15th May 2025
The weather continued to remain warm, dry and sunny. It had been like this for weeks now, not a spot of rain had fallen for nearly a month. The nights were still quite chilly though due to it only being late spring. I had planned to take a jumper , that was until I messaged Graham. I removed my jumper and left it hung in my garage ,something I was to regret later
We’d arranged to meet at the old Jaguar garage in Farnworth. As I arrived I spotted Graham sat on the wall waiting. After last weeks epic adventure Graham had requested that we do a shorter one this week as he couldn’t have a big one this week, Val had gotten a little concerned with the length of time we’d been out, over 3 hours, and to be honest Louby Lou had been a little bothered when it was nearly 9 o’clock and there was still no sign of us. We, as extreme bikers do take precautions, the Komoot app we use has a live tracking facility which allows people to track where we are ” live “ as a safety net.
I had recently invested in a new addition to our Extreme Bikers kit a mini rechargeable bike pump. I took the opportunity to test my fellow adventurer’s knowledge, so I passed him the pump for him to examine it. It didn’t take him long to work out what it was and was very impressed to add this to our armoury.
My plan this evening was to head over towards the Ellenbrook loopline and explore the area around there that we’d only ever rode through on the way to other adventures, this seemed the perfect time as it wasn’t too far.
I suggested to Graham that before we set off we take the opportunity to have a look around Farnworth town centre that had recently gone through some extensive redevelopment.When we got there we were amazed by what had been done. Gone was the market and the accompanying shops and in its place was an area of grass surrounded by apartment blocks . We were both quite impressed and agreed it was a nice improvement.
Now it was time for the real adventure to begin. To get to the start of the Roe Green loopline, our connection to the Ellenbrook loopline we had to travel via road, not our favourite part of our adventures, it can can be quite a dangerous. After surviving the near passes of bad car drivers we arrived at the point where we would join the Roe Green loopline.
The access to the line was on the opposite side of the road down a small slope. We rode down it and turned sharp right at the bottom to go back under the road bridge. I then spotted a couple of likely lads throwing rocks at glass bottles in the darkness under the bridge. A split second decision had to be made, turn back or continue. It may because we’re not as young as we were but by the time I’d made this split second decision we had past them , thankfully with no incident and we left the sound of breaking glass behind us.
Soon we were enjoying the lovely evening sunshine as we free wheeled down the route of the old railway line, now covered by trees and greenery of all descriptions, which made it a very pleasant place to be. It was along here we passed a man walking by, he was wearing a large coat and a bob hat. I turned to Graham and asked ” Did you see that guy , he had a bob hat on and we’re in shorts and T shirts ? “ . Graham hadn’t seen him , he said he’d been so preoccupied in the sights and sounds of the trees and the birds, that he’d failed to notice him. Shortly we turned off the Roe Green line and onto the Ellenbrook line . ” There’s loads of Blackbirds down here pal “ Graham commented, ” I like Blackbirds me “ and then ” I like Tits as well especially Great Tits ” followed by a childish giggle. Even without turning around I knew he’d have that silly grin on his face.
I was so distracted by Graham’s remarks I nearly came a cropper as we approached the descent to Hilton Ln. The path is divided into a narrow pathway beside a long flight of steps and I hadn’t realised but I was heading towards the steps instead of the path, but my wingman shouted out just in time “ Look out for the steps Ebay! “
At the bottom I pointed out to Graham the Little Cup & Crumb Cafe across the road, which I’d visited previously on a Sunday morning, a great little cafe in a terraced property where they’ve turned their backyard into a very nice seating area. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to stop on this occasion due to our time constraints.
A little further along the path we came to a crossroads. This was the entrance to the previously unvisited area we were going to be exploring this evening. To one side of the gates was an unusual square stone building. We’re unsure what it is, Graham did suggest it might be a castle but I’ve a suspicion he’s wrong. We negotiated our way through the various barriers and gates until we were merrily cycling along once again. This was a dirt / gravel path that weaved its way through the dense trees. Then suddenly as we turned a bend everything opened up and we emerged into a small open area surrounded by trees. I spotted a metal grill structure towards the middle of this area . Graham advised me that it was an entrance to a culvert, and he was right. We didn’t know where we were , a quick check on Google maps told us we were in an area called New Manchester, which neither of us had heard of.
We stood in this peaceful spot just enjoying the lovely evening sunshine and taking in the air we chatted about how we were looking forward to our holidays in the coming weeks.
