Thurs 8th June 2023
The sun is out and so are we. It’s a Thursday so that can only mean one thing, adventure night. I’d been in contact with Graham earlier in the morning and sorted out our rendezvous point. Fortunately this week Graham had gotten home from work earlier than the week before so that meant we could hopefully complete our adventure tonight.
As I rode along the canal on my way to meet up with Graham I passed a family of swan’s happily swimming along in the evening sunshine, so I just had to stop and take a little video. Our rendezvous point was Meccano bridge but as I approached I didn’t see any sign of Graham, that was until I was on the bridge itself and spotted him sat patiently on the benches below awaiting my arrival. I joined him and had 2 minutes rest before setting off. We chatted about the usual stuff of the previous week and he asked if I was excited about my upcoming wedding to Looby Lou, which I replied “ I am pal didn’t think I’d be getting married again at my age but I’m really happy “ .
The conversation then turned to Grahams sweatshirt . As you may recall in last week’s adventure Graham had only worn a tee shirt and had felt cold on our return leg so this week he had brought his “new” sweatshirt he’d found in his wardrobe, proudly wearing it around his waist in preparation.
Once again I’d use the Komoot app to explore an area of interest for our adventure . We were both upbeat about tonight as it was as to take us into unknown territory, namely Hollins Vale nature park.
The towpath along here was dry and dusty which meant that we could make good speed. As we rode along we came to a long bend in the canal here nature had began to reclaim this section, the trees and bushes almost obliterated our view around the bend so we slowed down to enable us to see anyone who approached from the opposite direction. we both remarked how wonderful nature was nothing could stop it reclaiming its home.
It was shortly after here we passed the old steam crane that was used to load and unload boats on the canal to the works below. It a famous landmark on this stretch of Canal but sadly it is in a very poor condition now . We discussed if Fred Dibnah was still alive he might have restored it , but then again in this day and age it would only end up being vandalised anyway.
We crossed the bridge over to Outward Country park it was here Graham remarked on the bollards which prevent motorcycles and to be honest bike’s from crossing “ those are a proper set of bollards them” and indeed they were. Onward through the park we took a few wrong turns but eventually got onto Radcliffe New Road. This took us passed a bit derelict of land that was previously The Wellington pub. Up the hill passed Coronation park , before we dived down into Springwater park a nice country park with some marvellous views. Part way through we came upon a set of open gates with a large warning sign. As extreme bikers we read it, digested it and carried on. Now as we’d dropped down it meant we had to climb out up a very steep winding hill. Slow but surely we made it and just before the summit we passed a man walking his dog, I politely said hello with Graham behind me. Once at the top we rested opposite some bungalows. “ did you speak to that bloke pal ?”Graham asked , then continued “ I couldn’t even breathe never mind talk“ . As we rested Graham noticed some forms bungalows similar to his own apart from these had chimneys, which in turn oddly prompted a discussion about the pronunciation of the word Chimney, the things that we get up to on our little adventures.
Our route followed the road but as we did I noticed what looked like a path which would be a short cut, how wrong was I! It was a path but it soon became more and more overgrown until at one point we were making our own path hacking our way through. Now totally overgrown we ploughed on pushing through thorns and nettles. The end was in sight but there was a large obstacle in our way , lots and lots of stinging nettles. Now as we were only dressed in shorts I was for turning around but Graham was adamant, we plough on, so we did we were stung all over our arms and legs and still felt the affects the day after, but we are EXTREME BIKERS.
Next we headed along Manchester Rd and used the pelican crossing to aide us across the road and do a u- turn which would enable us to go up Hollins Brow . The lights were on red so I stopped but Graham in a moment of madness mounted the kerb to , in his words “ Cheat the lights” , a very silly thing to do and this was emphasised when he had to pull up sharply for a pedestrian which in turn caused his chain to jam up again , yet another breakdown. Now with Grahams expert mechanical skills we were soon on our way. We rode up the brow with me chastising him for being so impatient and silly “ Alright “ he said “I know I was wrong you don’t have to keep nagging me” but I did , lessons have to be learned.
