Day Sixteen: Golbourne to Northwich

Bridge too far?

It is not only the ibuprofen, blister plasters, ice, massage, ice, stretches and ice that helps, it is the support. From just about everyone. I will share a whole lexicon about the team and others in due course but the heartwarming reaction from hundreds who get what this is about really sweetens those hard miles. They stop in the street, slow their cars, take photographs, donate to what are, ostensibly, complete strangers. ‘We’ve seen you all over Facebook’ ‘ We love what you’re doing’ etc. Today the Warburton Bridge was opened for pedestrians - us - for the first time in months. They even delayed it, so we could grab some lunch. Thanks fellas

People have offered tea, cakes, pints, wine, ice cream, Soreen. And money. Lots of it. Free breakfasts, lunches and treatment tables. Ben from Ben’s Sports massage in Wigan drove out miles to butcher me this evening.

I said ‘just about everyone’ ….. so when you are broken and know you have to go again tomorrow and fancy a clean shirt and socks and are told by a Dickensian landlady ‘we’ll charge you for this’, you, I think, have grounds for a sense of humour breakdown.

Ho hum. It goes on. 08.30. Tomorrow. Madness.