Now on the Trans Pennines trail to Hull the rest of the ride across England should have been easy. It was at first, the TPT helped us navigate Manchester by leading us through green parks and leafy suburbs. A brief Lidl pit stop was the only delay along an otherwise simple ride.

  
After our Lidl stop (which also included a completely unhelpful trip to a nearby outdoor store to get our tent poles replaced) the trail became a bit tougher. The route was to be shared with horses and after passing into Reddish Country Park the path became a sandy,  rocky trial that slowed the loaded bikes down. There were also stiles every couple of meters and after lifting our bikes over maybe the tenth stile of the day we decided that maybe the TPT wasn’t for us.

 

 
  
After lunch we were to cross the Peak District and then find somewhere to camp at the end of the day on the other side. We gave up on the Trans Pennine Trail and instead followed the road over the northern pass. The Peaked Didtrict, despite having worried about crossing it,  turned out to be a pretty gradual climb, only to about 400m in the end.

 

 
  
  
An exhilarating descent later led us into the valley of Penistone where we found a field to camp in after asking around. The people who lived opposite the field we camped in, a friendly couple named Sile and Chris offered us water. And then, after a short conversation during which we divulged our breakfast situation (porridge for me, pasta for Finn) offered us a cooked breakfast in the morning.

 “Well, if it’s not too much trouble…”