11th May 2017
Journey Length 5.1 ml
Click Here For Route Via Ride with GPS
Speaking to Graham earlier in the week he’d informed me that he had hurt his back on Sunday but didn’t know how, being a good mate I checked on his progress and decided to abandon my original plan and play it by ear.
Graham arrived at mine just as I had got my bike from the garage and he was chatting away on our door step with Peggy Lou, once I’d managed to stop them gossiping away like two old women we discussed where we were going to go.
The new route was to take us through Leverhulme Park around Seven Acres through Tonge Moor and then head home, dependant on Graham’s back. Well, we got all of 20 yard before Graham noticed my rear tyre was a little low, back to get the foot pump then, after trying and failing with his bike pump . Now fully inflated we once again set off, everything going well.
We exited Leverhulme park onto Bury Road and across to Seven Acres behind the Lancashire Wildlife building and onward up the hill, but that’s when the problems began, my bike kept slipping a cog when I was putting it under load, which wasn’t good. After a while and a few more problems with my bike we pulled over to see if we could fix it, unfortunately we couldn’t, Grahams professional job as a motor vehicle technician certainly comes in handy and he diagnosed in seconds that the problem was a stretched chain not seating properly. This diagnosis meant it was impractical for me to go up any sort of steep hill without it ending up causing an accident or worse.
Onward we went, now through Seven Acres, we crossed the road and rode up the flat section of road leading up to the Homespares building, from here we turned up a small path we had gone up on a previous adventure but this time we noticed a large swan on a pond on our left, wanting to get a closer look we rode around the outside of the pond, over to where the swan was. It was obvious that it was used to people as it didn’t flinch when we approached. After taking in the beauty of the swans and ducks, Graham said ” 3 guesses what bird I saw in my garden the other day ? “ after my final guess of a “Golden Eagle” he relinquished and told me it was actually a woodpecker, a red something woodpecker but again he wasn’t sure exactly, no surprise there then. I must admit I’ve never had a woodpecker in my garden so he’s got one up on me there.
We then continued along the path, I was still struggling with my gears when we came to a gated barrier which I managed to get the bike and myself wedged in ,eventually I freed the bike and myself and we continued along , all these little things were now beginning to build up, Graham’s back, my flat tyre, broken gears and now stuck in a gate, was it going to be one of those nights.
Rejoining Crompton way we turned right up Thickerford road and then left down Canute St and onto Tonge Park, a little gem in the middle of all the houses, a lovely little bowling green and plenty of grassy areas ideal for taking your dog for a little walk.
We exited the park onto Alexander Road and then left down Ainsworth lane until we reached its junction with Bury Road. Crossing the road we soon turned left into cemetery road and through the cemetery, stopping off to read some of the older gravestones, commenting on the life span of people of yesteryear and whether we actually live longer now. After our deep conversation about death we headed up out of the cemetery towards Leverhulme Park, once again I was struggling with the constant slipping of the chain. Leaving the cemetery we noticed a fallen tree , probably brought down by storm Doris.
Once back in the park we crossed Bradshaw brook and decided to turn right to ride up the now resurfaced hill back towards home, and then that was when it happened Graham saw his first deer.
We had stopped off for a quick chat when I noticed a roe deer just emerging from the trees, knowing Graham was quite jealous that living close by it is quite a regular occurrence for me to see such wildlife, so I quietly made him aware, and he watched in amazement as it passed in front of us, we followed it around to the river getting quite close at one point, it paddled across the river and off into the trees.
Grahams night had been made, so there was nothing else really to do but head home, so that’s exactly what we did.
