Stage 3, The Flatlands

Sadly, no shower this morning, and all I’ll say about the portaloo in the corner of the field I’ve just said… Another cold night, clear skies are a mixed blessing, but I was a bit more prepared. The police helicopter at 3 AM was not welcome though.

There’s a lot of dew on the tent in the morning, so while it’s dry inside I’m having to pack it wet. Luckily I was able to stake it all out when I arrived here this evening. So while I had my coffee it dried in the warm sunny wind.

Anyway, I had my coffee and porridge and was off around 0900

The cycling today wasn’t too bad. Pretty flat, mainly tow paths and city/town bike routes. The tow paths were pretty, but varied a great deal… Nearly ended up in the canal once or twice!

Lunch was in a lovely tea room in Shenton, I think they also sold antiques there, but it was a lovely garden and a massive baked potato with cheese and coleslaw and baked beans 🤗

The silver foil contains cake (of course).

A rather varied afternoon… Let me see if I can grab some stills from the GoPro…

Nice canal path

Not so pathy, canal path

Road

Woodland track

A little bit too mountain bike…

Yup, a field

Anyway… arrived safely. Lovely campsite up top of hill. Macaroni Cheese for dinner, was very nice. I have electricity and there are warm clean showers.

Tomorrow… I head for the Peak District. I’m gonna call it the first mountain stage 😎

Also.. I’ll join Route 68, the Pennine Cycleway… And I’ll stay on that most of the rest of the way.

Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/1810052380/shareable_images/map_based?hl=en-US&v=1535735564