A dozen or so Peakies plus potential new member Dave from Macclesfield (welcome Dave!) turned out at Sale Water Park on a sunny but cold morning ready for a pre-ride brew and butty in the Metro Cafe! Horror of horrors the cafe is no more - and what's worse the loos in the building were also shut!
So we had to set off on time! The first river we encounted is the Mersey which was much calmer than this time last year when our New Year's ride was just days after the New Years floods! Our path took us alongside the river, then over it, then under the Bridgewater canal then along it, pausing at Barton to admire the engineering of the swing aqueduct, then over the swing road bridge then back onto the canal towpath.
We came off the towpath at Monton to briefly follow Route 55 before heading north towards the East Lancs road on an old railway line. At one point it is customary to stop and send a couple of expendables on to see if the track is passable or its usual muddy morass! Eric's definition of "passable" did not concur with mine so as usual we veered off left to meet the East Lancs Road. It very nearly has a protected cycle lane all along the route we took towards Salford - before negotiating a very busy roundabout - best advice keep your fingers crossed and keep following the blue signs - and miraculously you're safely over the East Lancs on a road bridge and heading towards Agecroft Colliery - or as it is now - Business Park - and very eerie it is too negotiating your way along the cycle tracks through the ghostly industrial units taking a breather from the weekday hustle and bustle.
A quick run downhill towards the Irwell at Kersal brought us onto the banks of the River Irwell which we followed on and off (to avoid the long meanders at the Cliff) until we popped out onto the busy Manchester Bypass which we gingerly crossed and headed alongside new construction sites using temporary footpath signs to re-join and then cross the Irwell at the Lowry Hotel and from there to our lunch stop at the ever obliging People's History Museum in the aptly named Left Bank Cafe.
Fortified with a good Lancashire Hot Pot inside us - well those of us who had a good helping - we set off on the last leg home. We negotiated Spinningfields and the Castlefield area of Manchester without too much of a problem then rejoined the Bridgewater Canal at Castlefield Basin. All that remained, apart from a puncture repair, was to follow the canal all the way back to Sale Water Park.
Thanks everyone for good company and Roger for the photos.
Rob