Setting Off

Hello.... you may think of today as Friday 2nd of August but Dan and I are have now set of on our adventure and are only referring to days by their numbers. Today is day 4 (a rest day) Here are a few things that have happened since day 1.

Here we are with our lovely 10 year old next door neighbour a minute before we set off. If you look carefully you might be able to see a banana attached precariously to my pannier. Unfortunately that banana fell off somewhere along Lawrence or Earl road.

We got the ferry across the Mersey something we have never done before in 8 years of living in Liverpool. We then cycled 35 miles south to Dans grandparents house in Malpas, Cheshire. On the way we passed the cutest poster ever!

Please everyone be vigilant for what I'm assuming is a a black cat. Here is Dan with his English Grandparents.

Impressive beard isn't it. 

So that was day 1, very pleasant....unlike day 2, when after 15 miles of cycling in the rain Dan said "and now we join the canal tow path so no more hills and a nice direct route all the way to Birmingham." He wasn't so jolly after a few miles of walking our bikes through this:

After hoping it would get better for a long time we eventually abandoned the canal route and cycled in the A41 towards Wolverhampton for ages and ages, and then joined a much better tow path that connected Wolverhampton with Birmingham. In total we cycled 69.2 miles that day at the absolutely rubbish average speed of 6 miles an hour. (we normally do about 10 mph) I can't say we were the best company when we arrived at my sister Jo's house. I won't scare you with a picture of my face but here are my feet.

Day 3 was a much more pleasant 22 miles to my parents house near Coventry although unfortunately my bum had not fully recovered from the day before, so instead of the first 10 miles being pain free like they normally are, my bum hurt immediately. Today we have been resting and tomorrow we're off to the isle of wight, by car and boat (car's are cheating I know)  By about midnight on Sunday night/Monday morning we'll be in France and Dan will have got through day 7 the day he's most worried about.