Wednesday 19th May 2021
I haven’t been cycle touring (defined by me as travelling with panniers and moving on each day) for over 18 months now and I’m really missing it. I’ve booked a hostel in Derbyshire in June but the main trouble with the location is that Manchester is slap bang between me and there.
I decided to bite the bullet and plot a route through the city which avoided main roads wherever possible. This task was helped enormously by a cracking website called Cycle.Travel (thanks for the recommendation, Jim). To test the route, I planned a ride to Hazel Grove without luggage and today was the first day.
What a wonderful route it turned out to be! It took advantage mainly of disused railway tracks, canals or riverside trails, all of which were properly surfaced. The only downside was that it took me through the centre of the current Covid-19 hotspot (Bolton), but now I’m fully Astra-Zeneca’d I was feeling more confident than for some time. I also managed to peep over the fence at the new RHS Bridgewater garden in Worsley. I’d’ve had a better view, but they were tarmaccing the North side towpath of the Bridgewater canal so I couldn’t see much. The route also passed by several famous urban sites previously only seen by car.
I’ve planned a different route home tomorrow and after that I’ll be dusting off the panniers for their first outing since 2019.
Thursday 20th May 2021
After yesterday’s wonderful weather and interesting route, today’s return journey had a lot to live up to. It started off fine, but deteriorated quickly. The route was generally much busier with fewer tracks and trails, more hills and a lot of rain. In short, it was a bit disappointing and could have been better. Minus the seemingly obligatory comment about untidy handwriting, I could probably substitute any one of my school reports and you’d recognise today’s trip in it. On the plus side, I had a tailwind (the rain was hitting the back of my head most of the day), but as a wise man once said, a bad day on the bike is better than a good day in the office.
I started off a bit earlier than planned to try to get as far up the road as I could to beat the rain which was forecast for later, and the route through Stockport was much easier than coming in yesterday. It helped that my Garmin worked today and didn’t keep shrugging its metaphorical shoulders and saying ‘you took a wrong turning back there so you’re on your own now, pal’. The Trans-Pennine trail heading North confirmed to me that this route is really only for mountain bikes – it was very rough and not a little slutchy.
I passed within yards of the Belle Vue speedway stadium and never even noticed. In my defence, it was a very busy road and I was concentrating on not getting squashed. It’s a shame since I haven’t been there since about 1980 and I would have like to paid it a visit to see if it jogged any memories. I did manage to see the Etihad stadium, last visited when it hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2002, but I couldn’t be bothered trying to cross the road to see the velodrome.
I took no photographs after about 11am since the rain then started to mean it. The last shot was of a gaggle of geese and goslings on the Rochdale canal that I heard saying something like ‘Yeah, rain! Bring it on.’ as I passed.
Overall, a good trip which has made me more confident of relying on t’internet to guide me through the urban environments I normally avoid. Just got to clean the bike now…