Trans Pennine Trail West (Southport - Manchester)

Saturday 22nd August 2009

The weekend before I'd let myself get talked into riding the Trans Pennine Trail from coast to coast.  It's an adventure I've been meaning to undertake for a couple of years.  The TPT runs from Southport on England's west coast, south to Liverpool and across the country through Manchester, the Peak District, Barnsley, Hull and on to Hornsea on the east coast.

After a little self-analysis I realised the nervous feeling in my gut was telling me we weren't in any way prepared for the 215 mile (346Km) trip.  Instead, we decided to ride the first section as a training ride for the full trail.

We set off from Southport and very soon took a detour off the trail via Crosby.  This involved quite a long delay, trudging across sand dunes carrying our bikes before realising we had to turn back as we ran into a military firing range between us and Crosby beach.  We finally arrived at Crosby for a late morning break with Anthony Gormley's Another Place installation (100 life size nude, male, sculptures staring out to sea).

After navigating our way through Crosby to get back to the trail we quickly flew down to Liverpool for a lunch overlooking the Mersey.  It was a great ride through the Liverpool Loop Line trail although Huggy and I felt pretty finished by the time we stopped for lunch.

The fatigue didn't last long though.  We absolutely belted it between Liverpool and Manchester (with me leading the way naturally!).  After surviving 70 miles and a near miss with a scally nutter in a car we arrived back in Didsbury at a fork in the road.

"We have a choice" I said.  "On the left, there's my house, at the top of a steep hill.  At the end of the track on our right is a pub."

He made a good choice.