Typing this in morning of day 12 and reflecting on yesterday.
Yesterday our forecast wasn't good but we managed to arrive a really short day and avoid all the rain, so that was good but we got a little wet when we went into a Greek restaurant for dinner.
The day was really short about 3.5 hrs of easy riding and generally pretty un memorable compared to most days and we were told by the Tour company earlier that we may feel like that.
We road a lot of roads that were relatively busy and faster than we had in the past and drivers were more impatient and faster. had one close call by a camper van at a stop where we were turning right and the driver came thru on my left very very close to my handle bars that made me think an expletive.
This was one of the better parts of the day as we arrived into a canal at Lancaster
My room at Wigan, we stayed at a spa and country club hotel out of wigan, loads of space as is the hotel am staying at today
The Route for day 11 is short at 64km and also flat , koomot software is always short on ascent by 20 % mainly but still not a lot of ascents
WE found a comfortable chair to "do our warm up". Actually I have been very disciplined and stretched every day for about 3 odd minutes and can now comfortable touch the ground bent over.
Gwen giving us the briefing for the day where weather forecast was dominating our thoughts but wasn't rain, cool but not raining
The board with todays information
Again another photo at briefing
Arriving at Morning tea- Nick gave my bike some Oil as it had developed a squeak and was driving him spare. He is really helpful and it worked !
Bit of action at morning tea as Fire engine blasts past
Typical village houses
Big road verge to bike on here. Wasn't the great day but had plenty of room here on this part of the road
Leaving Morning tea village
I like these paths and was a rarity today
Into another village, this is again very typical view
Under a motorway bridge
View as we approach Preston, Unusual landscape. Bit Jetson like.
In a lovely Park in Preston and we are all together. Left to right, Nick, Me, Dorothy, Caroline, Suzanne, and her husband Crawford. Gwen our leader took the pic.
Japanese Garden just beside the path through the park as we ride into Preston
The River ribble and its name gave us many jokes from Nick as the word "ribble" and similar words that had us in stitches
Locks on the side of Ribble River Bridge
One side of the Ribble Bridge
Canal as we approached centre of Lancaster, after passing thru Lancaster university campus which was very impressive for a modern university campus
Another view on Lancaster canal
My over shoe covers arrived . Gwen and Andy when out of there way to help us. Including hunting these for 3 of us and picking up from an Amazon lockup and paying for them . We are so lucky. We of course reimbursed them but with forecast I am very appreciative. We are so fortunate to have them as our tour leader. Both retired Police Detectives of 20 years and both 55 and in their third careers in"retirement". they are actually trained now as alpine guides and have heaps of work around Europe and afield.
Oh Crawford took this one evening day 2 ,I think, as we prepared for dinner.
The ability to relax is an art.
I said I was researching 😀
Had a couple of catch ups with Lee -Anne today as she started her tour of Scotland. one first thing and one after both our dinners. She went to the famous world heritage site of new Lanark in morning from Glasgow. She had sore throat so made talking hard but was slightly better in the evening.
Now she's on the Island of Arran off Scottish west coast and has a safari for fridayvso that will be interesting. Was nice to catch up and looking forward to seeing her soon as she may come up to see me when we arrive at Fort William in Scotland about a week away.
Weather forecast for today Day 12 , better than it was. Next 2 weeks not great but we will see. Wet on ground outside, overcast but not raining as I look outside of my rooms window
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