A candidate for the prettiest village sign.
The river Ribble at Preston. The white dots on the river are swans - I thought that I had zoomed in far enough!The weather today was hot and sunny reaching 26 degrees by mid afternoon. However I made sure that I drank plenty of water and energy drink and used ample sun cream so I survived without any problems. My shins continue to improve and I walked 18 miles today without any pain (perhaps due to the Ibuprofen) - which I put down mainly to a slightly slower pace which is putting less strain on the legs.
I passed another landmark today when I passed the 446 mile mark which means that I now have less than 500 still to do. By the end of the day this was down to an almost negligible 495 miles!
I found it difficult to navigate my way through Preston, but received help from John Wild whose job appeared to be parking supervisor at Sainsburys (however having previously promoted a barman to landlord I should be careful about making assumptions). John gave me wonderful directions coupled with his excellent historical knowledge of the area - he explained that he has a degree in history. He also had a genuine interest in the BHF. He also told me that (continuing my obsession with counties) Greater Manchester has been partly disbanded and in his view Wigan is in Lancashire - which is what I had concluded yesterday. Obviously some officials do not agree as I passed the "Welcome to Lancashire" sign as I entered Chorley today!
I think today was a record for encountering motorways. A lot of the walk was within half a mile of the M6, which was however remarkably unobtrusive, and I was also close to the M61. I also crossed the M55 and M65.
My walk today finished in the village of Broughton which is where Pat Cooper (remember? she was co-support driver with husband Bryan in Somerset) was brought up. However as much as I tried I could not find a blue plaque celebrating her time in the village. Pat and Bryan were married in the village church, well over 50 years ago, - bad news Bryan the vicar told me that it is now too late to change your mind!
Tomorrow I plan to walk to Lancaster which will mark the half way point of the walk. I will probably change my rest day to Sunday to fit in with our accommodation plans and the arrival of my aunt and uncle on Sunday to join in with the expedition.
Tonight we are staying in an unusual hotel/holiday camp/theme park/marina/sports complex called Guys Thatched Hamlet. I will let you know how we get on tomorrow.
Thanks for the reply to my question about the Roman connections to the A49. Interestingly today I passed a road in Preston called Watling Street Road - the strange thing is that it went from west to east, whereas the A49 goes fron north to south. This raod is marked on the OS mapr as being an old Roman road.
Today's KBW goes to John Wild for services to navigation and public relations.
"Walking isn't a lost art- one must, by some means, get to the garage." - Evan Esar
Cheers
Keith
