Day: 9 August 2019

8th  August 2019

Journey Length 16.9ml

Click Here For Route Via Ride with GPS

It’s a Thursday so that means adventure night, sadly the last couple of weeks have been adventure less firstly due to the bad weather and secondly last week Graham being unwell with a sore throat not to mention his bad back. Anyway we were back on it tonight with a mystery adventure, I knew where we were going but I didn’t tell Graham.
After a quick catch up about our time apart, Graham and Val celebrating their anniversary in Stratford and Peggy Lou and myself having another break in Mabel and other minor events we set off. Up Glynne St and across through New Bury we picked up the Roe Green Loop-line for a short distance before turning right. We stopped on Old Lane in Little Hulton to check our heading, as I checked our map I heard Graham ” I’d hurry up if I were you mate we’re going to be high as kites” referring to the amount of cannabis smoke coming out of the bus shelter from the spliffs being smoked.

Across the road we rode through a small pathway and passed a couple of scallies coming the other way as we passed one said in a Manc accent “watch it lads there’s a dead pigeon on steps”. Graham questioned what he’d said, but it soon became apparent, as we stepped over the remains of the dead pigeon, not a pleasant sight.
Reaching Manchester Rd we turned right before eventually finding our turning up Wharton Ln. This ran along the outskirts of the new development near Aldi and Amazon, a huge place which was obviously still expanding with the signs of building work to our right. We continued along until we surprisingly came upon a cemetery in the middle of the site. On exploration we found it to be Wharton Presbyterian Church cemetery, as we rode around we noticed a man sitting on a bench all alone, he said he was just having a quiet moment away from the Mrs.

 

 

Continuing down the path it eventually disappeared into the grasslands. We did however manage to pick a trail up again, hoping this would lead us towards my objective, sadly all we did was after a couple of dead ends do a full circle and emerged back on the field where we had gone in, ahh well.

We followed the path of the railway line as much as we could, and Graham at one point went totally off piste but nevertheless got us to a bridge over the railway. On the other side we took the path to our right and soon came to a dead end, a quick U turn and a change of route soon had us on our way.
Now I know Graham’s hearing isn’t the best, so as we rode along we were obviously nearing a Brook, so I decided to advise Graham of this fact so I shouted out “hey pal I can hear running water!”, he replied with ” yeah I can hear an ice-cream van”, OMG give me strength.

 

 

 As we came to a road I had a quick look at our map to see where we needed to go, unfortunately for us we needed to turn right, but there was a gate with a big sign on it PRIVATE ROAD STRICTLY NO ENTRANCE, well left it was then taking us miles out of our way. This is one of the many obstacles we have to overcome as extreme bikers.
We eventually came to the top of the road, and to Little Shakerley Common, it was here we were unsure where we actually where. After a quick map check we set off again heading along Boundary St in Tyldesley. We noticed the area was pretty clean and tidy, but strangely there were no children playing out in the streets or on the park. At the end of Boundary St we once again stopped to get our bearings. Now we turned right up Shakerley Rd and as we rode up I asked Graham how is back was , “ Not bad pal, it only hurts when I sneeze and shit !” , confused I questioned his reply , to be informed “ No not actually when I poo , it was just an expression “ . We rode along Lancaster Ave until we came to the entrance to the path we were searching for which would lead us to Shakerely Ln and hopefully onto our goal. As per usual things didn’t really go according to plan, missing our turn onto Engine Ln. After back tracking some distance we found our turning onto Engine Ln.

 

 

Once we were on Engine Ln I had a rough idea where our goal was. I explained to Graham that we needed to look out for a white coloured house with a chimney. We took a left turn off Engine Ln up a path leading us to Cutacre Country Park, in which was our goal, still a total mystery to Graham. The place I was looking for, i knew was hidden in the middle of a field and would be difficult to spot. Up and down different paths we went still unable to locate the mystery place. It was now I was beginning to think I wouldn’t be able to find it and disappoint Graham after all our hard work, when suddenly I caught sight of it, the ROC Nuclear Monitoring Post. These posts were common all over the UK during the Cold War and many were only de-commissioned in the early 90s. Much relieved we stopped and walked up a path to its location. I then explained to Graham that it was an underground Nuclear Monitoring Post. “ Wow ! how the hell did you come across this it’s awesome, well worth the hard work” Graham was very excited and when I told him we might even get a look down the hatch if its open he was gobsmacked.
Indeed the hatch was open and after hurriedly getting my torch off my bike Graham proceeded to climb down, unfortunately it is flooded now so he was only able to stand on the bottom run of the ladder, “ Bloody hell pal it sticks down here” he exclaimed as he gave me a brief description of what he could see. I didn’t go down due to the fact the shaft was quite deep and sadly I am afraid of heights. After Graham had exited the bunker and we had closed the hatch ( always safety first) we noticed some motorised paragliders flying above us.

 

We left the park onto A6 Salford Rd, to be confronted with a fair on the opposite side of the road. Not having time to partake in the fairground rides or sample the no doubt delicious cuisines on offer we headed on home with Graham still astounded with what we have seen. I think this adventure may be a little hard to surpass , but nevertheless I will definitely give it a go.

 

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Further Reading On ROC Nuclear Post

 

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