Day Five

Ironbridge to Mary and Matt's flat in Manchester

The day started late again as Ollie's seat post broke, but luckily there was a bike shop very close by at the Tile Museum (?!). We cycled through Ironbridge in the pouring rain (yes, still raining!!) and took note that it is probably a really beautiful and interesting place - must come back one day when it's sunny (and / or we have a car). We even went to Paradise at the top of a big hill, although it didn't feel very heavenly in the drizzle.

Cycled around 40 miles before we found somewhere to buy food - unbelievable how many miles you can go up north without seeing a shop - are these people all self-sufficient?? Eventually had lunch in a cosy cafe in Audlem, where the cafe owner told us she gets a lot of LEJoGers and many of them look even more broken than we do, which was encouraging I suppose...

The rain eased off thankfully and we cycled a further 45 miles to Manchester: by this stage Emily is cycling using only her right hand because the spasms in her left shoulder are too much to bear, and Ollie is attempting (less successfully) to pedal using only his left leg because he has a suspected torn right quad muscle. If we pooled all the parts of us that are not injured or sore we might have enough bits to make one functional cyclist...

Received a very warm welcome from Mary and Matt and a big pile of delicious spag bol - Mary was astounded at how much Emily managed to eat (probably 4 times the size of her own portion).

The worst bit of the day for Emily was when we were discussing the rest of our route with Mary and Matt and Ollie finally broke it to her that we are cycling for 13 days, not 12 - so 7 more days to go. Maths has never been Emily's strong point.