DAY 5

Left Chester YHA (not as pleasant as Loch Ness and JOG YHAs) at 7:45, suprisingly felt quite sprightly this morning, had a potter along the river taking a couple of photos before setting off for Whitchurh. Not much wind this morning and made quite good progress but then it started raining so I was tempted by a lock side cafe on the Shropshire Union canal at 9:15. Lovely carrot cake with cream and cappuchino, if it carries on raining I might have another one!
Internet access in the Cafe so thought I'd catch up with things, looks like the weather should be brighter later, nice big sun on the BBC site for 13:00 in Shrewsbury.
Yesterday was a bit tougher, seemed like a headwind most of the way, my maximum speed was only 35mph which considering that included coming down from Shap shows how much effect the wind had. The weather wasn't too bad until near Wigan when it started raining, so St Helens, Widnes and Runcorn didn't look at their best. Runcorn seems like an odd place all these flyovers and expressways off the Runcorn Bridge and no signposts of any use. Eventually I popped out of the maze onto the A56 to Chester.
The day before was good most of it was on the old A74 (replaced now with the M74) that is now really quiet and in places one carriageway of the old dual carriageway has been converted into a cycle lane. A couple of heavy showers in the morning but after 2 bacon rolls for lunch in Moffat the sun came out for a lovely afternoon. I took a couple of diversions as I got closer to Carlisle and came across a "Devils Porridge Exhibition" in Earlsrigg near Gretna. This was about the 1st world war munitions factory built here in 1915 where 30,000 people worked on a site 9 miles long!
Got to Carlisle in time to get to Palace Cycles and get a new cycle computer but I left my helmet in the bike shop and only realised the next morning when I was nearly in Penrith. So I bought a new helmet in Kendal and now have a spare one in Carlisle just in case I ever need it! Thanks to Alison for looking after and feeding me so well in Carlisle and for the donation.
Rain is even heavier now so perhaps I'll go and get some more cake.
Sorry Meg but the camera on your phone seems to have stopped working (we'll have to send it back) so no photos at the moment.