Despite the nice sunset last night, the amber weather warnings from the Met office made it clear that we did not have a dry day in store. A month of rain was going to fall in an hour and flood warnings were everywhere. The Met office man on the news recommended moving your valuables upstairs, but we couldn't really put our panniers any higher. I suggested the train, but Andy said that was cheating. I spent much of my time devising ingenious ways we could get our stuff across any floods we did meet, mostly involving Andy carrying things on his head (including me), but luckily for him we escaped any floods.

Seeing that the worst of the rain was due to start at 10am, we decided to get an early start and left at 9:45am. At first we felt the rain slowly seeping into our shoes and clothes, but after about 5 minutes we were soaked through and didn't really notice it anymore. We were surrounded by the beauty of streams and waterfalls: the former as the water ran across the road before us, the latter the water fountain that came off our rear wheels. Much of the water went into my mouth so I dread to think what my tummy had to cope with… especially when I crunched a bit of grit. Nice.

For once, I was quite pleased with my meandering route planning and we managed to stay off the main roads leaving Liverpool and had a relatively traffic free exit. Either that or a lot of people decided not to go to work today: "sorry boss, I can't come in today, my front drive is flooded". We passed Anfield (but didn't see a football stadium) and Aintree, home of the Grand National (but didn't see a race course). We eventually made it to Preston where we found the high street, fell into Subway… the only place we thought wouldn't mind our sodden state… and demolished a foot-long sub quicker than it took them to make it. We were joined for lunch by my cousin, Amy, who is at University there. It was lovely to see her, although I did feel bad about hugging her and probably making her wet and covered in road grime. Thankfully, we put off leaving for so long that the rain stopped! Yippee.

I like Lancashire. Lancashire is flat. Andy probably doesn't like Lancashire. Lancashire is very windy. Whoever said that cycling South to North will mean you have the prevailing wind behind you was lying. After the rain, we spent the rest of the day cycling into the wind (well, Andy did. I tried for a bit, but was soon overtaken again and put back in my place). I thought about our friends, Natalie and Emma, who are attempting a non-stop LEJOG tandem record this August (check out: http://www.facebook.com/twobirdsonebike), and wondered what they will do when they meet headwind. Is it still easier for the person on the back? I imagine not. I am beginning to appreciate how incomprehensibly tough their challenge is going to be.

Despite the rain and the wind, the miles ticked by and we soon found ourselves in Lancaster. Living dangerously, we risked the rain starting again and stopped for a snoop around. Lancaster is a really pretty city with stone buildings and nice architecture. Everywhere you look, there are little blue plaques telling you what the building once was, a detail I really liked. We had a coffee and went for a stroll around the Castle (now a prison) and the Priory. We were there at school closing time and I found it vaguely amusing that a group of fairly harmless teenage boys were using the shelter of the inner castle/prison walls to get up to no good. Maybe they were just waiting for their friend who was having a nice kiss in the gardens below. Don't you just miss those heady schooldays?

As we rode out of Lancaster, the Pennines sat on our right, and ahead of us lay the silhouette of the Lake District. Between us and our bed for the night were busy-ish roads and the rolling Cumbrian countryside. As we entered into the Lake District national park, the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful (not just because it was up a hill). Andy and I have only been in the Lake District once before (separately) and so have been looking forward to this part of the trip.

Tonight we are staying in a pub with a brewery (where our bikes have been stored). The food was delicious and Andy sampled as many of the ales as he could, before I dragged him upstairs (he brought a pint up with him… and why not! We are on holiday, after all).

Tomorrow starts with Kirkstone Pass. Let's hope we can see some scenery (unlike Dartmoor).

Todays statistics:
Distance: 135km
Elevation: 865m
Andy's breakfast: 10/10 - we were in a self-catering hotel and had croissants in bed!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/196367226