Despite being kept awake at points through the night by the hotel guest in the room above, I had already planned to be up early and get on my way to Liverpool on the last day of my cycling adventure. In part this was because the breakfast part of the bed & breakfast offer didn't start until 8.30am and I couldn't wait that long.

So after a shower I got dressed , packed the bike and just before 7am I set off in the direction of the city of Liverpool. As someone who was born in West Yorkshire before moving to Cornwall as a young child and then moving again to Dorset all before the age of 7 I have at times felt a little like a nomad. In these first 7 years I had lived not only in four separate towns but also five different houses and attended three different schools! Through marriage to Jan I have become part of a large Liverpool based family which has been an incredible experience, and the city is one that I have come to consider very much as a second home.

My journey from Kendal to Liverpool would of course be significant in many ways; the end of this particular leg of the journey, the connection of previous rides to complete my Lands End to John O'Groats journey.....and for this day in particular a chance to meet members of Jan's family to celebrate the end of the adventure. For all of these reasons an early start would mean an early finish with family in Liverpool.

The first few miles were quite hilly leaving Kendal mostly on relatively quiet roads. I had anticipated that the day would mostly be riding on A roads, especially the closer I got to Liverpool using the A59 all the way into the city. However as I came into Carnforth I was suddenly directed by satnav to leave the road and found myself on a tarmac tow path alongside a canal.

There is lots to explain at this point so lets unpick things slowly.....because its a canal! Firstly tow paths alongside canals are more than likely to be flat, unless there are locks and changes of gradient.......but even if this was going to be the case the vast majority of canal towpaths are flat. This was therefore excellent news for as long as this was my route.

On checking satnav this looked to be around 10 miles of tow path, and being early Sunday and flat this would be an easy route for my tired legs to undertake. Lastly I flippin' love canals, and it would be a dream lifestyle choice of mine to both live on a narrowboat and enjoy life at the pace that canals dictate. (maybe even a future blog idea once I've bought a canal barge - Jan, if you are reading this I'm sort of joking about this....sorry)

So for the next ten miles, all the way along the canal to Lancaster, I enjoyed meeting a few friendly dog walkers, shared a peanut butter flapjack with a duck and continued slowly on towards Liverpool. Mentioning the flapjack reminds me of my meal deal purchase just before getting to Carnforth; basket in hand in the Spar petrol station shop the person serving asked which petrol pump was mine. In my cycling gear I answered saying I had ridden here so it was just the food and drink I was buying.

Follow up question - where are you cycling to ? Answer from me - Liverpool. Reply to my answer - that's ridiculous! She might, in fairness, be correct . Anyway onwards towards Lancaster.

As the canal tow path became a little more urban around me I was soon directed by Sat Nav into Lancaster city centre and back out again that for the next 18 miles took me close to the M6 which was also heading south. For the most part the next 18 miles were on the A6, slightly busier than the roads I'd enjoyed in Scotland, but on an overcast Sunday morning it felt for the most part quite safe on the bike.

Feeling slightly bored Sat Nav decided to guide me to the left off the A6 (I assume a short cut....) and I soon found myself once again on a tow path next to the canal. When I say tow path in theory this was a path which might at some point in history been used by horses towing canal barges or narrowboats, but in the midst of the hot dry June this tow path was actually a very hard, bumping rutted edge of a field.

Not what my delicate bottom needed as I tried to minimise bruising along the path, but what I was treated to were literally hundreds of large dragonflies taking to the air as I slowly cycled along beside the canal. At the earliest opportunity I carried my bike up some steep steps back onto a tarmac road and worked my way back onto the A6.

It's moments like this that remind me that Sat Nav is an excellent tool, but has little consideration for factors such as the actual state of tracks that I am guided onto.....and over the three journeys from Lands End to Christchurch, Christchurch to Liverpool and this journey down from Scotland this detail is soooooo important.

Back safely on the tarmac surface of the A6 I resumed my ride south to Liverpool. After the mountains of both Scotland and more recently Cumbria this last day on the bike was a blessing! From Lancaster I made my way the 20 miles or so to Preston, through which Sat Nav guided me through the centre taking short cuts all the way. All of this ride was on an incredibly flat set of roads, from Preston onwards I was on the A59 meaning Sat Navs guidance was minimal (keep going straight on....) for at least another good 20 miles or more until I reached the outskirts of Liverpool.

