Another day, another zero in the temperature. When will it start warrming up? But
never mind - at least it’s dry. So, out with the bike (yes, still ice on the pavement)
and off I go to Haslingden to see if anyone else is as foolhardy as me. Of course
there are. Geoff & Lynn are already there (with a friend) and others turn up over
the next few minutes until we have a total of 7 bikes and 1 pillion. Not bad.
However, according to the forecast it is below zero on the hills so, deciding that
discretion is the better part of valour (OK, we don’t want to drop the bikes), we
decide to head East to the flatter lands of NW England and zoom off towards Southport.
The ride was fine, I didn’t even need my sat-nav as we’d done the same route the
week before and we soon arrived at our favourite chip shop for some lunch.
A nice chat, a cup of tea and some food - and we were good to go. So we did. Back
via Ormskirk and the back roads via Croston over to Rivvy Barn for another stop.
This is where we underestimated the power of the weather. No, it wasn’t icy at all
- in fact the sun was shining. And this caused the problem - far too many people
who also wanted to go out for a stroll. The road to the tea shop was heaving - it
took us about 10 minutes just to get the bikes past all the parked cars, traffic
going in and out and general mayhem. Was it worth it? No - because when we got inside,
it was just as bad and there were big queues and no tables.
A quick loo stop and back outside. “Never mind”, I said, “I know a nice back road
over to the A56 and home. We got togged up, on the bikes, negotiated the traffic
out of Rivvy Barn and were soon on our way again. Once we cleared the local traffic,
the roads were great and we had a nice 10 mile “hoon” over the moors and home (where
a nice bath awaited me).
So, not a magnificent ride, but OK for a Sunday jaunt. Roll on the warmer weather.
