Day 7 - Cabus to Prees - Urban sprawl

Distance - 83 miles
Total distance - 598 miles
Average speed - 11.6 mph
Maximum speed - 31.6 mph
Time - 7 hrs 9 mins

The day started with a panic, at least on my part. Every night we camp we lock the bikes together outside the temt. This morning my bike was locked to Jonny's and I couldn't find the key to my lock. After a 15 minute search, which culminated in emptying the entire contents of my panniers, I located my one remaining key (I have already lost the other!) and the panic was over. For breakfast we pulled over at a nearby food van and loaded up on bacon and egg butties. Fuelled with these, we made very quick progress initially, soon making it to Preston and onwards to Wigan. It was a little busy on the road at times, the road mainly being the A6, but again nothing to obscene.

After plugging along the A6, then the A49, for a little longer we made it to Warrington, via Wigan. In Warrington, after our good progress, we had an extended lunch break. This involved rather a lot of faffing about as we hunted for a place to stay this evening. As the boys went to the tourist information office I managed to get into a rather entertaining chat with a couple of butchers. As you do in Warrington. If honest, I didn't understand all that they said, but they were nice chaps nonetheless.

After Warrington, the air became cleaner and the countryside prettier. In other words we were leaving the North. The road became a little more undulating and the pace dropped a bit. With the urban sprawl of northeast England behind us we centered down to Shropshire, finding a campsite in Prees. It's getting chilly so to the tent I should go.

Before I leave though, for those interested, I have seen some average sporting stadia so far. The exception was Celtic Park. However, other 'highlights' have included the Inverness Caledonian Thistle stadium, Deepdale, The Halliwell Jones stadium (that may require some research) and, not forgetting, the home of Wick FC.

Night.