along another fairly busy road I
became aware of a cyclist behind me – usually fellow cyclists zoom straight
past with just a nod or quick hello – but this chap came alongside me, and
stayed there. We got chatting, again about my trip and experiences along the
way, and he told me of his own recent charitable cycling trip to the Himalaya –
sounded like extraordinary stuff! We cycled alongside each other for about 5
miles, before we stopped and had ice-creams and coffee at a café he
recommended. It was so lovely to have the time to chat and stop with this guy,
to learn something of his life, and that of his family too.
Break over and back to the pedals though and I was soon
making good progress towards Warrington, through more built up areas, but that
was fine as the road was level and I had somewhere to be!
From Warrington onwards the wind picked up, as did the
gradient – but not by much and I managed to reach Chester in time for rush
hour. Chester itself looked to be a nice town, although I can’t say that I saw
any of the cast of Hollyoaks! I didn’t have far to go now, but in my haste to
reach the campsite I managed to take a wrong turn, winding up on a very busy
duel carriageway and heading towards Wrexham! After a few miles I was sure I’d
made a wrong turn – it’s funny but sometimes whilst you know you’ve made a
mistake, you keep going in the hope that you’re instincts are wrong – they rarely
are though, or at least that was my experience! I managed to get across four
lanes of heavy traffic without being squashed, and made my way back towards the
campsite, where Alice and our friends Claire and Eug were ready and set up to
meet me. Showered and clean, I was ready to be reunited with my wife after over
a week apart - the longest we’d been apart since living together. The four of
us went for a lovely meal in a local pub (certainly the nicest food I’d had in
a while!), and a couple of Guinness’ later it was time for sleep! Sleep that wasn't on the thinnest Thermarest on the market was soooo good, as was sleeping next to my beautiful wife :)
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