1829
hours - Text Message from Lynne
Got off the hills about half an hour ago. Cycled over
80 miles and close to Scafell. Doing Scafell tomorrow
as we are ahead. Staying on ship with Rory tonight. Blog
to follow after food and shower! xx
BLOG
Bag Puss over slept! Well maybe not so much overslept
as he was 3rd to reach the kitchen today…conveniently
after Mike and Geordie had almost finished the breakfast…and
then Lynne surfaced with a big smile on her face and walking
a little oddly? What had they been doing all night?
A pleasant sociable breakfast
was shared by all at Gwa’s
patisserie before loading the battle bus for the return trip
to Ormskirk (have you looked it up yet!). The weather
today…well at the start anyway was…damp. As
we pulled into the start lay by as if by magic Mr Collins
esq began to serenade us with “another day in paradise” How
very fitting. Geordie saw the funny side of it anyway. Lynne
on the other hand was desperately trying to put her waterproof
overshoes on, as well as her newly washed and newly waterproofed
tissue paper coat and of course her glasses! Then it
was off…into the rain for another day on the saddle.
Mike and Glenn then set
off on their daily quest to locate a MacDonald’s for breakfast. You’ll be
amused to hear that they failed! No breakfast today! Instead
we settled for a French cake and some biscuits with Lynne
and Geordie at a closed down pub in Garstang. And round
about now the team got an early indication of today’s
speed and likely end point. We suspected it may be
a little way past Lancaster as intended so Mike and Glenn
got their next task…find alternative accommodation! After
a much needed tea G & L were back on the saddle and I
have to say were in high spirits…and rightly so. To
put all this into perspective the time round about now was
1115 and we were only 10 miles short of Lancaster…our
overnight stop! Can you guess where we ended up yet?
Now whilst Lynne and
Geordie peddled off towards the North Mike and Glenn set
off for the fire station. You’d
think finding a fire station in the middle of a little town
like Lancaster would be easy wouldn’t you. Especially
for two grown adults armed with 4 maps and a Tom Tom! Oh
no…three trips round the town centre and 1 traffic
infringement is what it actually took! But we got there. Then
came the challenge of getting in! Glenn was sure we’d
find the rear yard to be full of strapping firemen busily
playing volley ball…so off we set round the side in
search of the sports court only to be disappointed by the
intervention of Health and Safety law which apparently put
pay to all ball sports except snooker! Can you believe
it! Still we were not entirely disappointed, “blue
watch” were busy doing the next best thing…you
guessed it…eating lunch and watching the Para Olympics
on their 40 inch plasma screen! We met Mark,
the Station Officer, who was very accommodating and fed us
tea and information and in fact very kindly offered us an
upgrade from Lancaster Fire Station to the newly built Morecombe
Palace (Fire Station), where we could have our own suite! We
very gratefully accepted his kind offer but did say we may
get a little ahead of ourselves and would call him back…(see
a little later).
After the trauma of our
trip to the fire station we decided to change navigators
and set off again to find Lynne and Geordie. At the rate they were going when we left them
we decided to head up the M6 towards Fort William! But
somewhere along the way they hit a snag and only got as far
as Heversham so we dutifully leap frogged ahead of them to
a very nice pub (The Blue Bell Inn) and set up for lunch. Two
bowls of chips and four cups of tea was the order of the
day. It was now that we hatched our cunning plan. We
handed the phone to Mr subtle himself and made the call: “Hello
Rory, how you doin! We were in the neighbourhood and….” A
few moments later we were canceling our Morecombe Palace
reservations in place of a couple of “outside cabins” aboard
the HMS Broxham, courtesy of Admiral Rory! Round about
now Mike was beginning to look a little pale. After
surviving a night intact at Gwa’s B&B he now had
to face the prospect of a night aboard ship with Seamen Stains,
Master Bates and Geordie, who dutifully offered to show Mike
the golden rivet!
