1st Wednesday of the month

Wednesdays aren’t a bad day for me, I get to go to the pub, my favourite local cycle café is open and my long suffering wife goes to her mum’s (for a different kind of suffering) so I can get out on my bike. However, this is the first Wednesday of the month and so there is a regular ride with my RSF mates. It’s actually called the West Pennine Moors Meander and is led by Keith and incorporates three café stops.

I don’t go to the start of the ride as I cycle from home so I miss out café 1 (Vaughn’s at Tockholes) but I join the group at the Cosy Corner Café in Brinscall and cycle with the group until lunch, which is taken in the Village Green Tearooms in Rivington and then I leave the ride and head home.

On this occasion I thought I’d take a camera, photos on a phone are OK but I’m old fashioned, phones are for talking on, cameras are for taking pictures – luddite if you must.

Anyway I digress, my route takes me through Astley Park past the magnificent Astley Hall and fountain and to Botany Bay.

Then up to White Coppice via all the now fishing lodges that once fed the now knocked down mills.

Then down the Goyt to Brinscall, again its man made but I’m not sure of it’s purpose. I am more sure of the purpose of the man made cycle track – it’s a feeder to the Mary Townley Lopp apparently even though it’s a good few miles away.

Met up with the group and cycled back along the Goyt to White Coppice and then over Healey Nab to our Lunch stop.

Finally I left the group and headed home via resovoirs and canal towpath to Botany Bay.

A good few hours in the saddle, two excellent cafes, looking forward to the next one. Although I am not a recruiting agent for the RSF, the website is worth a look and yes I am the Geoff that organises and leads some of the Saturday family oriented rides. More pictures can be found on Flickr.

Words & pictures - Geoff Smith.