Land's End to John O'Groats on a Bike Friday Tandem

Day 10 (June 24)

Breakfast was quite late, since it was a Sunday, and so we got a late start at about 10am. Getting out of Crewe and back to the route was not too hard with the GPS, and the traffic was light. It was an easy, flat ride to Knutsford. The area is less that 15 miles from the center of Manchester, but still feels quite rural. It is amazing, in comparison with the US, how compact English cities and towns are, and how suddenly they end and rural countryside begins (maybe excepting London). We took a short detour through Tatton Park. This is 1000 acres of beautiful parkland with lakes, tree-lined avenues and herds of red and fallow deer, with a famous garden and a historic house. It is jointly managed by Cheshire County Council and the National Trust, so our Royal Oak card got us in the garden for free.


Carousel, Tatton Park	Japanese Garden, Tatton Park

The park is clearly a place for a day out from Manchester, so there were many activities for kids, such as a bright carousel. We met two other pairs of tandem riders - the first we had seen so far in England. One couple gave us advice how to find a bike shop nearby, since we were looking for more puncture repair kits and spare inner tubes after our experience of the night before. We toured the gardens: the highlights were the Japanese garden, with the palette of many colored foliage, and a strange plant called Gunnera Manicata, also known as giant rhubarb. We then had lunch, at first in the courtyard next to the carousel, but then dashing inside when it started to rain a little.

The Top Lock, Wheelton

We found the cycle shop a few miles further on. It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, and we were surprised it was open on Sunday, but it is on the Pennine Way, a popular bike trail. We stocked up with repair kits and cycled on to Leigh.

Leigh is a largish town, and we hoped to find a book shop open to buy a map of the next part of the trip, but didn't succeed. It didn't seem a great place to stay for the night, so we called ahead to reserve a room for the night at a B&B on the CTC list 25 miles further on in Mellor.

It seemed to take for ever to get out of Leigh. I had thought that more of the cycling through the industrial parts of the north of England would be like this, but other than this one part, our route was surprisingly rural. When we thought that the town would never end, we were suddenly out in pristine countryside, riding past a pub with a friendly drinking crowd, over a canal with a lock and narrow barges.

The last part of the ride was quite hilly, including right at the end a steep hill up to Mellor - and then we had to come all the way down to the B&B which was outside the village (see elevation profile). The proprietor had given me directions that would have avoided the hill, but I misunderstood them. When we did arrive, the bed and breakfast, Rose Cottage, in a delightful 200 year old cottage, was very welcoming, and there was a pub right opposite where we had dinner.

Mileage: 68.3 miles

Route and more pictures

Elevation
Elevation Profile

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Last modified 23 July, 2007