Enough about lunch…We
now had a plan which necessitated a lot of hard work from
the cyclists as we were now pushing well beyond the planned
mileage for the day. The clouds
broke, The sun was out, Seb was dutifully stuffed into Geordie's
man bag and off the three of them went. Mike and Glenn
then took a trip into Kendall to acquire some cream for Geordie
(hang on…why is it when there is mention of a ship
Geordie orders up more cream?). Of course while we
were there a freshly ground coffee was in order. With
the absolute necessity of a few tons of Kendall Mint Cake…mmmmmmmm…Kendall
mint cake…ahhhhhhhhh!
Now back to find the
dynamic duo. How far would they
have got? We traveled West from Kendall and off down
the A590 in search of the tell tale signs of a yellow coat
desperately trying to keep up with flash himself! Finally
we got them…just short of Kirkby Moor and thank heavens
we did! They were lost! Oh yes…there is
one road…one blasted road between Kendall and where
they were going. They were on it…and they were
lost! Once we had reintroduced them to this simple
fact they became more aware of there general geographic position
and continued Westward towards Broughton. One final
hill and it would all be over for the day. Well…in
a car I must confess it was a rather pleasant and uplifting
experience with the wind gently blowing through our hair
as we adjusted the temperature from mild sauna to comfortable
tropical beach. I believe it may have been a slightly
different experience for Geordie and Lynne. I’ll
confirm this when she starts talking to me again!
Anyway…5.30 pm and it was all over. Are you
ready for this…They got a whole 43 miles ahead of
where they should have been! Huge hugs all round and
two very happy cyclists dismounted into the comfort of our
Galaxy for the trip back to Barrow to our “alternative” accommodation.
Now when I said HMS Broxham
a little earlier I really was not lying. As we neared Barrow town centre (well it
is more of a cross roads with a pillar box than a town centre)
Lynne made the call for final directions. Paraphrased
they were…”follow the road towards the port
and you will see 3 type 4 Naval Frigates with full weaponry
geared up and ready to sail. Flash your headlights
3 times and then indicate to the left whilst turning right. The
guard will open the gates and you will have 30 seconds to
pass through before proactive defensive measures will be
deployed”!...or words to that effect. Ok I may
have exaggerated a little but seriously peeps…we are
staying on a war ship! Pictures are attached!
We dutifully attended
the captain mess at 2000 hours and enjoyed a full Chinese
banquet with appropriate liquid accompaniment followed
by a tour of the ship…armory, bridge, engine
room, prayer room (oh yes it has one of those), Captain's
quarters and much more. During this time we became
humbly aware that we were in the presence of a nautical god! Seriously
Poseidon has nothing on “AR” (Admiral Rory). We
had lectures on Knots and Chains, Fathoms and Leagues, Cables
and Rivets (oh yes…what he does not know about rivets). Glenn
quickly realised that power oozed from Rory’s every
pore. He only had to think and 100 men in crisp white
bell bottoms lined up to meet his every wish. What’s
worrying me is the faint hum of “we want you, we want
you, we want you as thee new recruit” echoing through
the ship! Geordie has now gone off to polish the golden rivet
so it is gleaming when he takes me to see it?
More on the ship tomorrow
I expect as it is getting late and we has lost Glenn? He went for a shower ½ an
hour ago and no one can find him now?
So to round up the day
all we can say is a HUGE well done to Geordie and Lynne. 43 miles ahead of schedule and
now the plans are to climb the hill tomorrow…leaving
us one day ahead. There is method in this because when
we achieve that tomorrow it will leave them two 80 mile rides
instead of a 104 mile ride on one of the days.
So I’ll leave you with the facts of the day whilst
I prepare for my “special tour”???
Top cycling speed = 85.8
miles per hour?? (That’s
what the Speedo says!)
Miles cycled today= 83.6
Total miles cycled = 175.9
Traffic law infringements = 1
Eddies Spotted = 1 (Shaina)
Quote of the day:
From Lynne – “My overshoes are great; even though
they are wet…they keep me dry”
Word of the Day
“Rivet!”
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