Monday 1st October 2018
Planning for my North Wales tour began when I realised that for the first time, I had the chance to cycle in each of the four UK countries in one year, having toured in England in March, Northern Ireland in June and Scotland in September. OK, I haven’t quite got to Wales just yet (but just now I’m only a mile away) and a trip is planned for tomorrow.
Cycling with Ian this time, we left Brindle in the cold (5°C!) and headed to Ormskirk for coffee then onto Crosby to see Anthony Gormley’s sculptures. A trip alongside the Liverpool docks was not as scenic as I’d wished, but necessary. I enjoyed the ferry trip across the Mersey (cue Gerry and the Pacemakers) along with the taped commentary, but the accompanying drizzle was not appreciated.
The sun came out as we cycled up to New Brighton, last visited on my first school trip back in the mid sixties – I don’t remember the place – before continuing round the Wirral coast to a late lunch in West Kirby. Some of the sand had drifted across the coastal track making access by road bike quite challenging in parts.
Our B&B is homely, and about half a mile along a dirt track, but importantly has a good shower and a comfy bed. A pizza at the local Stonehouse pub chain finished off the night.
Tuesday 2nd October 2018
Breakfast today was at a lovely cafe in the village – great start to the day. It was much warmer, but threatening rain and very windy (~18mph westerly), but as we were heading South, this wasn’t a big problem.
Struggled to get across the Dee, navigating round the urban mess that is Queensferry, but old-fashioned paper OS maps coupled with a Garmin GPS got us through. After Buckley, we took to minor lanes which were great to avoid busy roads, and also Wrexham, eventually arriving on the delightful Llangollen canal. Sadly we missed a spectacular aqueduct by <1 mile – I had never heard of it before – but the towpath was wonderful to avoid the A5/A539.
Lunch at a canalside cafe was very tasty, but perhaps a bit heavy just prior to climbing the Horseshoe pass. The rain just held off, but the weather remained overcast on the route home through more tiny lanes. One thing we didn’t expect was a sneaky 20% climb which doesn’t appear in any handbook, but deserves to.
We sussed out a better pub for tonight’s meal; it’s 1.5 miles away, and it’s forecast rain, but will be worth it to avoid the horrible place that was yesterday’s venue.
Wednesday 3rd October 2018
Today, I wanted to return from the Chester area via a different route, so I resorted to Garmin Connect to find me suitable cycle-friendly roads. I gave Garmin ONE job to do, and it failed. The roads up to Stanlow were fine, but after that, what makes cycling so pleasant (listening to birdsong and smelling the flowers) was replaced with being deafened by the cars and trucks and sniffing oil fumes as we bypassed the refinery.
Then the journey descended into farce as we struggled to navigate the roads and cycle routes through Runcorn to find our way onto the Silver Jubilee Bridge. We finally found the bridge (following along a closed bus route) only to find that it was shut to cyclists during the day, and we had to use a bus to cross over the new Mersey Gateway bridge!
On the north side of the Mersey, finding the Trans-Pennine trail was just as complicated with all the new roads being built (and closed) in the region, but we found it eventually and had a good run up to Warburton where we crossed the Ship Canal.
Then the heavy traffic started as we traversed Leigh, Westhoughton and Blackrod with no apparent easing between the towns. So what happened to the cycle-friendly roads, then Garmin? But overall, with no rain, I have to count this as a good cycling day, ending a great tour of some 210 miles.