LEJOG day 8

Tracy's blog 

Today's route to Ingleton was hilly. In fact the biggest height gain of the trip so far. Originally Dan's route involved climbing 6200 feet over 78 miles. In particular there was a massive climb at the end of the day. Bearing in mind that in Cornwall the most we had climbed was 4843 feet on the first day, (and that was brutal,) I looked at him in horror over dinner last night when we discussed today's route. In the end, he took pity on me and changed the route to remove the big hill,  expecting the detour to add a fair few miles. In the end the distance was the same but the elevation about 650 feet less, which just goes to show that Dan is clearly trying to torture me with unnecessary big hills. 

Dan says "I had given Tracy some advice about tackling hills, lowest gear, just keep your legs spinning. She religiously followed this on every hill. It was meant for Hills with a capital H, not hills with a capital mole" Tracy is so slow on hills. I often read a chapter of my book whilst waiting at the top for her."

So, expecting a long day,  we hit the road at 6am and weaved our way out of Warrington, through Setley valley park and  onto it mostly cycle paths and a canal tow path, which was hassle free. 

Leaving Warrington 

We stuck to roads for the first couple of hours which remained firmly an urban sprawl, snaking our way through various towns and villages nestled between Manchester and Liverpool. Having crossed over the numerous motorways in this part of the world about 57 times (ok slight exaggeration) we found our cake stop at 22 miles in, at the M6 services near Chorley, with our route skirting around the back. We received many a strange glance from people at the services, no doubt wondering how a couple of cyclists managed to get to motorway services. Isn't motorway cycling illegal? 

The cake at Starbucks was so yummy, we both ended up having 2 different types. Caramel white chocolate blondie and a hazelnut cream brookie (both a brownie and a cookie). Read on to discover which wins my cake of the day! 

The scenery got a lot more interesting after that as we meandered through the Yorkshire countryside with plenty of ups and downs to contend with. You might have spotted that my blogs are short on route details compared to Dan's. That's because frankly I have no idea where I am cycling, I just rely on Dan to tell me which way to go.

We met our first fellows LEJOGgers at Whalley. They left a day later than us and are due to finish on the 12th. Same day as us. They were on road bikes with a support vehicle, so carrying no kit. We felt a little smug.

Lunch at Whalley 

Continuing on our route, it was generally cooler, we had a tail wind and the scenery was gorgeous. A great day to be on a bike.

The feral giant gingerbread men of the Yorkshire dales

Waterfall at Clapham

I do recall some funny place names along the route. Onwards through Tosside, Wigglesworth, Giggleswick and Lower Tittering (only one of those places was made up).

Ice-cream stop at Austwick

Despite Dan's derogatory comments about my climbing ability, there was no getting off to push and I managed to ascend two hills with the chevron marks for steepness. 

I summit a 14% hill. Dan finished his book.

We arrived at our pre-booked inn at 5pm. We had noticed that the pub itself was closed on a Monday, but figured it would be ok and someone would be ready to meet us. We were wrong. Everything shut up, no answer to knocking on the door or multiple phone calls. After 30 mins sat in the carpark and it starting to rain, we looked for alternative accommodation. We managed to get a room at the Youth hostel 3 mins down the road, which provided a friendly welcome and was cheaper anyway! Crisis averted. 

After a rest, shower and change of clothes, we headed into Ingleton in search of food. We went to La Tavernetta, a tiny Italian restaurant where we made sure to spend the money that we saved on accommodation by ordering dessert. That was always going to happen as Dan has a thing about Tiramisu!

Another good day in the saddle and feeling chuffed with myself. Looking forward to seeing Louise, a friend from university tomorrow. Our route passes straight through her village.

Distance travelled: 78 miles

Elevation: 5557ft (biggest so far)

Cake of the day: caramel white chocolate blondie

Tracy whinge factor: 1/10 (a solitary moan about a sore bottom)

Total distance: 545 miles (over half way. Yay!)