Day 7 - 30.05.09 Marford to Slaidburn (Lancashire)

Distance : 102 miles
Average Speed : 11 mph
Total Time : 15 hours !!

Today turned out to be a bit of an epic - one which I am glad is now over! We knew today would be a hard day and it was listed as being around 80 miles. However, we were staying south of Chester which added on a few extra miles and somewhere along the way we managed to add a few more. The day started well, setting off at just gone 8am on another hot day and with fairly flat roads we made good progress by lunch time. The route then became much more complicated and we were cycling through some pretty built up areas around Manchester and Preston with lots of traffic and round abouts. Time was ticking by and our legs were getting tired, by about 6 we had only just managed to navigate past Chorley, a few hours later and the route started getting hilly again. It became apparent that we were not going to reach the youth hostel in time for dinner, so we just had some chips at the side of the road and felt sorry for ourselves! The route then left the towns behind and headed off up into the hills of the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire - night was falling! A few more hours passed and we were getting worried that we would miss the last check in time at the hostel at half ten. We gave them a call and the warden said she would stay up for us! At this point it was dark so we had fitted the lights to the bikes and navigated along the dark country lanes hoping there were no potholes lurking. As we cycled up yet another impossibly steep hill in the pitch black we both agreed we were deserving of the sponsorship money. When finally we made it to the hostel at about 11.15pm - I have never been so glad to get into a bunk bed !!