Tom came to our place today – he is staying the weekend – and at 2pm in company with a friend we started.  The oft traversed and somewhat weary route through Atherton to Leigh and Lowton was taken, then turning for Warrington, we came to Winwick, where we dismounted to explore the old church. It was locked up, but we had a look around the exterior, noting the famous Winwick ‘pig’.  There were signs of rain when we restarted, and as we reached Warrington it came down.  Inside the capes, we proceeded by the canal side to Thelwall – ‘cyty’ – village, and after reading the inscription on the Inn wall in the village, we set off for the tea place.  On the road a curious thing happened.  My chain came off twice, and as I was wondering about the cause, we reached the tea place.  I promptly forgot about it, and docking the machines, we sat down by candle-light to tea.

A storm now arose, and in the army hut where we were, we had a fine picture – in dry clothes and comfort – of the elements.  The wind now lashed to a fury, shrieked and whistled around us, rain came down in fitful torrents, lightening played in the sky towards Chester, and thunder almost drowned our voices.  It was quite romantic, and we were hushed to silence, listening to the hurricane.  Our host came in with an oil lamp, and chatted with us for an hour on various topics, and when she had departed we had some fun, our friend proving quite an asset in the art of entertaining, and his tricks gave us amusement and interest.  The storm, at 7.30, died down, though the wind still continued with great force.  As we started at 8pm, my chain broke – the cause of it coming off, but it was repaired in five minutes at Lymm.  The gale fairly blew us home, and we never got a drop of rain the whole way back.  Returning via Warburton, Glazebury and Atherton etc, for 10pm.

43 miles, 8 hours