20th August 2021 – Graham and Ebay's World

19th August

Journey Length 17.82ml

Graham was waiting patiently for my arrival at the Old Jag garage, he looked deep in thought when I arrived but it turned out he was only having a rest. The usual pleasantries were exchanged and after telling each other how we’d just nearly been caught in a heavy shower arrangements were made for a chat later in the adventure so we set off towards Albert Rd.

Now as we have explored a great deal of the area around us previously, new areas of adventures are becoming more difficult to find as we prefer not to visit the same places over and over again, but tonight looked like being one of those days.

We took the path just off Cleggs Lane which we followed up to its junction with the No55 cycle route towards Bolton. This took us up over Highfield Road and then across Plodder Ln. The route is along the old Roe Green – Fletcher St Junction of the LNWR railway line behind Bolton Hospital .Here is where the path became very narrow and was where we had to pull over to let another cyclist who was coming in the opposite direction pass us, “Think they need to widen this bit pal” I pointed out to Graham. We continued on under various bridges where groups of youths were milling about. Undeterred by their presence we politely thanked them as they moved to one side to let us pass, we’ve learned over the years never to judge people by their appearance alone.

We often chat as we ride and on this particular stretch Graham asked me about a film he had seen about people being fed pellets of humans, in some horrific future. He said the film was from the 70s but he couldn’t remember the name of the main actor, he was a mate of Kirk Douglas he said. I named all the actors from the time I could remember, Yul Brynner, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, all to no avail. You may be aware Graham is deaf in one ear so sometimes he doesn’t quite hear what I’m saying, as usually he is behind me. I think this was what created the confusion, he told me he thought the name was Heston, I quickly retorted “Ahh Blumenthal ” with a chuckle. I then called out “Charlton”, but no response from Graham so we just continued on our way. A few minutes later a shriek from behind “Charlton Heston, that’s who it was” exclaimed Graham, I told him I’d said that a whole back “Oh I thought you said Charles” answered Graham, never mind we got there in the end.

We now left the cycle path and followed the cycle route signs which led us down a very shiny cobbled Shaw St. As these were very unusual I stopped to take a photo only to see Graham behind me power sliding over the cobbles. ” Wow power slid right behind you there pal, just stopping in time, like a proper stuntman “ he said with a big smile on his face. After this excitement we continued towards Middlebrook via Baldwin St, where we spotted a couple of things. Firstly all the cars were parked on double yellow lines but at right angles as well as being on the pavement, damn selfish we thought. The other thing was an old sign above a door “John Hunt”, I pointed out to Graham with a little titter that I’d known his brother“Isaac”.

The weather looked like it was closing in and there were some really dark rain clouds to our left but being extreme bikers we just ignored this and carried on. Now we rode up along Gibraltar St, an area inhabited by the Asian community and with the aroma of spices wafting around. Graham noted ” You can bet what they’re avin for their tea,” as he took in the smell, “Yeah I think it’ll be cheese on toast”, we both chuckled as we rode on up to the Middlebrook trail. Here we passed a woman walking a dog off the lead, we slowed down to cautiously pass the dog when she said “Oh don’t mind him just run him over ”. A bit extreme I thought as we are both dog lovers, Graham explained to me that he thought she was joking and I laughingly agreed, well we hoped so anyway otherwise we were going to go back and Biff her right on the nose. A Short distance later we passed a little white dog. This one though was unaccompanied. A few feet further along, a boy of about 8 or 9 years old emerged onto the path carrying a fishing rod. He asked us if we’d seen the dog, and if we knew who it belonged to , I replied “Yes “and then “No”. I jokingly asked him if he was catching it with his fishing rod. Obviously not seeing the funny side he shouted after us “Hope you fall off your bikes”, bloody cheeky kids these days.

We took a breather and had our catch up underneath Beaumont Rd bridge as it looked like it was going to rain hard, but thankfully it blew over and remained dry, so now we continued along the trail towards Lostock Station with a few moans and groans as we got back on our bikes.

Soon we were on Tempest Rd but unfortunately I’d missed a turning and we were now heading in the wrong direction, even after making a u-turn we were still not going the right way, it all added to the excitement of our adventure. After a quick check of a map we spotted there might be a way down a path from the top of Bolton Rd which would take us onto Wigan Rd, but Bolton Rd is a dead end so it was a bit of a gamble. A steady incline took us up the road gradually getting steeper and steeper as we reached the summit. As we approached the summit we spotted two lady joggers ahead and decided we didn’t want to huff and puff as we passed them so they would think we were two fit men, we managed, just about it and said hello as we passed, but we were gasping for breath by the time we reached at the top.

Obstacles are a part and parcel of our adventures but some take a little more effort than others. This was one of those obstacles. A large metal barrier stood in our path ,the bikes would go through but what about us? Thankfully Graham came up with a solution and we were on our way, that is until Graham spotted an AA van in the distance and stopped to point it out to me. This path led us right down to the roundabout at Wigan Rd. Rather than continue along Wigan Rd to the town centre we thought it would be more interesting to go up through a housing estate along Beaumont Chase. A couple of u-turns later we found ourselves facing our second major obstacle, an even larger metal barrier. After a few head scratching minutes we had solved the problem ( SEE VIDEOS BELOW ) and were on our way to Moorlands View where once again we took a wrong turn but I eventually found the path between two houses with Graham complimenting me on my skills of finding our way around, thanks pal.

Up the hill we went and we got to the top of Top-o-Cow hill 166mt. As we took in the view we spotted a huge puddle right in the middle of our path, there was only one way to go and that was to go straight through it. The puddle was extremely deep, even coming over the top of our feet soaking them through, but extreme bikers are used to this type of discomfort so on we went. Graham’s bike relies on brake pads on the rims of his wheels so his braking was greatly affected by the water and as we rode down the steep hill to the main road I decided to get to the bottom first as I have disc brakes that still worked fine, so if needed be I could stop Graham with my bike if his brakes failed completely avoiding him shootin into the busy main road, thankfully this didn’t materialise and he came to a gradual stop at the bottom, but you have to plan for every eventually and look out for one another on our adventures.

Now it was just a pleasant ride down Plodder Ln. Thankfully the weather had been on our side and we had seen very little rain, so we had remained dry all through our adventure although we were only in tee shirts and shorts. We parted company at Bradford Rd with the request of a text when we were both home. As I arrived home I was greeted by Peggy Lou “Omg bet you’re soaked through” she said quizzically . Obviously I answered “No, perfectly dry in fact”. She couldn’t believe this, even touching my tee shirt to check. Apparently it had rained so hard that the water was coming off the roof like a waterfall. Someone must have been looking down on us tonight I thought.