Once more I met Tom at Kingsway End, determined to get into Derbyshire, but yet once again our determination wavered, and before we knew it, we were pottering along towards Handforth, where we turned into the bylanes.  Then Styal, and across to Ringway, and via Castle Mill to Ashley.  The road around Tatton Park brought us to the Knutsford road.  Another bylane led us wonderingly to Tabley, where we crossed Chester road, and once more plunged into the dirty, rain-washed lanes.  Rain came on, and our capes came into active commission, now, as we ran through Hoo Green, to Pickmere, known to some as Loch Pick, to us as Llyn-y-Pick [a nickname that reflected their love of all things Welsh !!].

A beautiful road led us along to Gt. Budworth, where we decided to ‘pack it’ for lunch.  The little parlour was very cosy, and there was a plentiful supply of pictorial periodicals, besides which was a luxurious settee and a couch.  We were well away for a couple of hours!  Rousing ourselves at last, we hiked off via Comberbach and Little Leigh, dropping into the Weaver valley at Acton Bridge.  Then across and uphill, turning towards Acton Cliff.  On the road, came a heavy sunshine shower, and afterwards a beautifully clear rainbow formed.  Wandering down a rutty cinder path, we dipped sharply beneath a bridge, coming to a new works belonging to Brunner Mond.  Acton Cliff must be a myth, or a name, for no cliff did we see, unless the sudden drop to the works was Acton ‘Cliff’.

We now pottered uphill to Kingsley then along the ridge with a good view of the Weaver confined below us, to Frodsham.  At Frodsham bridge on Chester road, we turned left by the river to Clifton, then climbed uphill, past the scant ruin of Rocksavage castle, and along a muddy thoroughfare to Halton.  We rode round the base of the rock on which Halton castle stands, thereon getting some views of industrial Merseyside, Runcorn and Widnes with the huge transporter bridge stretching across the river and ship canal.  A lively swooping run took us by the big water tower, and through a wood on to the Warrington – Runcorn road, and soon we were at Walton again.  From Stockton Heath, we followed the Manchester Ship Canal through Latchford and Thelwall, then at Thelwall Brook, a branching bylane brought us in the dusk to Lymm.  At Rush Green, on the Heatley road, we stopped for tea at a cottage by the wayside.  After tea, with lamps lit, we traced the road through Heatley to Warburton, and the roughly paved ‘tons’ road of unhappy memory, parting at Patricroft.  I returned home the usual way, satisfied, as usual, with the days run.     84 miles