Bridgewater Canal Worsley
1tst September 2016
JOURNEY LENGTH 17.4ML
Click Here For Route Via Strava
Now with it being the end summer time and the nights beginning to draw in our original idea to go to Pennington Flash had to be abandoned due to the lack of time, but we decided to follow the route as far as we could in the time given after we had both finished work.
Meeting up at the Jaguar garage we rode up towards Kearsley over the roundabout and then turned up Pilkington Road towards Black Leach over the motorway. Once in the park we took the left path leading us up to Moss Lane. Once at the top we crossed Manchester Rd and down Old Clough Lane where we should have turned right up Devote Ave but with Graham racing on ahead he was unable to hear the sound of my bell and we ended up at the East Lancashire Road.
The adventure so far had been pretty uneventful and as we had both been riding our bikes to work through the summer and we were now being to wane, nevertheless we continued on our way eventually picking up the cycle route Roe green Loopline, here we chatted about our bank holiday experiences Graham having had a BBQ and playing badminton and myself having a lazy weekend camping with Peggy Lou and our dog Lucie in Wales. Once we reached its junction with Parrin lane we left the path and crossed over the bridge to join the canal on the opposite side than our last adventure here to head towards Worlsey. The path along the canal is lovely and scenic and with the canal being used there is quite a lot of people around.
We soon arrived at Worsley courthouse at the canal basin. Just around the corner we came across what looked like a old disused crane but in fact there are a number of these cranes are situated at intervals along the canal’s length to allow boards to be dropped into slots in the banks. These allow sections of the canal to be isolated in the event of a leak.
Travelling on the Bridgewater way we rode along enjoying the peaceful surroundings, we soon arrived at the moorings at the marina near Bridgewater park, here we left the canal path hopefully travelling further on on a subsequent adventure.
Leaving the canal and passing the moorings we rode up booths hall way and up along Leigh road, now it was going to be all up hill. We took the first turning on our left up Ellenbrook road, approaching the traffic lights at the east Lancs I managed to get through on green but unfortunately Graham was a little way behind and just hadn’t got the energy to accelerate and I therefore had to wait for the poor chap on Newearth Rd. Whilst waiting I had a quick look at our map on Strava to confirm we were heading in the right direction, this now done we continued up the road until we came to an entrance to what we thought was the cycle path we should be on , but not for the first time on our adventures it became clear we were heading in the total wrong direction we were actually on the Tyldesley loopline which was going to be an adventure a couple of weeks previous but had to be cancelled.
At the top of the road at the mini roundabout we turned left and a quick right up some steps to join the Ellenbrook loopline which led us up to the roe green loopline which we knew would lead us up through Little Hulton and on to Anchor lane Highfield, here as previously we took a short break and discussed excitedly our plans for our summer holiday to Corfu now only a matter of weeks away, we soon realised though that this may be our last adventure of the year but with a bit of luck we may just may get a short adventure in.
A quick text to Peggy Lou confirmed that there was some chorizo and chicken stew left for my tea, so now with Graham now ready for his spaghetti bolognese we set of home. A rather uneventful adventure this week but as neither of us wanted to risk picking up any injuries before our holidays this was understandable. We parted company at Bradford road and as per usual agreed to text when we were home safely, until our next adventure hopefully after our holiday.
