Day 6

Saturday 9th August 2008

Wrexham to Lancaster

All week long the weather forecast had predicted a really wet and windy day on Saturday and they were right! It started raining within minutes of us starting and did not stop all day. One really good thing in our favour was that the wind was behind us.

We absolutely flew along with Ness and Ian leading the charge. We were through Chester and on the way to Liverpool in no time at all, unlike the support vehicle which had a nasty looking nail in a rear tyre. The bikers got to Birkenhead well ahead of the support who were having their tyre inspected by a fitter called Nick from, of all places, Tavistock----see notes from Day 2. The kindly garage owner didn't charge for the attention. The plan was to take the ferry across the Mersey as none of us had done it before. When we got to the terminal and found that we had to wait 50mins for the next boat whereas we could have taken the train under the river and save 30mins. As the bikes are wider than a train and longer than the lift to the underground railway we decided to have another mars bar and wait for the boat. The only really disadvantage to this was how cold we got. The river was surprisingly rough and flowing very fast. Once on board we all had a cup of tea (except Gill who was driving the van through the narrowest tunnel she had every driven through in her life) and enjoyed the view as the tannoy system told us all about Liverpool (European city of culture 2008)!!.

As we landed the system blasted out the old song Ferry across the Mersey which to the discomfort to the other passengers we all joined in with.

Back onto our bikes, cold, wet and stiff and with the best part of 60 miles to go it was not much fun.

Our next stop was to meet up with Doreen and Jim Jackson (Ness’s In-laws) in Magull. We were reluctant to stop as we were so cold and so far away from our destination. However we did stop and the hot food inside us made us feel much better.

On the road again we made fantastic progress with the wind at our backs and the next time we stopped was about 30 miles later about mid way between Preston and Lancaster. This was in the semi dry of a make shift tent between the van and the Lancaster county council sign post (sign was missing). After a cup of tea and another mars bar we were off to complete our day at about 4pm.

After showering and drying out we were arrived to hear a bang from inside the guest house but in the direction of the bikes!! IT WAS A FULL ON BLOWOUT of the real wheel. After spending another ½ hour replacing the wheel we had again to get dry and clean ready for meeting our guests for the evening.

We were joined by Marie, Jeff and Linda. Using Tom Tom to find the local J.D. Wetherspoon pub we proceeded to down the customary 3 pints and replenish the protein and carbohydrates ready for retiring to see if we could get a good nights sleep ready for the longest and possibly the hardest day of the trip so far.


Distance: 85.56 miles

Riding Time: 6 hours 7 mins

Weather Rain!!!!!

Total Mileage - 448 miles

Beer of the day - Clark's Westgate Gold

Overnight at - Lancaster Town House