27th JULY 2023
A rainy Thursday had laid ahead and I wondered if we would get out on an adventure. After receiving a message from Graham in the morning that weather permitting it would be a go, even though he was working in York and would possibly be late, this though didn’t prove to be much of an issue as we were off towards Bury, so I could meet him near his.The rain had ceased and the skies had cleared but the towpath along the canal near Darcy Lever was extremely muddy and littered with deep puddles, this made it a little slow going. I eventually got to the Meccano Bridge and found Graham was already there waiting for my arrival sat on one of the Meccano benches. We chatted for a moment before I told Graham , ” My helmet stinks pal, here have a whiff”. Graham bent over to smell my helmet ” Phwoor ooh ahh , that hums pal where the hell’s that been ?” I explained it had gotten wet on Sunday in all that rain and it hadn’t dried out properly.
We now headed along the Bury arm of the canal at a leisurely pace as we enjoyed the late evening sunshine that peaked through the clouds. The journey along the path was pleasant and we soon found ourselves towards the end of the canal at Bury. Here the path narrowed and was littered with large puddles, one of which was so big we paused to asses our situation.As we stopped we were lucky enough to spot a Roe deer just darting across the path into the bushes in front of us. Once the puddle had been assessed and negotiated we then emerged onto Wellington St were we paused for a while. Graham pointed out a building over the road and asked whether it was new or had been always been there. On looking at Google maps I can confirm that the building had been there some years , but had recently changed names to a school, well spotted Graham. Shortly after graham called out look at them mole hills , oh Graham you are silly sometimes!
Up onto Daisyfield Viaduct on our way towards the centre of Bury, as we rode over I said to Graham ” I’m sure I can hear bagpipes pal !”, “bagpipes ?” he asked inquisitively, I was right I could hear bagpipes, there was a piper below the viaduct at the Bury Training & Safety Centre, it looked like it was a Fire Brigade ceremony of some description. Graham wondered whether it could possibly be the same piper as we had had at our wedding a few weeks ago, it could well have been.
Onward we rode through the outskirts of Bury, passed the Police station and the Community Fire Station further along before going through a tunnel under the railway and then up a very ziggy zaggy pathway that Graham remarked reminded him of the roads in Corfu over the mountains and I could see exactly what he meant . We emerged onto Walmsley Rd where Graham pointed out that one of his customers was nearby, so we took a little detour to have a little look, sadly not a great deal to see just a lot of nice cars. From here we headed up Chesham Rd and up passed Miss Walkers field and up through Chesham Woods. I e commented that are so lucky to have an abundance of beautiful countryside right on our doorstep without even realising it. The path took us passed a lovely little cottage before we climbed up a hill, at the top the path opened up to a narrow road bridge over the M66 motorway . At the start of the bridge there was a sign ONE VEHICLE AT A TIME, so I went first followed shortly afterwards by Graham. Once over the bridge we encountered a very steep pot holed gravel covered hill, at one point we had to dismount and push our bikes up due to the bikes losing grip
The view from the top of the hill was stunning with views looking right over towards Manchester in the distance. The pathway now narrowed again and became muddy and full of puddles, so we slowly made our way along. It was rather dark along here even though it was a relativity sunny evening. Part way down we saw a lone house on the right, as I stopped to take a photo ,Graham nudged me, “ bit creepy that place don’t you think ?” he asked, before I could reply another question left his lips ” If you broke down here would you knock on to use their phone ?”, ” don’t think I would !” he said as he answered his own question. It was a little on the creepy side I must admit and we were both glad to leave it behind.
Thankfully the lane opened up into open fields and we were back in the sunshine. We came to a fork in the road and stopped and assessed which way to go, as we did I noticed a very old looking stone pillar, on closer examination I saw there was a hole straight through the middle, just large enough to get my hand through, thinking it would be funny to stick my arm through and wave back at Graham, however this didn’t go as planned, the hole was full of snails and as my hand touched them I recoiled back and pulled my hand back through a bunch of stinging nettles. When I told Graham about the snails he was squirming “OMG I couldn’t have done that urgh, it’d have been like I’m a Celebrity but instead it would have been I’M AN EXTREME BIKER GET ME OUT OF HERE”..
We’d taken the correct route and stopped to look at an expanse of water as an elderly man who was walking his dog stopped and said hello. Graham asked him about the water , and he explained it was the lodge for an old mill, he also advised us not to go down the path to it as it would be very difficult on bikes but instead gave us better directions to Burrs Park . As said thank you to the old chap we both commented on how he was such a lovely gentleman, but I added a little uncomplimentary “I wouldn’t eat to be sat with him in a pub, probably a bit boring”. Graham took umbrage to my remark and said “ I’d be happy to have a conversation with him, I’ve sat in a pub with you often enough “ he chuckled away to himself, cheeky bugger.
We followed the gents advise and try enough we were back on Walmersley Road. Here Graham had a little issue with a jogger, Graham stopped to let him go, but the jogger also stopped and then they both set off at the same time like a comedy sketch.Once in Burrs park we began exploring and soon came upon a large stone sculpture that is part of the Irwell Sculpture Trail. We haven’t followed the trail and thought it would be a great idea if we brought our caravan to the caravan park with Louby Lou and Val then Graham and myself could go on a exploration adventure. Watch this space.
It was now time to head home, on a slightly different route that took us up over Peel way. We used the new cycle lane with the traffic lights which enabled us to cross safely but it was very confusing ,similar to the one in Bolton . We now continued over the railway and along the Bolton Bury Cycleway , then down Moss Shaw Road before we picked up the Bradley Fold Cycle Way that brought us out at the Queens Pub in Bradley Fold, it was only a short distance home from here and we parted company as we promised to text as always.