We turned down Aviation Rd towards our next waypoint when Graham told me he had passed nearby on his way home and had noticed a plaque about an Olympic cyclist not far from here and that we should have a look. It turned out to be for a man called “Harry Hill” . Now the only Harry Hill we’d heard of was the comedian but this guy was in fact an Olympic medalist in cycling. Here’s what I found out about him.
Harry Heaton Hill (8 May 1916 – 31 January 2009) was a British cyclist who competed in the Olympic Games in 1936. He won the bronze medal in the 4000m team pursuit in Berlin. Upon returning to Britain after the Olympics, Hill bicycled 170 miles towards his hometown. Having bought an Olympic souvenir jacket, he had no money for food and, weak from hunger, hitched a ride for the last 30 miles. After winning the bronze medal, Hill became the first person to cycle 25 miles in an hour on an outdoor track he, ran a garage shop in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester. At 60, he cycled across North America.He was a father of five children, claimed never to have smoked or to have drunk alcohol and, until 2004 when he fractured his hip in a fall , he had biked every day since he was 13. On 23 March 2005 he attended a reception headed by Queen Elizabeth II honouring 100 years of the British Olympic Association.He died of pneumonia on 31 January 2009, at the age of 92.(cc Wikipedia )
As we rode down Aviation Rd once again we passed numerous portable caravan style porta cabins that had their wheels removed obviously for security reasons, as we passed each one I heard Graham call out ” No wheels” then the next one “No Wheels” and yet again , “No wheels”. Thank goodness there were only about 20 of these, it could have got really annoying . Luckily for me he was distracted by a farmer unloading some cows into a field .We rode up the path near the farmer which took us passed some more cows and one of which turned out to be a Bull took a particular dislike to us , so we hurried along as quickly as we could. We continued through Hollins Vale Nature Reserve which was our goal for this evenings adventure. The nature reserve is only small but is run by volunteers to help the community, and as we rode along we passed quite a few people taking advantage of it. The path meandered through the reserve but every so often we were greeted by kissing gates which were too small to get our bikes through, so we had to lift them over each time. On one occasion after the fourth or fifth gate and due to my own stupidity I hadn’t steadied myself first and ended up tumbling over bike in hand much to Grahams amusement, but I soon had the last laugh. The last 2 gates were only 3m apart so Graham took his bike over first as I followed but instead of waiting for me to assist him he had lifted his bike over the last gate, which meant we couldn’t open the gate to get through, so we were stuck. Much struggling ensued before we were back on our way.
Our way home took us on a different route to the canal via Dummers Ln and then onto York St, where we passed a very forlorn looking dumper truck. Graham had the bright idea that we could get CAR SOS ( the TV show) to repair it but I pointed out that we didn’t own it so that was a problem. “Talking about CAR SOS when you watch it do you cry at the end” to which I replied “sometimes I have a tear in my eye “ and Graham admitted he was the same , we’re a right couple of softies.
Through the area of Swan Lodges we rode once again taking the odd wrong turn before we emerged up on Bury Rd at the side of the river Irwell. As we emerged we saw police ambulance and fire engines, obviously there had been some incident or other but it looked like they were just getting ready to set off, hopefully everyone was ok.
We now arrived at the underpass underneath the tram lines to Bury as you enter there is a small stone archway on your right hand side which is a metal foot bridge lined with loose boards suspended under the railway bridge . A really unusual set up
On the canal towpath we headed towards Bolton . It was a lovely evening and the towpath was busy with people taking an evening stroll etc. at one point we encountered what we thought would be an issue but thanks to everyone involved it passed without incident. As we rode along we were coming up behind a couple with a jogger approaching them from the opposite direction which meant we would probably have a bit of a problem but as the jogger approached the couple he called out bikes behind you, they moved to one side as did we as the jogger carried on by and the we passed the women with a polite thank you, life’s great when people work together.
We were soon back at our starting point , Meccano bridge, it was here we realised that we hadn’t take our selfie. The selfie took we discussed how long we’d been doing these adventures it was actually back in 2011. Graham had the idea of posting a photo of us then and now so here we go. We parted company at the end of the canal with the promise of messaging when we were both home , I also enquired how grahams legs were as mine were still stinging quite a bit . I just got a one word reply “sexy “
