Day 9. Garstang to Chester. 71 miles

A really good day today for 3 reasons. 1) It was flat pretty much all day. 2) My legs felt like they could go all day. 3) IT DIDN'T RAIN ALL DAY!! With a new tyre fitted thanks to our kind hosts at The Black Horse Hotel in Garstang, Darrin and we set out with renewed confidence, tempered slightly by the thought that we had to negotiate our way through the North West urban sprawl of St. Helens, Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn in order to hit our destination of Chester. The Book of Love warned us that these would be the busiest roads of the trip and gave us a route along dual carriagways and through scally land. However, the Book of Love didn't account for our secret weapon - Gand Nav! He managed to steer us through the quietest roads possible in the middle of urban chaos. I'm not joking when I tell you that we went past a farm in the middle of St Helens. I think the only busy bit we saw was crossing the Mersey on the Runcorn Bridge and we managed to do that on the cycle path. The only tricky bit today was climbing a 20% hill (1 in 5 in old money) just west of Wigan which was a rather unpleasant surprise! Made it in to Chester and found a hostel for the night before heading back into town for a cider or 3 (why have I got in to cider on this trip?). Chester is lovely - a beautiful old walled city and well worth a visit for a dirty weekend. Great to think we are south of Manchester and will hit the Midlands tomorrow.