Day 22 - Warrington to Garstang
Quick facts:
Weather: Cloudy with showers H20 L14 Humidity 88% at 6 am Winds SE 10 kph
Planned distance: 53.6 mi 85.7 km
Planned ascent: 853 ft
Planned descent: 827 ft of
Departure: private home in Warrington
Destination: The Best Western Preston Garstang Country Hotel and Golf Course, Bowgreave Drive.
Route: photo from Ride With GPS
See the Strava section for Ralph’s ride details
Good morning/Good day
Ralph had slept at a Warmshowers home hosted by Milton who lived on the Manchester Ship Canal. He joined is at Kate’s for breakfast at 7:30. Kate’s brother James also dropped in. Another opportunity for Jon and Anisa to visit with family.
Ralph, Jon Wright and I left Kate’s warm home around nine leaving Anisa, Kate and her daughter Bobbie, and Kate’s brother James to wave goodbye.
Our ride planning today should include a lunch in the middle of the day at the top of “the hill” showing on the ride profile. Anisa with the car “Aubergine” will find us somewhere.
Our route included a brief section on the Pennine Way. This is a route/walking path I was on partly when I walked Wainwright’s Coast to Coast in May 2022. It will be a few days farther north before we bisect my actual walking route.
Our first stop was at D&M Cycles in Warrington where Phil lent us his pump to add air. My front tire had a leak around the stem in Cheddar. I am relying on the slime in the tubeless tire to do its majic and seal the gap. So far it is working “ok” but at 40psi this morning you can see my concern. We carry a tiny carbon fibre pump….but Phil’s Joe Blow is much better.
River Mersey
We had passed over the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey and quickly joined the fabulous Sankey Canal Trail along the Sankey Canal which was a beautiful paved route along a wide river - by English standards.
We also enjoyed the path along the Leeds Liverpool Canal and unbelieveably climbed up a significant hill in a cool forest to join another canal. Jon couldn’t believe it. This was significant because we were meeting Anisa at the Marina Cafe at mile 22…. so climbing a hill in a forest was worrisome. Spoiler alert. There was another canal at this high level and Anisa was there. We take full advantage of Google location sharing so being “lost” is never exactly the accurate term. We just aren’t where we are supposed to be. That’s different!
The following may seem a pointless digression but bear with me…
I walked across Britain in May 2022 on Wainwright’s Coast to Coast path. It was fabulous and I recommend it to all who like that sort of thing. I opened and shut all sorts of gates including “kissing gates” that you go into, swing the gate around you and walk out. Well….these canal trails had “kissing gates”. Lots of them. The first one that didn’t fit the bikes easily, we just lifted them over.. second set we did the same thing.
A cyclist came along, put his bike into the kissing gate, backed his rear wheel into a slot we hadn’t noticed on the far side, swung the kissing gate around and was off and pedalling!
Not long after, while we were still assessing this new information, Albert of Banfulong showed us how it is done!
Thank you Albert.
Jon found Anisa at the Marina Cafe and I had a substantial lunch of homemade soup and a full meal as my poncho protected my various cords and battery packs powering up my helmet lights, Garmin and iPhone.
The towns are quaint and always have an older green and historic downtown with chirches and a clock tower somewhere. Chorley is no exception.
Preston -Ashton on the River Ribble. The Ribble is a significant tidal river entering the Irish Sea just south of Blackpool.
We followed the main “A” highway out of Preston where there was considerable construction. It had a good cyclepath alongside. Essentially everywhere cyclists are required to go through construction, there is a designated diversion, often taking a good part of a traffic lane and having a protective barrier between us and the road. In this case we were on a stone path the construction company had created over the site.
Back to the norm on these routes that Raph has created
Canal bridge at Wigan
Part of the route we followed today
Was the NCN Regional Route 90: Lancashire Cycleway
We arrived at the Best Western Garstang Country Hotel and Golf Course at about 7 pm just as the light was making the greens of the golf course picture perfect as the sun was setting.
Anisa had found an Italian restaurant in Garstang for supper. We had cycled past it and agreed it looked lovely. We showered and changed, piled into Aunergine and headed over. We were correct. It is an excellent restaurant. Everyone else in town knew that too and we didn’t have a reservation .
There were lots of eating choices in the plaza so where does one go for supper in England? To the Chippy! They are ALL the world’s best so how can you lose.
The shop served something called a Yorkshire fish cake. I asked what it was and it was described as a fillet of white fish between two scallops of potatoe, battered and deep fried. Interesting. I tried it and mine was very good.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped for our final photos as the mist descended on the fields around Garstang Preston.
A lovely end to another nice cycling day.
Safe travels
Lorraine