Day 12, nearly to Warrington

Last night was memorable, I stayed at the Tudor House Hotel in Market Drayton. It is a perfectly restored Tudor building – you can even see the wattle and daub walls through a glass panel. Best of all, my bike had a safe place indoors and in my pretty bedroom there were lots of delicious shortbreads to snack on. It’s run by Katie Stevens, a super woman who manages to run the place single handed. If you are going to Market Drayton don’t miss this place!

After my impeccable English Breakfast (which even included porridge) I tore myself away and up the sunlit road (away from heavy traffic), looking forward to meeting up with Pascal for another day of cycling together. He was there, just in time to rescue me for the Garmin was accusing me of being off-route – and had in fact crashed entirely ten minutes earlier. When I am on my own I have to just get out a map (actually pages torn from a motoring atlas) along with my trusty compass – but it’s a lot easier to use than a sat nav!

Pascal had planned a route popular with cyclists, so we soon met up with another group travelling up to John O’Groats. It’s such a thrill when that happens, and I’d like to promotes their cause as well. (In this case, it is team Kenny Gallagher, raising money for Macmillan)

We were quite hungry by the time we reached Hartford, and we thought that The Hart looked tempting. I found the smashed avocado with caramelised nuts to be imaginative and tasty – and especially the enormous chips which I have nominated for my personal best chip of the trip award.

Shortly after lunch, our route was blocked by roadworks – but they’d been very considerate and left enough space for pedestrians and cyclists to squeeze by. One of the workers was also a cyclist, and we spent a few minutes comparing adventures.

After negotiating the roadworks we also made a detour to see the Anderton Boat Lift, which is an alternative to a long flight of locks. Finally into a services just outside Warrington (where I’m staying at a very budget hotel) and goodbye to Pascal until we meet once more in Scotland.