I visited Ormskirk, birthplace of my beautiful wife Jan, then Maghull where Jan and her parents used to live, then found myself outside Aintree race course. After almost 600 miles on the bike I found myself being directed off the A59 onto a cycle route / old railway line being taken into the north of the city. From memory I think this was the Trans Pennine Way which I assume trans-ports cyclists across the Pennines.

My plan was to meet Jan's cousin Neil and his family at the hotel I was staying at for the night, and I was keeping them updated on my progress to ensure a coordinated meet up. The hotel was right on the redeveloped docks in the heart of the city, but as I rode off the cycle path / old railway line into the suburbs I found my path blocked by some large fencing . Something about this area of Liverpool felt familiar and with no option to go ahead as Sat Nav wanted I turned left and decided to cycle further to allow Sat Nav to calculate a new route.

Less than 60 seconds later I realised exactly where I was - outside Neil's house!!! He and the family were at my hotel a good ten miles away and I was literally on his driveway. Bad news in one way, but more importantly I knew exactly where I was and had no need for Sat Nav for the next part of my journey - to visit Anfield , the home of Liverpool football club.

This visit was part of my plans from a very early stage; originally the plan was to meet Jan at Anfield (the home of her favourite football team) but a last minute change of plan meant Jan wasn't able to meet me at the end of my journey, so my visit was going to be on my own to pay our respects to the victims of the Hillsborough disaster.

A short cycle past the other Liverpool football ground, Goodison Park (home to Everton) led me to Stanley Park and the short ride up the hill to Anfield. After taking a few quiet moments to pay my respects to the 97 victims of the Hillsborough tragedy (for which justice is still long overdue...) I set Sat nav up for the last leg of my epic adventure and set off down towards the Mersey.

As I pedalled the last few miles I was starting to realise that I had succeeded in cycling not only from Inverness to John O'Groats and then all the way down to Liverpool, but when combined with my other large scale cycling adventures I had almost completed the Lands End to John O'Groats journey!

I stopped for a quick selfie with the Beatles statue where a very kind tourist offered to take a picture of Red and I with the Fab Four, who I had met with Jan the previous September. From here I decided to Facetime Jan to allow her to share the last mile or so to my hotel and my meeting up with the family.

We meandered slowly amongst the crowds on the docks, finally made our way up to the entrance to the hotel only to find a distinct lack of family to meet up with. A quick WhatsApp message later and I realised I was on the wrong side of the hotel, so Jan (still on Facetime), Red the bike and I made our way around the hotel to the other entrance......to find yet again a distinct lack of family.....mostly because they had very kindly made their way through the reception / foyer of the hotel to come and find me.....so one last cycle back to the first hotel entrance and I was really pleased to meet up with Neil and the family in a series of hugs, Facetime chats with the family and by complete fluke being in the dry of the hotel when the heavens opened with a really, really, really heavy downpour.

Neil's children had both made me the most beautiful welcome posters (covered in all my favourite pictures - mainly Lego and Star Wars!) and once I had found a place for Red to spend the night (thanks hotel reception team) grabbed a shower and freshened up I was ready to catch up properly with the family, then be taken out for an evening meal....apart from Jan not being able to be there it was a perfect evening, a perfect end to the journey. I'd also picked up a couple of Lego gifts for the kids on my previous day in Kendal..... which were as always very gratefully received, more hugs , thanks and general child like appreciation.

After dinner I said goodbye to the family before retiring to my room at the hotel for a well earned nights rest. 610 miles complete and my body was feeling ready for a rest......or so I was expecting. In reality whilst I did have a good nights sleep my body was feeling about as fit as it ever had done before. As I drifted off to sleep there was a bit of me that was happy to simply keep cycling south; from my earlier ride I could be home in just three days!

Obviously this wasn't the plan, train tickets purchased for the next day to get Red and I home to see Jan and Archie (our dog) so whilst I knew I could probably smash out a further 285 miles or more I settled down for a good night sleep before one last day of travelling to get home.

Lastly you might be interested in the title of this week's blog "Heart as big as Liverpool". This is a track by the Mighty Wah! /Pete Wylie which I have known for a few years, recently enjoyed being played at Anfield whilst watching a game with Jan in the Kop end of the ground.....and had listened to with Jan (with a tear or two in our respective eyes) at the Liverpool museum on the docks. Its not a widely known track (take a listen here   https://youtu.be/DYOVIc1pwR4  ) but is a song that fills me with a sense of emotion like no other, even though Liverpool is only a second home city that I have married into.... enjoy !