Sunday June 22, 2014

We had a little later start today, as we were chatting to Ang who came to say goodbye and wish us well on our journey.  She said she was in awe of what we were doing and maybe she would get on her bike again.  It is quite strange to think that Ralf and I only started to do the longer distance riding (over 50 kms) when I was 49 (7 years ago) and now look what we are doing!

As we left Shrewsbury we noticed, these sheep.  Shrewsbury used to be known as a wool town, as the wool was shipped from Shrewsbury down the Severn and beyond.

We entered the County of Cheshire today, it seems now that we are out of the South-West we are really moving through the Counties.  Hopefully we will be in Scotland by the end of the week.

We passed a sign for Copley Gardens, then another and then we came to a “side entrance” – this was called Beeston Lodge but still belonged to Copley Gardens and Estate.  Just a small country estate.

Tonight we stayed at another warmshowers host.  Emma and Stuart had been world tourers but had to abandon their trip when they were attacked by wild dogs in Turkey.  To date we haven’t been chased by any dogs, I hope I haven’t jinxed myself.  We were often chased while cycling in Canada, but we weren’t fully loaded, so I hope we don’t get chased here, as I am not sure I can do my impression of Mark Cavendish (Tour de France sprinter) and get away from the dogs.

We arrived a little early, Emma had planned on the scones coming out of the oven for when we arrived.  Warm scones and tea, it was lovely.

Dusty the Irish Wolfhound belongs to the owner of the farm and often visits Emma and Stuart.  As you can see he was huge, but very friendly.

Emma and Stuart live in a converted stable block on a small farm.  We went up to the farm to see a calf that had been born the night before – it looked a little shocked.

After dinner, I went for a lovely walk with Emma who told me about her best time on their world tour – the best was seeing the mid-night sun, Stuart’s was making people smile.  They had some great stories to tell.  It is such a shame their trip was cut-short.  I would like to think that our best “time” is inspiring other people to take a chance on doing things that they want to do before it is too late.  Carpe Diem.

We had an early night, which was great as sometimes when we are at a warm showers we stay up much later than usual chatting to our hosts.