Where camping is fun for disabled and able-bodied together

The planned early start went the way of every other planned early start to date, this time to a self perpetuating circle of faff! In our defence, the WAGS were leaving us this morning so no one was really in a hurry to get away. Mind you, the fact that the van hire company kept ringing me every time we were about to go just dragged out the goodbye.

We got half a mile from the campsite when Ben announced that he was hungry which was impressive even by his standards! He had to wait until we got to Whitchurch 10 miles away before we raided the bakers shop for supplies.

The road to Chester was pretty straight forward (only one navigation error!) But we passed the town via the ring road with some impressive sprints to get us into the correct lanes of dual carriageways for right hand roundabout turns. Not as bad as it sounds as most of the traffic was not going very fast but its best not to hang about in such situations!

The route up to our overnight stop was long, straight and flat so we formed our mini peleton and, taking turns to lead, blazed the trail up the Wirral at a pretty consistent 20mph. A quick stop 8 miles out when both myself and Ben started to feel knackered allowed us to get some dried fruit and bagels (tastes better than it sounds when hungry) down our necks. We arrived at Mike and Lyns at around 3.30pm.

After loafing around the garden for a while drinking tea, we got some laundry on and started drying and sorting kit. This was our first night at a real house for nearly a week so it was good that we arrived early. A lovely new shower (installation completed especially for our visit much to Lyn's annoyance after waiting for it for months) and dinner cooked for us. I have spent the evening trying to get my head around why anyone would want 400 + tv channels when almost every one of them seemed to be showing American cops or 80's repeats. Grumpy old man status confirmed I guess...!

Tomorrow Mike is going to ride with us to the ferry over to Liverpool and I have been warned not to sing ferry cross the Mersey in a scouse accent! Then its along the coast to Preston and on up to Lancaster while Mark goes to Haydock to exchange the van for.....wait for it....the old 6 seater which broke down at the start of the trip! TLS are so desperate to get rid of it that they have fixed the engine and are having it transported from Cornwall to Liverpool just for us. On the up side, it is the only vehicle so far that will solve all our logistical issues. However, it has caused me so much personal stress on this trip that if it breaks down again I might just sink it in a Scottish bog and pretend its been stolen!

I think that from tomorrow we are officially "up north" which is pretty exciting given that we've cycled the whole way. Still a bloody long way to go though...

Craig