Day 6 - Bishop’s Castle to Runcorn

Much better weather today for Day 6. Mix of clouds and sun, with a favorable wind from the WSW. 75 miles, 3,533 feet of climbing. Fairly brisk with a 15.4 mph average. We’re not quite halfway, with 415 miles done and a bit less than 600 to go.

We pedaled through glorious countryside. Not many big climbs but lots of rolling hills. From our start in Bishop’s Castle, we headed Northeast to Shrewsbury (birthplace of Charles Darwin) , then north through the county of Shropshire, with a brief excursion back into Wales near Wrexham, then into the county of Cheshire to Runcorn, with Liverpool to our west and Manchester to our east.

Statue of Charles Darwin in Shrewsbury. We didn’t pedal past it, but I’m including it here in honor of my dissertation advisor, George Levine, preeminent Darwin scholar and author of Darwin Loves You: Natural Selection and the Re-enchantment of the World.

A few miles north of Bishop’s Castle

River Severn near Shrewsbury

The Parish Church of St. John the Baptist in the tiny village of Bettisfield, on the Wales side of the England-Wales border, in the Wrexham County Borough

This is not necessarily a plug for the TV series Welcome to Wrexham, but I couldn’t resist stopping for a photo

Country road leaving our second Brew Stop, with about 20 miles to go

Tama giving his wife Nix a boost up the final tough hill. They traveled all the way from New Zealand to be here.