I was waiting for the Manchester train at Penrith Railway Station when the Birmingham train arrived. It was a Virgin Class 221 SuperVoyager named after the Elizabethan seaman and explorer Sir Martin Frobisher. For me his most famous adventures were searching for the North West Passage. It wasn’t until I checked that I found that many of the SuperVoyagers are named after Voyagers and Explorers.

Sir Martin Frobisher (c1535 - 1594)

It’s been a few years since I’d cycled over the passes of Wrynose and Hardknott in Cumbria so I thought I’d see how it was with my newer bike. I drove up the Duddon Valley and parked a mile or so from the bottom of Harknott. The weather was kind as I set off and headed north then turned west (left) at Cockley Beck to climb over Hardknott and then the longer descent of the west side. The steep descent needs top quality brakes. At the bottom I turned round and climbed up again. Fortunately there were few cars to get in the way. Back at Cockley Beck I headed up Wrynose then the very long descent to the Little Langdale Road. A quick turn round and I was on my way up again. The last time I cycled this way I struggled a bit on this final climb but today with a good bike and good gears it wasn’t a problem. As I returned to the car the back tyre began to deflate slowly but I made it without having to replace the inner tube.

Plan of the route

The profile (there was about 1000m of climb & descent)

entering the Arboretum

Joseph Strutt

I had a surprisingly easy drive via the A42, M42 and M5. The weather was still sunny and approaching hot at times. At Val’s she showed me some of here excellent paintings she’d been working on then we drove out to the country to find a suitable place to eat.

Val's collage of newspaper and magazine cuttings.

One of the Leyland Clocks

Driving through Berrow we stopped briefly so I could photograph a Leyland Clock which someone had in their yard along with a considerable amount of garage memorabilia. After searching out a suitable location to eat we finished up back in Tewkesbury. My drive home via the M5 and M6 was fairly miserable due to heavy traffic and road works.

Notice:
Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.
Ernest Shackleton, The Times, 1913

Later in the evening we walked in to town to the Assembly Rooms to see the presentation ‘In the Steps of Shackleton’ by Stephen Venables. Stephen is well qualified to give such a talk as he was the first English man to summit Everest without bottled oxygen and has also climbed and trekked on South Georgia where Ernest Shackleton ended his epic Antarctic voyage in 1916. Stephen’s writing skills are well known but this is the first time I’ve seen him give a lecture like this and I wasn’t disappointed.

Stephen and one of his many superb images

Stephen book signing

There was a full audience and we all enjoyed it immensely. Stephen is also a good friend of Anthony’s and would be staying the night at Anthony’s before heading off to his next gig in Somerset the following morning. They always say you should never meet your heroes but I found Stephen unbelievably normal, charming and good company.

It was surreal for me helping to pack away his gear after the lecture and be a ‘roadie’ by wheeling the trolley down to his car while he and Anthony chatted as they hadn’t met up in a while. The rest of the evening was spent chatting in Anthony’s living room and I felt a bit guilty as we were still talking at 1am and Stephen had a long drive to his next show.

pictures and books

nobody at home!

The old Lawrence's Mill Office frontage on Lyon's Lane Chorley is being demolished. It is more of Chorley's familiar scenery that's vanishing.

Cycled to Chorley Railway station and caught the 08:11am train to Lancaster. On the station there were 2 of us with bikes. We looked out for the ‘cycle’ sticker on the carriage door which denotes cycle space. We saw it and carried our bikes on board to find no bike space! I pointed this out to the guard but as the sticker was on the outside we couldn’t prove it. When I arrived at Lancaster I showed it to the guard who acknowledged the error and tried to peel it off. In Lancaster it was calm and sunny and I set off in busy traffic along the A683 to Caton. I then turned south through Quernmore and Dolphonholme to pick up the Lancashire cycleway which is well marked. I followed it through the lanes to Inglewhite where I stopped for a few minutes to have a look at the village cross. I continued south and picked up the A6 at Broughton and followed it to Walton-le-Dale then Gregson Lane, Brindle and home.

Inglewhite with its 1675 cross which was restored by public subscription in 1911

the route

altitude profile

While walking through Ilkley I stopped at the White Wells spa and cafe which has a wonderful view of the town below. I bought a delicious pasty from the cafe and sat outside in the sunshine while I ate it. The cafe is a 10 min walk above the nearest car park. A flying flag means the cafe is open.

I was walking along the Leeds and Liverpool canal near Leeds when I looked across the canal to the site of a ruined building. On the wall was this sign. I had to take a second look to see what it said then noticed the reflection in the water. Congratulations to the person who thought of it.

Set off on my bicycle at 07:45am and headed north through Preston and along the A6. I went through Garstang on the old road and then on to Lancaster. Heading towards Carnforth the traffic had thankfully eased a bit and I had a fairly quiet ride through Milnthorpe to Levens. Here I left the A6 at a very quiet junction. I thought back to the good/bad old days before the motorway when this junction had traffic lights on it and the queues were horrendous. I wasn’t looking forward to the next few miles along the A590 as it is a fast dual carriageway full of nutter drivers who don’t think cyclists deserve any consideration. With an empty dual carriageway ahead I can’t understand why a motorist or worse, a truck driver, doesn’t move over while passing instead of driving past at over 60mph and less than 1m away. On the continent there is a rigid law against this. I left the madness at Lindale and followed the old road through the village and up the steep hill back to the A590. I left he main road again to follow the old road through High Newton before rejoining the A590 as far a Levens Bridge. One of the main choices of my route was to cycle on the A592 along the east side of Windermere. There were quite a few ups and downs but no real views of the lake. Through Bowness I followed the road to the Railway Station to catch the train back to Chorley. I wasn’t too sure how long the ride would take me so I’d half planned to catch the 12:52 which is a direct train to Chorley. I got to the station at 11:43am. I’d covered the 65miles in just under 4hrs which is quicker than expected because of a following wind as far as Levens. The 11:59 train was waiting in the station so I decided to catch that, even though I’d have 2 changes to get back to Chorley. I had a long wait at the ticked office to buy a £9.40 single ticket then got on the train with my bike. It was a pleasant ride to Oxenholme where I was supposed to change to the 12:23 London Euston train.

The steep climb just after 50miles is Lindale. The vertical scale is exagerated.

A couple of days ago I decided to take the plunge and go for a new one-man tent. I saw some at the Outdoors Show on Sat 27 Mar 2010 but they didn’t really impress me. Reading what others had to say about the Hilleberg Atko tent it seemed to be the one that everyone recommended. My new tent arrived on Thursday and yesterday I decided to give it a try by walking up to Hurst Hill and camping for one night. I reached White Coppice in reasonable weather but with a mile of rough moor to cross the heavens opened and the wind blew with a vengeance.

Near Heapey Church are these two stones build in to a wall.
They are all that remain of the National School that was erected nearby in 1826.

This afternoon I called at Clitheroe Library to have a look through their image archive of photographs relating to the Dalehead and Stocks area near Slaidburn. Then I drove to the car park at the northern end of Stocks reservoir to compare the changes over the past 100 years. School Lane hasn’t changed but the site of St James’ Church and graveyard is now a car park. All that remains of the Church is an avenue of trees through the car park which used to be an avenue of saplings running up to the Church door. Across School Lane used to be Dalehead School. Nothing remains to show its location, except for a few old photographs in the archive.

May Queen celebrations at Dalehead School 1913.
The girl holding the donkey on the right is Clarice Mary Cowking.