Day 7 - Wigan to Kendal

Today was a very good day.  Despite initial lack of promise, starting with the kind of northern drizzle you kind of expect 'the north' to have, the weather soon cleared to lovely sunny day, not too warm, great cycling weather.  Last night I carried out a repair to my broken pannier with glue and duct tape, and (touches wood quickly) it seems to have held up, although I still kept it lightly loaded.

Confident enough in the repair, I set off on the original planned route with Nick.  This took us soon along a muddy river bank, made more muddy by the early rain, then cycle tracks through the forest with more muddy detrius and debris.  Eventually we got onto minor roads and canal paths, the latter having a very good surface for a change, among the best for a canal towpath on the whole trip, but my bike doesn't quite look like a road bike any more from the finely-sprayed and not-so-finely sprayed mud and dirt all over it.

I stayed with Nick until near the end, when the last canal tow path finally got the better of me - the surface wasn't as good as earlier in the day, we seemed to have been on it for ages with further to go, and the A6 direct into Kendal was just a few steps down the bank away.  I took to the road, as has become usual, Nick stayed on the route until the end, as usual.  I did rejoin the planned route into Kendal near the end, when the A6 became a horrible dual carriageway.  Before that it'd been fine.

The stats:
Distance cycled: 69.1 miles
Ascent: 2,466'
Distance from Lands End: 509.9 miles

We've passed the half-way point for distance, by tomorrow evening we'll be in Scotland!

Cumbria welcomes me! 

You don't get these signs on the canals.  We've crossed so many county boundaries without knowing or being able to mark the occasion.  Yesterday on a canal Nick asked which town he was in.. 'Manchester, mate' said one local with a sort of 'duh' expression on his face.  Well, you'd have thought it was big enough to realise :-)

A very dirty bike.