Where camping is fun for disabled and able-bodied together

None of us can quite believe that we have come half way (in terms of days at least) and that 7 more days of riding might just deliver us to John O'Groats. We are currently sitting in a Cumbrian pub contemplating our journey so far so I apologise in advance if the local ale makes this blog somewhat philosophical.

We had a good day with regards northern progress but we all agree that the riding and the scenery has been the most uninspiring yet.

Mike lead us from his house to the ferry (across the Mersey!) Which was about 10 miles around the northern shore of the Wirral. His assurance that it was a good bike path was absolutely correct....for Mike on his full suspension mountain bike. Not being a road biker he didn't appreciate that our bikes are not really suited to gravel paths and sand dunes (imagine taking a Porsche 911 on a Landrover off road course) so after a couple of miles I swapped bikes with him. His bike was like riding a sofa and a lot more fun!

The ride across to Liverpool was uneventful right up until the point when we were docking when the tanoy played a minute burst of "Ferry Cross the Mersey" which I found highly amusing but which must drive the regular commuters mad. There was a cold north westerly wind for us to ride in to as we made our way through the very grim docks area. Although largely run down the docks still assailed us with a variety of nasty smells from the range of industries still active. We were relived to leave the docks behind and head out into the countryside where the wind was free to blow the no doubt carcinogenic dust from our skins...

In the name of supporting sustainable transport, we decided to take a handy Sustrans route up to Southport. However, after a few hundred metres of tarmac, this became a rocky, graveled path which for the second time made us wish we had brought mountain bikes with big fat tyres. Fearing wrecked bikes we dropped off this route onto a nearby B road and headed straight for the buzzing metropolis of Preston.

I accidentally hit send instead of save when my pudding arrived. So here is the rest of my blog for day 7 -Craig

Preston turned out to be worse than expected with grid locked traffic and poor quality roads. We made reasonable time through town (Its a City but Lord knows why! least you were not born there - James) as we were able to fliter through the traffic but the sprawl seemed to go on for miles. Our low opinion of the place was backed up by our support driver Mark when he finally caught up with us with rather belated lunch supplies. By the time he had fought his way through the traffic we were on the outskirts of Lancaster and were completely knackered from the last 20 miles of fast pace riding.

Having stuffed some highly sophisticated sports nutrition down our necks (pasties and iced buns) we decided to push on north of Lancaster to bite into tomorrows miles and to try to find a more rural setting for the over night stop. We made good time to a camp ground north of Carnforth on the A6 and were welcomed by a light shower and a rainbow. Even though the camp site doesn't normally take campers, when they heard of our trip and the Woodlarks charity, they kindly allowed us to camp for free. So well done to the Fell End Caravan Park (A very good campsite that I have stayed at myself - James) and their awesome hot showers which revived me for the walk to the pub!

Dinner consisted of good English fare and a couple of pints of real ale whilst watching England get stuffed by the Springbocks in the rugby. By the time pudding had been consumed we were all ready to crash. On paying the bill the landlord gave us £10 towards our fundraising efforts so I said I would mention his pub in the blog. Hooray for the Kings Arms at Hale on the A6!

Yet another quick get away planned for the morning but this time we have a cunning plan. We will have a light breakfast at camp followed by a more substantial feed an hours cycling away in Kendal. We are working on the assumption that the thought of a real caf breakfast will get us out of the camp site in under 2 hours. We'll see about that...

Craig