Tag Archives: Rides

Meeting Point Rest Area Littleborough

By 4 commentsReviews, Rides, , ,

Today, the kids and I took a little ride along the favourite towpath to the Meeting Point Rest Area, just alongside the Rochdale Canal about 3 miles from home.

What Is The “Meeting Point Rest Area”?

Basically, a bloke who loves biking (motorbikes, not proper bikes but we’ll let that go for now) has taken a piece of disused, derelict land alongside the canal, opposite the main A58 Rochdale-Halifax road that runs over Blackstone Edge, and put a couple of portakabins on there.

He’s put some tables outside and he retails refreshments to passing bikers, cyclists, walkers and even drivers, who can park in a smallish car park right in front.  This guy sits in his portakabin with his cute Westie terrier, quietly getting on with his life and providing a wonderful amenity to passers-by.

Meeting Point Rest Area Littleborough

Meeting Point Rest Area Littleborough

He’s an absolute boon to me, as the girls (aged 7 and 8) love the fact that there are no hills or traffic between our home and the Meeting Point.  It’s a cracking, if short, family ride when we have an hour or so to spare.  To everyone else, he’s a handy little cafe in a lovely position close to a few busy roads.  To some though, he’s a bit of a problem so they’d like to shut him down.

What’s The Problem?

The guy has, apparently, been on the wrong end of some complaints.  I’m not sure how the planning process works, but apparently his portakabins “aren’t in keeping” with the local architecture.  They’re certainly an improvement on the derelict plot they’ve replaced!  But, Littleborough’s a nice-looking place with some cracking buildings and I can see how people might see the Rest Area as the thin end of the utilitarian architecture wedge.

He’s hoping to put a permanent building on the site I understand, but first he has to await the decision of an independent planning hearing, which takes place in Bristol (why Bristol I wonder?), probably in December.

I hope he wins.  It would be a shame to see the place removed.  No doubt someone will stick some nice flats on there now he’s levelled and cleared it, but I’d prefer to see the Meeting Point Rest Area made permanent and give the guy a chance to put a nice, appropriate building on the plot.

Are there any locals or passers-by reading this blog who have an opinion?

 

In the meantime, pay him a visit why don’t you?  His brews are very tasty and reasonably priced.  He even does Bovril 🙂

 

Here’s a link to my Google Map.

He doesn’t seem to have got a Google Places account yet – I’ll have a word with him about that.

Breaking The Law, Breaking The Law…

By 10 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, ,

Those who get the reference, hit this!

Lawless Risk-Takers

They’ve ripped up the train track around here.  If George Osborne doesn’t pull the plug, the plan is that the trains which used to run the loop from Manchester through Oldham to Rochdale will be replaced by spanking new trams.  To us, what this means is an opportunity to sneak onto a lovely, temporary cycle track of the type so loved by Sustrans.  Old rail tracks are usually pretty even and not too steep so they make ideal family trails.  Trouble is, this one’s supposed to be a building site.  “Ah, what the hell, let’s give it a whirl”, we thought!

I took my son along to make things look like we weren’t looking for trouble (officer), and because I knew he’d see it as a bit of an adventure.  Also, when he’s a grown man travelling on the line himself, he’ll remember the day he cycled it incognito with his Dad.

We got onto the track easily near Jubilee Bends, Newhey.  There’s an unmanned level crossing so we used the cycle gate and on we went.  This was a couple of miles from home, so we headed back towards Rochdale.  There was only one awkward bit, where a road bridge was almost totally obscured by scaffold, but we found a path through.

Caught By The Fuzz

Here you go. 🙂

No we weren’t.  The police helicopter was in the sky not far away the whole time we were riding, which lent a certain frisson to Number One Son’s ride.  When you’re 12, you actually believe they care about a bloke and his lad trespassing harmlessly on the railways.  But they didn’t notice us.  I think.  If you see me on Crimewatch next month, please don’t call them.

We rode along and I took a few photos before I dropped my phone and fell off my bike.  Then I had an attack of sensibility and before long we decided to get home for tea.  Scrambling up an embankment near Milnrow, we hopped over a bridge wall and headed back home via Firgrove playing fields.

It was cool.  A great way to have a slightly unusual ride with my boy.  Only 5 miles or so for the October 100, but I just hope N1S remembers it when he’s on the tram in years to come. 🙂

Sorry …

By 5 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, , ,

I haven’t blogged enough. I’ve been very busy.

But today, you’ll be glad to know, I’m doing this…

Aaaaaah!

Lovely, lovely tea.

So forgive me. I’ll start biggin us all up again soon, I promise.

