Tired Legs in Lancashire

7th June

47 miles

522 metres of climbing

Cumulative miles 596

We had a nice day’s cycle starting alongside Anglezarke reservoir, near where we used to go climbing years ago when we lived in Leyland.

Campsite in the early morning

Anglezarke reservoir

Rhododendrons by Anglezarke

Then some quiet roads and the Leeds Liverpool canal up to Whittle le Woods, really pretty.

On the canal

We worked our way through Cuerden Valley Park and into Preston along the old Tram Road- traffic free but with a good cycle friendly surface. The only drawback was again the barriers to prevent motorbikes- a different design to yesterday but too narrow for panniers so we had to remove all of the panniers at each barrier- slow work.

Unloading to get through the barriers

Much better design

Apart from the barriers Preston seemed a very cycle friendly town with well planned cycle ways and good signs.

We went through the middle of Preston where we had lunch in a friendly small cafe.

Lunch time

It is a nice town with some fine builings including the really good Harris Art Gallery,  and felt quite vibrant with street music, bunting and trees adorned with knitted decorations!

The Harris Gallery

Knitted tree decorations

Then back up onto the canal (pushing the bike up a ramp along steps which was hard work) Again the canal was lovely and people really appreciate these green corridors, people had built their gardens right down onto the canal, folks were fishing, sunbathing , messing about in boats or just sitting enjoying the place

Garden built down to the canal

On the canal

The final/part of the day was on quiet roads with silky tarmac but our legs were feeling the effort after yesterdays ride and we made slow progress, however with ice creams and cups of tea, we prevailed.

Sustrans sculpture

Barnacres church

Our speed has been very variable, averaging only 8 miles an hour on the hilly South West days or when there has been a lot of rough surfaces to 10mph on the smooth flat Cheshire lane where we were cycling with unladen companions. 9mph overall today.

The final stretch was alongside the River Lune on an idyllic off road track with lots of other cyclists .

We are staying tonight with Griff and Jess and their 2 beautiful cats. They have been really hospitable and it has been great catching up with them.

We are planning a couple of quite short days next, partly to visit friends in the Lakes and partly to give our legs a chance a chance to recover.