Pimp my kebab (shop)

You may think this self-enforced, solitary, bike ride is causing me to lose it a bit.  Especially after last night’s blog entry, which made my wife think I am losing my marbles.  I’m now half way through this trip and I cannot think the last time I have been on my own, without family, friends or people from work, for so long (other than seeing my Dad and Sue for dinner on Saturday).  And so far I am enjoying it.  Clearly I miss my family – a lot – but the change is, I think, a good thing.  You know what you are missing when you miss it.  When was the last time you spent seven days without anyone you knew at the start of those seven days?  I have another week of this; we’ll see how I feel then. 

I looked at the map this evening and it looks about half way.  The mileage on my cycling computer says 467 miles in the last week, which is probably a bit less than half way.  The first two days were relatively short because of the hills in Cornwall and Devon.  However tomorrow I’m in the Lake District, and I’ve heard they’ve got a hill or two.

Today was a (relatively) fast day, averaging 13mph.  I say relatively, some of the days this week I have averaged 11mph, but without panniers and all my kit, I’d typically do 15-16mph on a training ride, and when I pushed a fast lap of Richmond Park just before I went, on my lighter road bike, I did 19.9mph.  The speed limit is 20mph…

I started the day near Frodsham, which is not too far from Runcorn.  Runcorn is close to Liverpool.  I have never seen so many chemical plants in a day.  I crossed this old bridge…

… and then it was some pretty average roads…

… until I came across a police car where they were preparing to put out a stinger!  

Clearly I was not too far from Liverpool after all.  It is difficult to see in the picture, as the lens has a very wide angle, but there is a policeman on the left side of the road who had the stinger ready to throw it across the road to stop a getaway car.

Luckily he didn’t mistake me for a stolen getaway rider, so I passed the police and carried on to admire more chemical plants.

Finally into Warrington, which was a real navigational challenge.  From enjoying such nice scenery the last few days, I entered Warrington not expecting much, but actually really enjoyed it!  Clearly not for the beautiful scenery, but it is a city which you can see is trying to reinvent itself.

On the one hand it has back roads like you have just walked into a set of Coronation Street…

… and it has its share of old factories and mills.  But it has a whole new series of industrial estates and a science park with big companies, like O2, Carphone Warehouse, Talk Talk and HP.  I found it a pretty interesting contrast.

Over lots of motorways…

I passed on my right what at first I thought was HMS Risley, until I took another glance and it was HMP Risley, another prison.  I looked this up and it is a Category C prison, which is exactly the same as the one I saw in Dartmoor last weekend. 

I can’t help thinking that even though they are for the same category of prisoner, Dartmoor is for axe murders and Risley is for the local scallywags who left the shopkeeper’s Mondeo on bricks.

Over a canal, where amazingly you could see some fairly big fish swimming.  It may be difficult to see in this picture but I can assure you they were there!

Then past Bolton

… and back into the countryside.

Finally out of Cheshire and into Lancashire, I reached a small village called Belmont, had an ice cream and wrote some cards to my boys…

… then through some great roads with wide open scenery…

I then reached Blackburn, and went past the lock…

… and over the Wainwright Bridge, named after the author Alfred Wainwright and then through the city centre.

As I was climbing towards the outskirts, I came across a whole row of kebab shops, each trying to out-do each other to attract the passing trade.  I went past Amars Chippery, Khan’s Kebabs until I reached one which just made me laugh – The Kebabish, but with the amazing subtitle ‘The Thrill of The Grill’.  I can just imagine families weighing up whether to go for a day of thrills at Alton Towers, or staying local for the Thrill of the Grill at the Kebabish.  Wonderful.  I even stopped at the side of the road to write down these names!

  

Out of Blackburn, which was pretty poor in places, there was a marked contrast when I got to a small town called Whalley.  Even though probably only 5 miles apart, it felt like a different world.

Back into the countryside and some really great cycling, with a one big hill which took a bit of effort to get to the top.

Finally an exhilarating ride downhill to Newton-in-Bowland, where I am staying tonight at a pub.  

The landlord said his mum isn’t too well so he has to close the pub at 9pm and go to Preston to see her.  I am the only guest.  He said I could help myself to drinks at the bar – if only I didn’t have a big day tomorrow! 

Here’s a summary of today’s ride.

Tomorrow I am into the Lake District where I will head for Keswick.  I have seen the elevation profile of the ride, there are some BIG hills and it is a long day!