Day 10 Stirling Strength recovering and spirits rising. A days rest makes a world of difference and so does some decent food. It's still not easy to eat a full meal but it's getting better and I can feel my strength returning. Outside it's raining cats and dogs. In June 2009, when I last cycled this route it rained every day, but when you're fresh you can burn it off. Hopefully by tomorrow morning I'll be back to full strength and ready to give it a proper cra...

Update from Day 6 to today. Fish and Chips. Strangely the words that followed never made it onto the blog for Days 4, 5 & 6 which is odd. There must be a word limit to each entry. Anyway, what should have been said is as follows and recounts our travails of the last few days. It was day 6. Clun to Chester and Tom's legs were not wearing well. In fact it was his knee cap cutting into the muscle that was causing the slow progress. We cycled together for sev...

Day 4, 5 & 6 Wednesday, Thursday & Friday Street to Welsh Bicknor to Clun to Chester. Well, it's Friday night. I'm lying on my bed in Chester Backpackers and writing this for the first time in three days. We didn't have a good enough signal the last two days. So, Day 4. Street to Welsh Bicknor. This was a tough day (though, you'll have gathered by now that they all tend to be). Crossing the Severn Bridge was definitely the highlight for me. Such a w...

Day 9. In Carlisle. It's Monday and I'm tucked up in bed in the YHA in Carlisle. I should be on the road with Tom but I'm not. Tom's back on and has set off for a long but flat ride to Lanark. I, on the other hand, am pooped. Yesterday was 86 miles of hell. Coming straight after the 83 or so miles of hell to get to Slaidburn, it has destroyed me. I'm not enjoying this anymore and I love riding. Mentally this is quite challenging. I've made it about 580 miles. ...

Day 8 Slaidburn to Carlisle Sunday It's lunchtime and I'm in a cute little cafe in Sedburgh. It's the Yorkshire Dales and it's very beautiful. This morning I could barely eat. Yesterday took a lot more out of me than I realised and I could barely eat any breakfast this morning. The location of the hostels seems to have been arranged by someone with a sense of humour. So far almost all have been at the bottom of a hill or top of a hill and almost all require y...