After the misdirection I had recently suffered at the hands of satnav, and the radio silence from Buble I only had myself to chat to about what to do next. Whilst my left knee was painful I was relatively confident that I had jarred the knee in my Spitfire related incident and with a test pedal that lasted a good half hour or so I made the decision to update Jan (to hopefully avoid her worrying) and got back on the road.
Having now completed over 200 miles on the bike in a little over two and a bit days of cycling I was pretty confident that the remainder of the ride would be relatively flat on the way through Cheshire and into Liverpool, and for some reason the lack of hills to climb did influence my decision to keep on riding.
I'm sure there was a risk of causing more damage to myself, but from somewhere I felt a need to complete the challenge, and whilst the process and effort required didn't allow me much time to process the journey I was undertaking, my desire to complete the ride was powerful. The day in question would also have been my late father-in-law Jack's birthday. Liverpool being the city of his birth there was something deeply emotional about riding into the city on his birthday, especially in his memory.
In reality I'm sure that if he was with me on the ride he would have suggested stopping and maybe finding a pub instead, but with only satnav and Buble for company I rode on. There were times when the pain in my knee was excruciating, pretty much every time I was pedalling in all honesty, but as the miles were knocked off and I knew I was getting closer to Merseyside I simply kept on going.
Cheshire was really lovely, gentle hills, lots of farmland and following the Sustrans national cycle routes I enjoyed lots of canal tow paths and similarly level cycle routes. All the way through the three day cycle I had been taken on a lot of roads which probably don't see much in the way of everyday traffic, especially not cars, and whilst I managed to climb over 8915 feet (2717 metres) I didn't experience any steep hills with the exception of the detour just before Bridgnorth.
Its quite amazing that its possible to cycle all that way up the west side of England without some form of hills or mountains, so credit to Sustrans and google maps, and ok credit to satnav and Buble for their work. Heading up towards Birkenhead, to the west of the river Mersey I had planned to use the ferry across the aforementioned Mersey to make my arrival at the Liver Building and the city centre.
The last 8 miles, which satnav very kindly counted down in 0.1 mile bits took all the remaining pain management and mental / physical strength I had. I reflected quite a lot on the ride about the words one of my best friends Simon had used a week before the ride, that I would surprise myself with the strength I possessed, and he was 100% correct!
Over the last couple of miles to the ferry terminal I encountered a specific cycle route that took me through a delightful industrial estate where I was teased with views towards the city of Liverpool and on one occasion a very large Navy vessel docked for some form of refit which towered over the houses which appeared to be right next door to it.
At last, after 266 miles of cycling I turned a corner to find the last short length of my route on the edge of the Mersey, and to my surprise a lady with her own bike attempting to take a selfie of herself and her bike with the city shoreline in the background. I stopped and offered to assist with the photo taking , which I was able to do with the limited photographic skills I possess, and we then cycled together to catch the ferry.
Once safely onboard and with the sounds of Jerry and the Pacemakers singing a ferry related tune as we set off I realised that my own achievement of cycling all the way to Liverpool over three days was in fact simply a warm up.
My fellow cyclist had been cycling from Lands End, via Wales and was continuing onwards further north to Preston that day (and on towards Scotland afterwards) to raise awareness of mental health charity. Her 850 plus miles and the reason for her ride made my efforts feel pretty small in comparison, I did indeed feel humbled at the same time as celebrating what I had achieved.
One final climb from the ferry up to the ferry terminal , low tide dictating the level the ferry had to dock at and I had finally arrived in Liverpool. Jan arrived a couple of minutes later having suffered a rain drenched drive for over 7 hours from Christchurch, allowing her to capture a photo or two as I crossed the finishing line she had brought with her.
Whilst I had completed the ride, 266 miles, over 27 hours of riding and over 13000 calories used, the sense of achievement took a little while to settle in. Spending that evening with Jan, and the following weekend with members of the family was the perfect end to the adventure.
My bottom had survived with the grateful thanks to my friend Lisa for previous barrier cream advice, but the rest of my body was broken simply with exhaustion and my knee in particular took a good few days to recover.
I set off on a Wednesday, the 7th September 2022 to be precise, arrived in Liverpool late afternoon on the 9th. Two days of recovery with family was followed by the drive back home and even with a slightly sore knee I did then cycle to work on the Monday and Tuesday before then taking a very well deserved holiday, this time without a bike.
With a little time off away from both work and out of the country I had time to consider what to do next on the bike.......and to process what I had achieved.