Ashop Head is a comparatively well known rough stuff route ( I have never done it ) and it is, because of the terrain, quite a challenge.  Any routes with a good helping of glutinous mud should be well respected.  Look at the crossing time – over four hours for less than seven miles – it tells its own tale, does it not ?

What a fascinating day – if you like that sort of thing - and totally different to a cycling run. But for two young men working in industry it must have been a real eye-opener. Incidentally, for all the time that Tom Idle was a friend of Charlie’s, and all the times he was mentioned in various Journals, not a word about his occupation.  And I have done several internet searches for Tom Idle without success.  If anyone more gifted than me feels they can get further with a search for Tom Idle then please feel free, I am sure his descendants would be interested to read about his exploits.

Sightseeing and history in abundance today.  Starting with Valle Crucis Abbey we get history after history lesson, and when you think about it the Abbey is a really early one, it must have been one of the first in Britain.  And Charlie takes the opportunity not only to revel in the day, but to enjoy it as well !

I must apologize for the mess our home page had become of recent weeks.

I am pleased to tell you all that I have received some ‘correctional’ training and now have been able to tidy up the home page and we should not have a repeat of it all going forward.

Computers are great tools but sometimes the inner workings leave clowns like me unable to do what is necessary without receiving high level advice !  Rant over !

What a wonderful and interesting route Charlie and Tom Idle followed on this run to Llangollen.  Not your normal direct route, but full of interest and scenery.  I would challenge anyone to come up with a more scenic way of riding from Bolton to Llangollen. Perfect.

So whilst Charlie has a nice enough day out, he is not that overly impressed with the Wirral.  Perhaps some of his feelings are brought about by all the housing and built-upness of the route from South Lancashire into Liverpool, as some of it is undoubtedly ‘grim’. Quite a high mileage he clocked up by the way, on his ‘creaking’ bike.

Disillusion today on a big scale.  Nothing so fractious as a large well attended club run. Maybe they were fed up with his bike’s unreliablility, you couldn’t really blame them.  It just made for a busy afternoon.  We must hope that Charlie gets over it sooner rather than later.

This is the sort of day when you finish up sorting out other people rather than oneself.  Then the interesting discovery of a ‘Castle Cob’ on a Barts map.  More ramblings to get to his goal before curiosity was put to bed.

Reading today’s episode Charlie would have been able to hold his own as a bike mechanic.  I’ve never known so much trouble with one bike !  But it never seemed to depress him for too long.  In fairness his bike was a bit of a mess, but many more months would pass before his finances allowed a replacement.  Happy Days !

Well, the fine weather of last week has obviously left them, and as is often the case the summer rain fairly hammered down in the lengthy showers.  You know, Charlie carried maps, but they were forever getting lost, even in somewhat familiar places.  I think it was more to do with concentration than lack of knowledge.