How are you doing with your #Oct100 miles, you lot? 🙂

A Gentle #Oct100 Opener

By 6 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, , ,

Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory

Last week I could have realistically hit my Sep100 target.  I had four days to go and a hittable target of 15 miles per day to get there.  But then things went awry: my Tuesday night long ride went west, for a number of reasons I won’t bore you with here.  So…. I failed.  this is despite the generous encouragement of £75 worth of charitable pledges from readers of this blog.  So, I’m sorry guys and gals but I’ll make it up to you somehow.

A Better Beginning For October

On a fine Saturday afternoon, I was gifted a couple of hours of “Me Time” so I took ’em!  I mapped out a loop to Tandle Hills and wasted some time converting kml to gpx so I could stick the track into my phone GPS app.  If you ever wanna do that, this little web-based app was what I used.  Geekiness over, out I went.

The ride was more pleasant than I’d expected.  A couple of short-cuts, found whilst mapping on the laptop, helped a lot and the climbs were more gentle than I thought they’d be.  It was muddy off the roads, but hey, mud = good.  That’s why I ride a mountain bike.

(hit the photos for a proper view, they’re a bit tall for these thumbnails)

I was in a rush to get back home after a short break at the rather great cafe at Tandle Hills, so I rushed home along Oldham/Rochdale Road to the canal, then a quick burst back homewards along the towpath to finish.  10.6 miles done and a decent enough start to the month’s challenge.  There’s a link to the October 100 spreadsheet in the little box to the right, so get yourself signed up and enjoy your month’s riding!

The map’s here if you want a look. 🙂

Wet and Wild Wales Weekend, Bouncing Boats In Bala

By 9 commentsRides, Tat, ,

The weekend before last, we had FUN !

I turned 40 round about this time last year, give or take a week.  I know, you can’t believe it right? I don’t look a day over 50.  Aaaanyway, my Other Half invested in a Red Letter Day for me, white water rafting.  With this, I was very very happy 🙂

Last weekend was the day I chose to enjoy my experience.  The two of us packed up a bag each, a bike each and left our troubles at home on Saturday morning.  We drove to Bala, to find our B&B, Cwmtylo, about 3 miles outside Bala and within striking distance of the rafting centre.  Cwmtylo is a 400 year-old farmhouse and family home to Dylan and Craig.  I’ll be honest, it’s not the easiest place in the world to find, even by Welsh standards.  But it’s worth the drive and it’s only 10 minutes from the main A-road that passes Bala Lake – unless you take a wrong turn, in which case you’re way into murderer country (in your mind).  Cwmtylo is still a working farm.  In fact, Dylan only made the place into a B&B in response to the local tourist board’s appeal in 2009 for more B&B beds.

The Water Cycle

After leaving our bags at the B&B and enjoying Dylan’s cuppa with a nice cherry bakewell, we drove down to Bala Leisure Centre and parked the car for a few hours.  Unhooking the bikes, we got ourselves wrapped up against the Welsh wetness, which was drizzling slowly from the grey skies.  But, as Clive says, there’s no such thing as bad weather – just the wrong clothes.  We had the right clothes.

Eleven or so miles and some fantastic views later, we’d circumnavigated Bala Lake and we’d loved the undulations along the eastern bank.  From that side, away from the A-road which skirts the west side of the lake, the views of Snowdonia are simply stunning.  If you ever find yourself in Wales with an hour or two to kill, I recommend you try it.  It’s not a hard ride by any means, and if your legs aren’t up to a few little hills, they’re easily short enough to trudge up and roll down!

Dr Dre’s Place

Nobody was looking, so we got changed in the Leisure Centre car park.  A quick scoot into town and we found Plas-Y-Dre restaurant, which translates as Dr Dre’s Place. Coool!  We had a steak each and I treated myself to a cake of cheese for dessert, along with a nice pint of Brains.

Dr Dre didn’t put in an appearance, but I bet you never see Ramsay when you go to his restaurants either.

White Water Rafting

We slept like logs.  We got up when the alarm went off.  Dylan made us breakfast.  It was delicious. 🙂

Half an hour later, I was signing in at Canolfan Tryweryn, the UK’s first rafting centre.  The other red-letter-dayers and I stood out like buddhist monks at a beard & ponytail contest.  We congregated together for safety and to avoid being drawn into white water conversations we couldn’t hope to add value to.

Once the embarrassment of being the funny-looking normos out of our comfort zones wore off, the secondary embarrassment of borrowed wetsuits was foisted upon us.  But, then the fun started 🙂 !

To put it briefly, for your experience you get 4 runs down the white water in the space of 2 hours, interspersed with mini-bus trips back to the head of the run which is just down from a massive sluice gate from the local reservior.  The instructors are massively helpful – and I’m sure the ladies would find them massively handsome too.  You know, fit.

If you ever get the chance to do the rafting thing, just do it.  Don’t think about it.  The cycling was brilliant, too.  Happy days.

Tell ’em Phill sent you! 🙂

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