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Tuesday 18th May 2010 Westhoughton to Kirkby Lonsdale By God this was a hard day! After breaking my fast at Wetherspoons (the Robert Shaw) I set off from Westhoughton and after making my way through Chorley, where I used to live over 30 years ago, I followed the roads to the high Pennine country and found the hills steadily becoming more frequent and more demanding.
Whilst cycling along I noticed a Post Office at Whalley and thought I’d call in and try to get my record sheet stamped – if you get 6+ stamps showing where you’ve been you can join the E2E Club and get a T-shirt, always an incentive! Earlier in the trip at the first PO I’d tried they had turned me down, the gits, as if they suspected I was going to write ‘IOU £5000’ above their precious rubber-stamped mark. By contrast I’d had a more helpful response from the local library who stamped my sheet with a smile and a good-luck wish. Since then I’d only asked at small, rural Post Offices and they had all been more obliging. At Whalley I went in and looked around for a postcard or something small to buy before asking for the rubberstamp. I didn’t see any, however, and the Postmaster was a rather severe-looking muslim gentleman with a long beard and the traditional hill-tribe pyjama outfit. I decided not to bother and went back out to the bike but then stopped myself, thinking that I was being a bit unfair. I should at least give him the chance to show himself a decent chap, I thought, so I went back in and without buying anything just asked if he’d be kind enough to stamp my sheet. Of course he turned out to be a nice chap who not only stamped the sheet but asked about the ride and then offered me, free of charge, any drink I liked from his cool box. The lady working in the shop part – a more traditionally English looking lady - was also very interested and friendly. They were a nice pair.
Anyway off I went, stopping frequently because the route followed unclassified roads and a lot of attention was needed. This slowed up my progress quite a bit, of course, as did the hills. It was a blue-skies day and fairly warm work – the backs of my hands had already been burnt the day before and they got even more sore today.
At length I reached Slaidburn which I think is where John, or perhaps Simon, had said they were going to stay. I was a bit tired by now and briefly contemplated staying there myself but in the end I decided to be a man and press on to my original goal, Kirkby Lonsdale. What a road it was next! Through empty, hilly sheep country with no habitation in sight – quite desolate. And the road went up and up… and then up a bit more! It was absolutely exhausting; the top was near 480 metres, over half a Munro, and it felt like it. I had to get off and push and my energy levels were down to minus figures by now. Still, at last I got to the top and it was a bit easier for a while, heading down to High Bentham.
Once again I considered stopping when I reached High Bentham but though knackered I decided to press on as it looked like being only 4 miles further. Unfortunately it was 2 miles to the A65 where a sign then said Kirkby Lonsdale 5 miles! At least the A65 was inclining the right way for by now I couldn’t face any hills at all – any incline of note saw me dismounting and pushing, I just had no energy left at all. Perhaps this was what cyclists call ‘the bonk’ or ‘the wall’. Maybe I hadn’t eaten enough during the day – since breakfast I’d had one cheese and tomato sandwich and a KitKat. Not really enough for a day like today. At Kirkby Lonsdale I got a room at the first B&B I came to, ‘Wyck House’, at £30 for the night.
I dumped the gear, did my usual tasks, had a bath, spoke to Trisha then legged it as quickly as possible for somewhere to eat. I found Avanti's bar where I had a Guinness (funny how these ancient advertising slogans like ‘Guinness is good for you’ retain their hold on your brain) pasta pesto, a bowl of olives, bread and sticky toffee pudding. Hopefully that would refill my reserves a bit as there were still some more hills to tackle the next day on the way to Carlisle, my next target. Distance: 65.73 miles Average speed: 9.8 mph Max speed: 36 mph observed | ||||||
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