Читать книгу The Lancashire Cycleway. The tour and 17 day rides онлайн

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Then there’s the descent. Cooled yet elated, you swoop down into the warm little village of Slaidburn. Few things will ever taste better than that first pint at the Hark to Bounty or mug of tea at the café by the bridge.

From Slaidburn there’s a bit more climbing, a mere bagatelle after Cross O’Greet, and then a grand section over a rumpled upland before you drop into the Ribble Valley. The local tourist office is fond of repeating that the Queen once said she’d like to retire to this area. One can see why: it encompasses a lot of proper English countryside, with small fields, hedgerows and a richness of trees, bounded by skylines of rock, peat, sedge and heather. Pretty villages – most of them not at all self-conscious about their prettiness – crop up at regular intervals.

At the heart of the valley is Clitheroe, one of the nicest small towns in England, clustered round a castle that surely never intimidated anyone. If Castle Street were traffic-free, Clitheroe would be just about perfect. As it is, maybe it’s a good thing that the Cycleway sidles past just to the north. Then there’s Whalley, with its serene Abbey ruins, and Ribchester, another handsome village and a significant Roman site.