16th May 2019
Journey Length ml 10.6ml
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After last week’s disappointment of no adventure I am pleased to announce that this week Graham pushed himself through the pain barrier and suitably medicated we met up at the old Jaguar garage as prearranged. Ahh now then our old Jag garage rendezvous point has now become a brand spanking new Hyundai garage, but we both agreed it will always be know to us as the old Jag garage.
Our mission today as we had accepted was to travel into Bolton via part of No 55 cycle route. We aimed to join it at the top of James St in Highfield.
Once we found the cycle path we were on our way, then “SMASH”, what was that I asked Graham, after a short pause he shouted “it’s my light it’s fell off” as I retraced our path I spotted it on the ground, then heard Graham “yeah its my light”. “Hey its your light, it’s my light, it’s your light” and so the conversation went on.
After fixing Graham’s light we followed the path up over Highfield Rd and then along until we came to Plodder Ln. Now here there is a new zebra crossing, this is where we came across our first Not Right. A car stopped and Graham set off to cross when the car lurched forward with the driver shouting at Graham , ” Ya fucking dickhead you changed direction” now how you do that on a crossing intrigues me but Graham just courteously thanked him and we rode on.
We took a quick detour to visit the Brooklyn Hotel, which has now sadly closed, it is a wonderful building. We were surprised to see that all the lawned areas are still being cut and maintained.
Back on our travels we were soon passing through Heywood Park. Out of the park we were passed by Not Rights No2. A couple of idiots on motorbikes flying past who as Graham noted could obviously not ride properly . In a matter of a couple of hundred yards Not Right No3 appeared. Waiting to cross Derby St at a traffic lights ,as the lights changed a van stopped right in front of us, blocking the crossing for everyone .
We headed towards our next point which was Middlebrook. Once there we took a right turn and under the railway and headed through Queens Park following the River Croal, when I spotted a little carved wooden house. We knocked on the door but there was ” nobody in”. It was here Graham’s back started to hurt again, but as a true extreme cyclist he continued through the pain barrier and we decided to head for home.
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Here we also spotted something hanging from a tree but have no idea what it is. (see photo below) .If you have any idea what it is please leave a comment at the bottom of the page.
Travelling through the town centre we took a road down the back of McDonald’s which led us down to the Brook running under Victoria Hall. It was a dark eerie area, and we soon left as a group of intimidating youths were hanging around, so we rode up a back St passing Not Rights No5 & No6, a couple of men sat in a doorway in the dark, smoking what I can only say by smell was an illegal substance, something that us extreme bikers find hard to understand. Only minutes later passing the town hall we came across Not Rights No7 and No8 both staggering out of a phone box, what they were up to I’ll leave you to imagine, all I can say is they definitely weren’t making a phone call.
As we rode down to Churchgate we chatted about how bad Bolton Town centre had become, saying there should be more Bobbies on the beat, and other things we like to get on our soap box about.
We took a quick turn into the grounds of Bolton Parish church and came upon the grave of the famous Samuel Compton “Ahh so that’s where he was born then!!” remarked Graham ,quickly correcting himself as I looked on laughing. It was here we noticed a small tent pitched in the grounds, it was obvious that it was a homeless person’s . The world has really gone down hill and it is certainly in a sad state today.
Exiting the grounds we came across a building with a plaque which read “Bolton Grammar School” this was a total surprise to us. it now looks like offices but it is a nce building.
We rode under the subway to Bury Rd, stopping to decide our path home, I pointed out across the road underneath the arches “Gilly’s garage” to Graham it is owned by a friend on mine Paul.
We rode along a path at the side of St Peter’s way until it crossed Bury Rd and along Holden St until its end. Undecided to turn left or right I spotted a gate to the right so we headed for that. Graham commented “Bloody hell mate how hell did you spot that?”, “just fined tuned extreme biking skills” I replied.
The small narrow path led us down the side of St Peters way and it was along here I attempted a selfie on the move ( I think I may need more practice tho). This brought us out to underneath the old railway viaduct which crosses over St Peters way. The viaduct is now a cycle route so we followed the path until a turning which would lead us up to the cycle path. Here there is a gate to access it, unfortunately Graham was unable to get his bike through so we ended up having to lift our bikes over. We chatted her for a while before setting off towards Darcy Lever and onwards to our homes. Making sure Graham was OK and shouting “text when you’re home pal ” . As I neared my home who did I bump into only Paul whos garage I’ve mentioned earlier, what a small world it is.
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