Saturday turned out to be the SCCC Sale Water Park wet ride. Although it wasn’t raining as I set off to ride to the start but I hadn’t got very far when I had to stop and put my rain coat on. There were 17 of us  who met up near the Pyramid.

Andy was meant to be the back leader but he had been ill in week, making him behind with his OU assignment that is due in on Monday, so he had to duck out. Unfortunately most of the club ride leaders were unavailable for a variety of different reasons, however John was able to step in and be my back leader. Bruce very kindly took up the mantle of being my wing man/corner marker for the day.

We set off along the River Mersey, in the rain down to the Waterside Hotel, through the car park and back onto the river.

We came off the river, cycled through Northenden before getting back on the river again up to Chorlton Water Park.

We cycled through park of Chorlton Water Park and then headed further along the river to the bridge near the Jackson’s Boat pub.

We cycled over the bridge, past the Jackson’s Boat pub.

We then cycled round to the Trafford Water Sports Centre and the Boathouse Restaurant.

We then cycled around Sale Water Park before making our way to the cafe Metro. I had hoped that we could stop there for coffee but there were too many of us and the cafe was quite full when we arrived, so we continued on back to the Jackson’s Boat pub.

We took a different route back to the Jackson’s Boat pub than that from which we had originally come.

The pub made us very welcome and the new landlady came over to introduce herself.

We met a very cycle friendly police officer at the pub, who I think was there for husky  rescue event that was taking place at the pub. As we were leaving, we spotted this police car, which is the smallest police car I have ever seen!

After a group picture, we set off along the river back to ward Chorlton Water Park, but the other side of the river that we had initially used.

We then cycled through Kenworthy Woods.

As we left the woods, we turned left and headed off to West Didsbury.

Passing Withington Hospital, we cycled on to Burnage before turning off and passing Priestnall School, through the Heatons and then down past the back of B&Q Stockport before heading back to the Pyramid.

The afternoon was rather drier than the morning but overall I think that we had all enjoyed the ride. We had cycled almost 18 miles. You can see our route below: