3rd August
Journey Length 18.0ml
A sunny Tuesday morning had arrived and also a message from Graham, asking if I wanted to go on an adventure this evening as the weather forecast for Thursday was dreadful. I immediately sent a return message, yes that’s a great idea I’ll meet you at the Meccano Bridge.
That evening we met up with a plan of exploring around Burrs Country Park. There were two main reasons for this, firstly we hadn’t been up there for a while and secondly Peggy Lou and myself had just purchased a new to us caravan, replacing our faithful 1992 Avondale caravan, affectionately known as “Mabel” and we were thinking of visiting the caravan park situated there, as it is only 20 mins from where we live, so I could give it a reccy.
I gave Graham the option of riding along the towpath to Bury or going through Radcliffe, he chose the former, so off we set on a lovely summer’s evening, chatting as we went. Along the canal we spotted a family of ducks happily swimming along. We stopped to take a photo and as we did they all came swimming over to us, Graham suggested that they probably thought we had some bread, sadly for them we didn’t.
Bury Canal 
Ducks on Canal
As we continued through the overgrowth something skittled across our path right in front of Graham. “bloody hell, did you see that, really shit me up, what was it?” I said I thought it was a rat or something running across, “don’t say rat I hate them!!”, Graham said startled, so what did I say, oh yes “Rat, Rat, Rat Rat !!”
At Water Street where we have to cross the road we decided to ride down to the traffic lights to aid our crossing but as we did Graham spotted a gap in the traffic and sped across the road closely followed by myself. Graham told me ” I saw an opportunity took it”, luckily it paid off and we were soon riding along the towpath, passing a great many people as we did enjoying the lovely summer evening, one chap even saluted us as we passed by. I commented to Graham “Well you don’t get saluted to everyday pal “. His comment was “well you might not”. Bloody AA men think they’re gods’ gift. At the end of the path we stopped for a drink and a chat about work, caravans and holidays.
We took the lower path across the River Irwell using the old packhorse bridge, and then a little detour to see the trains from the East Lancs railway but sadly there were very few to see. We backtracked up along Bridge Road heading towards Bury Town centre. As we did we spotted a rather unusual sight of a man doing a handstand at a bus stop, something else you don’t see every day.
Trains at East Lancs Railway
A missed turning followed but we were soon on the cycle route up towards Burrs Park. Being the official photographer for Graham and Ebay’s World I saw a photo opportunity and stopped to take a photo of the not so straight line in the path. This was nearly the end of our evening. Graham, who was following , got distracted by something and didn’t spot that I’d stopped until it was almost too late. He clattered into the side of me and sent us both spinning, Graham got a dirty knee and I sustained a scratched elbow. It could have been much worse, if it wasn’t for Graham’s lightning reactions. It just remained for us to agree who was at fault, I personally went with the, I was hit from behind, so not my fault, ha ha.
Photo below taken seconds before the impact sent us both flying
Wiggly Line Scene of the Crash
After our near death experience we arrived at Burrs Park and took the path down to the Riverside walk. This was a lovely area right by the river, think the name gave it away. The area is the site of an old cotton spinning mill dating back to 1792 with some interesting features still around. I left my bike to take a few photos, remounted my bike and continued on my way, then I heard a shout behind me from Graham “stand up”, a few seconds later he repeated it. I thought that’s a strange thing to say but nevertheless I stood up on my bike. “No you idiot, PUT YOUR STAND UP”, I’d inadvertently forgot to flick my stand back.
We followed the path around and over the river, where the mill cottages still stand, it was here we noticed a strange log, which turned out to be a bike rack, but upon trying it, Graham was very disappointed it was of little use, his bike just fell over. A little up the way is the The Brown Cow pub, the oldest surviving building at Burrs from 1752, disappointingly we didnt have time to call in for a pint.
Now it was up to the caravan park itself. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well organised and tidy it was, there are a number of barriers to pass through, which gave a feeling of security. Surprisingly for a Tuesday the site was full, even though it has over 100 pitches. After a ride around the caravan park we had a quick scoot around the rest of the park. I must say I was very impressed with the park overall.
Now it was time to start our return journey, we were going to take a different route back, so not surprisingly I missed our first turn. We now headed up the cycle route from last week’s adventure towards Brandlesholme, up along the Kirkllees trail. It was here we nearly had our second accident of the day. Once again I think Graham wasn’t quite paying attention and had to brake hard before he ran into the rear of me, he complained it was my fault this time but I joked I thought his riding was poor tonight for an extreme biker. We didn’t follow the trail to its end, instead we turned off towards Tottington Road where we turned left up to find a public footpath to get onto Walshaw Road. A short ride down Walshaw Road we came to our next turning, Owlerbarrow Road which would eventually lead us to Vale Park.
Whilst looking at our route for tonight’s adventure I had spotted on Google maps that there was a shrine called “Crunch Couch” nearby so I mentioned it to Graham and we decided to investigate. To get to it we had to go over a stile and through a field, this is where Graham’s day was made. As I climbed the stile with my bike I spotted a young deer no more than 20 ft away, pointing this out to Graham he was made up, he loves things like that. At the other side of the field was another stile but this one was covered in stinging nettles. I paused for a few moments, then I said to Graham ” I’ve got a plan pal”. Seconds later I was over the stile and on the floor tangled up with my bike. ” Good plan there that mate” Graham joked behind me. To add insult to injury a man walking his dog witnessed it all and that wasn’t the end. While looking unsuccessfully for the shrine we passed the same man twice, Graham explaining to him we know what we’re doing honestly. Graham enquired if he knew about the shrine but unfortunately he hadn’t.
Sadly after further investigation I am unable to find any more information about the alleged shrine, maybe a little more work is required.
Deer
It was shortly after this that we lost our direction completely and made numerous wrong turns and went around in circles for a while, but that’s all part of the enjoyment. Eventually we were on Lowercroft Rd heading home but yet again we missed our turning and had to backtrack. After a bit of searching we found the little path to take us homeward. As I stopped at a field of sheep to take a quick photo Graham came over all funny. I heard him say to the sheep ” What Ewe looking at, ha ha ” followed by “Baaager off then ” followed by some childish laughter. After this it was onto Bradley Fold Rd, which is all downhill and both of us thoroughly enjoyed the experience of going down.
Sheep 
Sign 
View from Bradley Fold Rd 
Darcy Lever Sunset
We parted company just after the Queens pub at Bradley Fold. I took the cycle route No 6 back towards Darcy Lever whilst Graham continued on to Little Lever, both agreeing to message each other when we were safely home.
