Thursday 28 November 2024 - Pennington Flash - a bike ride

I'll be brief. We've done this before. It's  a 57km (35 mile) bike ride on the following route:

Timperley Bridge > Bridgewater Canal towpath to Monton > Loopline/Busway > Leigh > towpath > Pennington Flash café (The Hide Coffee House) > return to Timperley along the Bridgewater Canal towpath.

We met in Timperley and Sale, with Sue and me being joined by Paul and Jenny.

Fingers and toes struggled initially to stay warm on the frosty morning, but the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and there was no discernable wind.

The trees are now nearly bare of leaves, but there was still a bit of autumn colour on the loopline.

We paused while Paul dealt with some urgent business. I think the Worsley Woods parkrun passes this point.

At the café we were honoured to bump into Norman and June. Norman has been a stalwart member of East Lancs LDWA for over 35 years. He's not in the best of health, but we enjoyed this mini reunion and he certainly hasn't lost his sense of humour. He appears on earlier pages of this journal.

The team lined up outside the café before heading back home.

We enjoyed lovely sunshine and we had all been warm for most of the ride. Just a few photo pauses including this one near The Moorings.

We stopped in Worsley for coffee and cake that we'd brought with us in case the café was shut. No point in taking it home!

The ride took longer than I'd expected, a bit less than 5 hours. Still less than the original 70km plan, which was adjusted to satisfy demand, would have taken.

A lovely morning, thanks for your company, everyone.