Elton Reservoir

17th July

Journey Length 20.3ml
(this is not accurate tracker went mad I think)

Click here for route

Our first expedition after our summer holidays was determined by the weather, on a lovely summer evening Graham suggested we went to Elton reservoir, which originally was made to be a feed for the Bolton Bury & Manchester canal system.

We set off from Graham’s house down and across the Meccano bridge and along the canal dropping into the canal at its breach and back across to the towpath. We were soon making good progress at a nice speed, but soon we came upon another cyclist heading the same way, rather than over taking him, we let him remain in front of us, this turned out to be a good move on Graham’s part. Due to it being a nice evening there were numerous people walking along the canal and our new found cyclist kept the way clear by ringing his bell.

Upon our arrival at Radcliffe where we crossed the road to rejoin the canal, we found ourselves once again on our own, to our dismay found that Graham’s bell was broken and as I didn’t have one we now had to slow down a little to avoid others on the towpath.
Soon we reached the bridge that crossed the canal to take us up to the reservoir, here we took a breather and watched the trams that now run parallel with the canal. Up to the reservoir we sat on the wall and took in the wonderful views whilst enjoying a refreshing drink and a packet of Quavers.

After our break we took a path that runs up to Bury road, at the point were we came out on Bury road it was right opposite the Wellington pub, not being men to look a gift horse in the mouth, we took it upon ourselves to explore the beer garden, this we did with a nice cool pint of lager.
Exiting the pub we found ourselves a little confused of which way to head home, but after a couple of seconds we realised how stupid we were and set off home, along Bury road, following it to its junction with Radcliffe Moor Road where we split up, Graham heading towards Little Lever , as I continued along the road until I turned left along Long Lane and then took a short cut across Leverhulme park and back home until next time.

PS Ive got a new bell now kindly bought by my daughter, thanks sweetheart, didn’t get much Micky taking ha ha.