We got up at 7, knowing we had to be at Birmingham New Street at 10 to meet Caroline.

If you haven’t read the earlier posts, you will not know that by this stage Tom had problems with his knee, and so was having a few rest days in Birmingham.

From Wins’ parents house we cycled to Bournville train station, where we picked up the canal and cycled into the center of Birminham. We met Caroline at Birmingham New Street train station, and continued on the canal towards spahetti junction.

When the towpath got too off-road for my road tyres, we left the canal and headed in slightly the wrong direction along some roads, until we met a small town and were able to find out where we really were. The 4 miles to an inch atlas that we were using to navigate was not really meant for navigating round canals, and so they were not well marked on.

We had lunch near the entrance to Sutton Park, then continued on small B roads towards Rugeley. From there we headed for Uttoxeter, and then found small roads leading to Ilam hall.

Caroline left us near Mayfield because she lives on the other side of Ashbourne to where we were staying, and me and Hazel continued to Ilam Hall youth hostel.

Ilam is situated down a very large hill, and so it was easy cyling down towards it, but the thought of getting out the next morning was not a nice one.

Once at the hostel, we made a pasta & tuna bake type thing, and then had a look round the hostel and chapel nearby.

Distance: 65.6 miles (Cumulative: 344 miles)

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