Day 15 Acton Bridge to Stone

I woke up early, and despite the dark decided to get cracking. After the usual tea and porridge I was on the towpath by 6.30, cycling carefully by headlight. It was slow going, and by 7am I'd done less than three kilometres. Saltersford tunnel was followed by Barnton Tunnel, where a gate on the path over the top was most bike-unfriendly. I tried rearing Horse up onto his hind wheel but it was too narrow so I took off the panniers and still couldn't get through the 180 turn. Eventually I had to push him up a steep muddy slope, slipping and sliding down the far sideband bending the mudguard stays when we hit the fence at the bottom. The trees and brambles were festooned with small black plastic bags, hanging like scrotums and swaying in the breeze. At least the path was clean.
Not far beyond was the Anderton Boat Lift, though I passed it without noticing and only realised when I saw an info board. Skirting Northwich it was all very industrial, with chemical plants, salt works and scrap metal yards. At the Tata Chemical Plant I had a puncture. With the puncture-resistant tyres I was expecting to have to remove some bygone relic of the industrial age, but it was just a thorn.

 I'd managed just 13km in two-and-a-half hours, and now the towpath was the consistency of my breakfast. An hour later things took a turn for the worse. I tried to avoid a bramble that was lying in wait and the front wheel dropped into a section of bank that had seen better days. In the blink of an eye I was in the canal, and out of it a little more slowly. Luckily it wasn't a particularly deep spot, and it was as if someone had drawn a line straight down the middle of my body with one side completely soaked. Apart from a wrecked camera and notebook everything else was fine, and the weather still mild so I blew dry in a couple of hours.
At Middlewich I had another puncture, then the towpath came good near Kidsgrove, and I pulled off for lunch at the Red Bull. I could have done with a pint but not wanting to risk another dip I settled for a half. Just beyond Kidsgrove was the Harecastle Tunnel, at 3000 yards, one of Britain's longest. Overland through some parkland led back to the Trent and Mersey Canal, and a great towpath through Stoke, and all the the way to Stone, where I stocked up on food for the night, and set up camp in the dark by a set of locks. 

I cooked up a great stir-fry meal, then took stock. I was bruised down one side, had one dry sock left and the camera was comatose. I'd be at my parents' house in Nuneaton the following day, so a couple of days there and I'd be scrubbed up, and I'd buy a new camera. I turned in at 7; I'd been on the go for 11 hours and was done in.


Day stats 71km  328 Metres of ascent
Off road 70km 
A road 0km 
B road  0km 
Unclassified road 1km