There is something quite magical about going to sleep adjacent to one country and waking up adjacent to another. I was able to enjoy a carb loading breakfast of porridge with berries and honey, toast and marmalade and coffee, while we drifted into Liverpool

I made a rookie error on disembarking by asking Google maps to take me to the Mersey Ferry. It did. the one which has been decommissioned. I eventually navigated to the right one.

Which took me across to where I needed to start navigating home from.

This is where my problems started. The Garmin announced ‘navigation error’ then reset and it looked to me like the route was reinstalled. I set off but began to realise there was a problem as the direction felt unfamiliar and I was alongside, albeit on a good cycle track, the A580 towards Manchester but northerly rather than towards Warrington. The one advantage this long, straight, boring section of route had on it was the availability of McDonalds. I stopped for a second breakfast.

Not long after that I decided it must be lunchtime.

My suspicions that my route was not what I expected was confirmed when I sailed past signs to The Christie.

It did make me reflect that just over a year before I might not have anticipated I would be so recovered after a robotic radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. The wonders of modern surgery (and the consummate skill of the surgeon).

My entry back into the Peak District felt circuitous and climbs harder than the route I had taken a few weeks previously. There was a killer climb which left me grinding at the pedals before I reached Mam Tor once more and could enjoy the paragliders soaring around the tops.

By the time I descended Winnats I was feeling the accumulated effects of the cycling and walking over the last 7 days. I checked the timetable. If I put the power down I could make a train at Hathersage and then get back to Shireoaks from Sheffield in time for tea. Which is why, dear reader, my last picture is from Platform 2 at Hathersage Station having had an utterly brilliant trip to Sligo and back again.

Stats: 109km / 6hrs 21m moving time / 1064m elevation / 2761 cals burned.