All Jumbled Up

22nd July

Journey Length 18.3ml

The UK was in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures in excess of 28° but this didn’t stop our extreme biking adventure this evening, taking extra water and other precautions we were good to go. Graham and myself set off from my house, as we did Peggy Lou waved us off saying that we needed to go down some hills to cool down and get the wind in our hair, bit difficult for me though seeing I’ve got less hair than Kojak (our younger readers may need to Google that) 

The temperature was still over 23° so we set off at a quite leisurely pace towards Seven Acres Park, heading towards our area of exploration. As we rode at a leisurely pace Graham told me about his ride to meet me. He had been nearly knocked off his bike by car drivers not once but twice,by them just not giving cyclists enough space when passing. He told me about one guy passing him at a traffic island forcing a car and caravan to brake to avoid an accident. Some people really need to learn to appreciate other road users, thankfully with him being an extreme biker he was able to negotiate these problems, other bikers may not be so lucky. 

Once through the park it was simply a little ride up to the bridge which took us across over the brook and  into Longsight Park. I waved my right arm about to let Graham know we were turning right. I informed him that this was a military indicator, “Really?” he asked, “Yes it’s an Armeee Signal ” I said,not amused Graham just gave a little groan.

Up ahead we saw a group of cyclists to our left and I pointed out that they looked like they were taking a path we had looked for a couple of times before, but tonight we were heading North up towards Jumbles reservoir. As you’re no doubt aware we often make a wrong turning or two and tonight was no different, I turned right up Tottington Road in error, Graham seeing the large hill ahead sighed, then I explained I had made a wrong turn, “Thank god for that he said, thought we were going up that hill there then”. 

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Once back on our route we went down Rigby Lane down towards Bradshaw Brook which we aimed to follow, but yet again I made an error crossing over the bridge. As I stopped on the bridge to take a photo I heard Graham say “Bike ahead’, he had noticed a cyclist waiting to cross the single track bridge, so we rode on letting him through, as we passed he said thank you and rode over, some people are quite polite. Back over the bridge we found the path we had missed ,it was quite twisty and windy as well as being very overgrown in parts with stinging nettles and brambles either side, with both of us getting stung and cut, this is nothing unusual for us  extreme bikers. 

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As we rode along I spotted a bright purple bird box in a tree, I asked Graham why it might be purple, his answer, “might have been the last one in the shop?”. Probably not the answer I was looking for. It was then I noticed the fencing all around the area. “Ah I think the fence is for the bird’s pal”, his reply amused me, “What you mean for the Ostriches and Emus to stop em getting out”, “No you numpty, to protect the birds nests from humans”. I also pointed out to him the flattened grass around the area noting it was where deer would have slept the previous night. He was quite impressed with my knowledge, but sometimes I wonder why I bother, a little further along there was a large area of mown grass, “ahh” said Graham “there must have been a lot of deer here” he chuckled, omg give me strength. 

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Whilst having a breather we were passed by a large number of people on mountain bikes going at a fair lick, I jokingly mentioned to Graham we would wait a while for them to get ahead so we wouldn’t have to pass them on the narrow path. A little farther along the path on the left we came to a set of large iron gates that lead to a relatively new building but they were all rusty and bolted shut,obviously they had not been used for a long time. Graham spotted that the path on the other side had obviously been used recently which left us puzzled.  

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Now we were almost at the end of the path and we should have taken a left turn but not surprisingly we missed it and around the next bend who should we come across, yes the group of mountain bikers that had flown passed us. A proper case of the hare and the tortoise. We soon realised why they had stopped. It was at the bottom of the very steep hill leading up to Jumbles reservoir, off we rode up, but sadly our age is against us now and with the barmy evening it proved too much, even for us extreme bikers. 

After missing our turning we took the decision to ride up and around the reservoir. It was such a lovely evening we stopped on the small bridge just peering into the water below. As we did we saw lots of little bubbles rising to the surface, “probably fish” Graham said wondering why they would be blowing bubbles, then he answered himself ” they’re probably pumping, ha ha ha”. He’s so childish sometimes. 

Such a lovely evening meant there were quite a lot of people walking and cycling around which did slow our progress somewhat, but saying this we found everyone was polite and courteous. Letting people pass and keeping everything flowing.As we got further along the path it narrowed and the people had long disappeared. We were now right at the side of the Brook with a steep drop down on our left. Along here were placed some old flag stones, some of which had rather large gaps. I warned Graham that you had to concentrate along here, just as I did I missed one of the flags and nearly ended up in the water. “What was that you were saying?” Graham said laughingly. 

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A quick look at Google maps gave us the heading we needed, but all wasn’t good, the battery on my phone was almost dead, this meant there was only one thing for it we would have to navigate the old fashioned way, yes follow the road signs. 

We were now at the end of the path and onto Vale Street. We rode up to the top, there we stopped and we both agreed we needed to turn left up the hill to take us back towards Bolton. This was Wellington Road which soon led us to the top of Chapeltown Road.

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As we rode along we spotted a WWII pillbox in a field on our left, a bit of local history ,so we stopped to take a quick photo before carrying on. A little distance along I saw a sign for Turton tower, a place we have never visited. Graham suggested we go there but not tonight as we were already behind schedule, but as if by magic the entrance appeared on our right, well we just had to go now, seeing we were almost there. Up through the car park we rode until we came upon the tower. It is infact a large house that has evolved over the the past 600 years. On one of the walls was an advertisement for an open air play about the life of Sir Walter Raleigh, “I asked Graham if he thought Walter would be coming on his bike?” After what seemed like an eternity, he answered “omg that’s on a par with your armee joke”. I soon had the last laugh though. We decided to ride up and around to see the “Castled Bridge” over the railway. Graham was leading the way now as we came to a large locked gate, now I had spotted a path to the left bypassing the gate and rode up it, meanwhile Graham was attempting to lift his bike over the gate with little success. Hence to say he soon followed me, asking me how I’d spotted the path, instinct pal that’s all it is. After a quick look at the bridge and its turrets we headed home. Chapeltown Road from here is all downhill and following Peggy Lous advice we let the wind blow through our hair and cool down. 

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On a previous adventure we had been made aware that some kind of housing development was being built behind Matalan on Tonge Moor Road, so we took a slight detour to investigate. Well there was no sight of any houses and the sign had been taken down, it was just an overgrown wilderness. The path through it brought us out onto Ainsworth lane not before Graham once again leading had taken a wrong turn, but corrected himself by saying he was just giving me the chance to get in front, I believe you pal. We were soon back in Leverhulme Park where we had a break and sat on a bench reviewing our evening’s adventure. Graham turned to me and said “Gonna tell you face to face rather than text, that was a bloody good adventure I thoroughly enjoyed that pal,I’ll tell you what it’s nice having a truly best friend, not a lot of people can say they have a really good best friend like us pal” I must agree with him fully on that, it is great to have a bestest friend, especially one like Graham. As we sat chatting a small boy and his mum passed by, the boy noticed the cut on Graham’s leg and asked what had he done and was he OK. Something like that restores your faith in human nature. Now it was time to part company and head our separate ways home, until next time. Take care. 

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