Graham had spotted what he called a hill at one side of the opening so we set off to investigate. It was in fact a steep dirt banking which looked like it had been used as a track for motorbikes. As we followed it round it became obvious that the area had been used by motorbikes as the tracks continued for some distance. We branched off onto a smaller pathway just as we did I heard Graham shout out “ Urghh dog muck, watch it there pal nearly got mi tyres in it “
The dirt paths criss crossed as we weaved our way through the dense trees. Every now and then it opened up when they crossed. It was at one of these points we stopped for a chat and discussed the finer points of beer from Guinness to Poretti . Now, we both enjoy Coors Light and it was when this was mentioned Graham got on his soap box “ I’ll tell you what pal !“ he said. He then went on to complain that he’d recently become aware that Coors Light was now only 3.4% alcohol whereas before it was 4.0%. He explained that nowhere had they advertised the fact that they’d changed it which he found unacceptable. Graham is very easy going like myself but when something gets his goat he’s on one.
As we followed the paths this way and that we came upon a very strange looking tree, Graham described it as looking like it had a Koala on its trunk “ Hope it don’t bite me “ he added. Don’t think it would pal.
At the end of one of the paths we emerged into Trent Drive . Not knowing which way to go here, I checked Google maps and suggested we took the next left and follow that road, which we did. We rode passed some unusual houses with huge front gardens. We discussed how we wouldn’t like the idea of having a huge front garden and a small rear garden, “ Wouldn’t like to have mi BBQ and bi sunbathing in mi Speedos on that front lawn “ we said.
We followed the road until we crossed Peel Lane in Little Hulton and proceeded rather tentatively up Kenyon Way, which unfortunately has a bad reputation for being a bit of a rough area for violence and crime . Graham commented “ Glad it’s daylight pal wouldn’t want to be riding up here at night “
Fortunately we turned off Kenyon Way but the route we wanted to take was blocked by padlocked iron gates. We thought the better of trying to open them and made a speedy getaway up Wildbrook Road only to emerge back out onto Kenyon Way. Luckily it was only a short distance until we turned off. We soon realised that we’d been here before due to the Solar Farm we now saw in front of us. The last time though we’d come from the opposite direction but neither of us could remember where it led to.
Our question was soon answered. It brought us into the eastern side of Cutacre Park. We now knew we weren’t far from home so we could relax. We took the opportunity to sit on a bench in the late evening sun and take in the views. As we sat there we noticed quite a few different species of birds, but all Graham and myself could identify are Blackbirds and Great Tits, so to us these were just birds. As the minutes passed by we began to feel the chill of the evening air, until the point came where Graham said ” Bloody hell pal I’m freezing “ a bit of an exaggeration, but it was getting rather chilly.
We rode through the park along the very dusty gravel paths and up to the immense buildings of Amazon and Aldi at the top of the industrial estate. As we rode up the steep hill Graham remarked that ” Cant do hills me pal now ! “ I replied that I was the same. He did point out though ” Your a bit older than me , well actually quite a lot really”. Cheeky bugger I thought, its only a couple of years if that.
As we approached the roundabout near the motorway Graham stopped me and said “ Remember the last time we were here and they were building something and we were trying to guess what it was, well it’s that pal“ as my head turned to where he was pointing a brand new Gregg’s drive through came into view “ Well by the stars I wouldn’t have guessed that! “ pal I stated.
It wasn’t long before we were back up onto Plodder lane heading home. I informed Graham that I would go left down Bradford Rd and he said he was going to carry on straight down Plodder Lane. When we got the traffic lights where we we due to part company it was like an episode from the Chuckle Bros, it went something like this:
Graham :” I’m going straight on pal “
Ebay : ” Yeah I’m gonna go left pal”
Graham : You not going straight on”
Ebay : No I’m gonna go left “
Graham: ” I’m not going left but your going left ?”
Ebay : ” Yeah I’m going left, you’re going straight on unless you want me to “
Graham : ” If your going straight on I can go left if you want “
Ebay : ” No pal I’ll go left pal its quicker for me”
Graham: ” OK pal I’ll go straight down then”
Eventually we fist bumped each other and departed company promising to message each other when we were safely home.
If the AA logo is Alcoholics Annonymous the Wagon may face closure. A shame you did not see any Bustards, though given the cold later in the evening, blue tit sightings were surely a possibility.