A terrific gale was in progress when we made a start from Barton today at 11am, but as it was mostly behind we didn’t mind.  Via Stretford to Sale we rode, taking the Northenden road, but forsaking it in favour of a very juicy footpath to Baguley.  Now we got into a maze of bylanes which got us near some fine looking blackberry bushes.  Needless to say we spent an hour gathering blackberries but not collecting them.  Wandering about we came to Styal, then Wilmslow, and Alderley for tea.  At 5pm we started back towards Mobberley.  At Chelford we took a lane for Peover, but in the dark we lost our way, eventually finding ourselves on the Holmes Chapel to Knutsford road.  We soon reached Knutsford at 7pm, but a nail penetrating my tyre sent it down to 7.30pm.  Via Tatton Hall and Mere we sped, my tyre expiring at Altrincham.  It took us an hour to find two more punctures, and we had the tyre off 3 times.  We parted at Stretford at 9.30, I finishing the 12 uphill miles in record time – one hour.                        Time 12 hours, Distance 65 miles