We were joined by Chris Allen (Clwyd MNDA Branch) - another accomplished cyclist being dragged down to our level today ;) Chris has done numerous bike rides for MNDA in the past and it was great to have him onboard.
Personally for me, it was an horrendous first hour or so in the saddle today, no energy whatsoever and with the wind and drizzle to compound the misery, it wasn't the greatest of mornings.
With less stops and more mileage to plough through, it was tough on the already aching legs.
Our navigational mishaps were again plentiful and after a few more 'wrong turnings' we soon found ourselves hunting for the A roads to make up form lost time - which we did by lunchtime.
The huge 'doh' moment of the day came when it emerged that Gospel has left his passport and plane tickets back at the hostel in Clun (a good hour away for the van to go and pick up!!) - this was made even funnier when he realised his passport was 2 years out of date anyhow ! - Legend........ary.
Slowly but surely we started to reach our destination points - buoyed on by some cracking renditions of MeatLoaf and Tom
Jones from our resident wannabe pop idol 'Last Up Lance'.
Until we took a wrong turning again of course !!!
GPS - get people stranded !!
The ability to know where you actually are, at any given time, cannot be underestimated - we just don't have that ability ;)
At one point we found ourselves walking through cow fields and scuttling across the 'Southern Expressway' (an extremely busy dual carriageway) in cleats carrying our bikes over the central reservation to get back 'on course' !!
We eventually arrived in the illustrious (said with utter sarcasm) town of Runcorn at 7pm - almost 11 hours out on the route !!
This evening I was delighted to meet up again with Bill King (the crazy but totally inspiring guy who runs Snowdon Marathons for fun!) Bill, his lovely family and friends Carol & Tim (who kindly hosted me during my walk last summer at Abersoch) were there to greet the riders at the bar.
So all in all, a tough tiring morning, a draining & lengthy day in the saddle followed by a pleasant evening.
Another day, another challenge and yet more adventure no doubt tomorrow. One thing you can be certain of - ill definitely be lubing up aplenty ;)
#captioncompetition
PS - Happy 20th Wedding Anniversary to Lance (one of the LEJOGers) and his lovely wife Michelle. Michelle, we've really struggled putting up with him for 6 days - god only knows what 20 years has been like for you ;)
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