Day 6 done: Clun to Chester

Apologies for the late posting, to be fair to Paul it was a dead battery that caused the dalay!


Sorry for the delay in posting day 6, while a perfect cycling day it was a relatively slow news day.

We said goodbye to the lovely Clun, cycling past the castle and straight into the Shropshire hills...great!    Thankfully the ride ahead looked good and the weather fine, the only thing missing was the usual morning chorus of birds but instead we where heralded out of Clun by the unforgettable sound of the the incredible greater belching Shropshire sheep! Anyway, while the start of the day was painful, for much of the rest of the day we had a relatively easy ride through Shropshire and into Cheshire, with the odd excursion into Wales. This was the perfect antidote for yesterdays marathon ride, and the mere 70 miles no longer held any fear for us, although the Lake district and then the highlands are still looming!

Andy has definitely warmed to his navigational responsibilities and did a fine job today, the only concern was another closed road, which we decided to risk and managed to make it through a freshly tarred road with the wheels still in tacked. Today was not only an easier day of riding but also one in which we managed to keep out of trouble. The only significant cycling incidents was a collision between myself and Ian, and Andy having a continuous issue with his gears, hopefully now resolved! We made good time through the day so decide to finish a great but uneventful day of cycling with a few stops to sample the local beverages in the new county of Cheshire. The main contestants for the beer of the day were, Tom Watkins BB and the Boader Cast light Mild,  of which the Mild has been put forward for the Richard Finn appreciation trophy.

The village names are definitely getting more sensible the further north we come the only exceptions today was, the villages of Shelf, The Bog, Knockin, and Halfway House.

The focus is now on tomorrow, hopefully we have saved the legs today and tomorrow is a big day where we will be joined by several friends for the trip into Blackpool, where we have been promised a warm reception and BBQ. Our biggest concern is keeping Andy sober during these celebrations marking the end of our first week and the addition of Andy' father Mike to our team where he will provide support for the final week.  Andy is currently petitioning for a duvet day!

Our day finished with a trip to a  chinese restaurant followed by a quick pint in the strange but nice Albion pub with live folk music, it was all very pleasant but not enough to keep us awake, thankfully we were joined by John who will also be with us tomorrows ride.

The new things to report are Andy's incredible ability of seeing the outline of Britain and the extent of our journey in the weirdest places - currently toast and road repairs, which you will be happy to know he has photos of. We also seemed to have developed a walking style that means we don't need to bend the knees!

Stats:
Miles in the day: 73 miles
Total miles: 431 miles
Road kill - 3 dead badgers
Punctures - all square on the puncture sweepstakes, we are all still on zero.
Collision - 1, imaged to get a little closer to Ian's backside than I wanted to, but we survived that.