Dodging the showers

We left our rather posh hotel this morning with wet roads and overcast skies, but no actual rain. The forecast was for heavy showers all day and if you look at the photos you'll see the clouds - but unbelievably we managed to stay dry all day, with just occasional spots of rain which thankfully came to nothing.  The first 25 miles was almost entirely flat, but along narrow back lanes with huge puddles and a lot of mud.  The bikes (and us) were soon plastered with muck but we made good progress to our first objective (and only biggish town) of the day - Stone in Staffordshire.  Coffee and cake was duly ordered and we made the place look as untidy as possible.   

The route then got a lot hillier, but still on quiet roads, with enormous thunder clouds on view rather closer than we might have liked. We arrived in one village just after they must have had a huge dump of rain, but amazingly we managed to time it just right.  From this village the route took us through a fence and up a narrow path covered in moss etc, to pop out through a hedge on to a main road - probably surprised a few drivers as we would have appeared to be emerging from a ditch!  A little further on the road actually went through a house - think I would prefer not to have the bedroom above the arch (see below).

We eventually got to Carsington Water after 55 miles for a late lunch, at which point the odd glimpses of sun became full hot sunshine as we enjoyed our bread and bananas at the outside tables watching the world go by - and meeting up with some of the other cyclists as they arrived. From there it was only 7 miles to our hotel in Matlock Bath, which is another upmarket place (although we are in the less salubrious rooms). Luckily they had a hose outside so we were all able to get the bikes washed before putting them away (although given the forecast for the next two days I'm not sure it was worth the effort).  

Question: what has happened to the good old launderette? We haven't found any yet, except in Weston - but it closed before we even arrived. As a result we seem to be sharing the shower with a pair of muddy socks and / or cycling shorts most nights 😳

I am hoping this will post OK as we have no Wifi in the room, but it appeared to work downstairs. Photos are on the route today and our two posh hotels.