An Afternoon at Manchester's Transport Museum

Not too much to report, perhaps the title Transport Museum is a little grand - it is in fact a Bus Museum (though to be fair they do have a tram, a fire engine, a street cleaner and two invalid carriages). The web site is http://www.gmts.co.uk/ and is informative and accurate.

So, by special request we went (Caz, Quinn, Sera and me) - here are the photos:

The last leg home

After a great week in Madeira the final few miles back to Bolton by rail from Manchester Airport

Sailing to the Ilhas Desertas

Madeira is in fact an island in an archipelago (oh how I've longed to use that word!) - the whole group consists of Madeira (the largest), Porto Santo, The Ilhas Desertas (3 islands Ilhéu Chão, Deserta Grande and Bugio) and the Selvagen Islands (and indeed in some articles I've read, the Canary Islands are also included).

Porto Santo has a large airport and a daily ferry to and from Madeira whilst the Selvagens are deserted and two days sailing south.

The Desertas Islands are in prominent visibility from the South of Madeira and are just 2 or 3 hours away (depending upon the speed of your boat!).

We took a day excursion on the Ventura do Mar a converted fishing boat. We left Funchal at 9 am and headed South East towards the Ilhas Desertas (as you see I can speak Portuguese!).

Around noon we arrived and tied up in a small bay on Deserta Grande - the largest of the three islands. The area is designated as a nature reserve and fishing and diving are strictly regulated.

Four wardens live on the island (see the little hut in the photo below) and act as protectors for the area.

The trip was terrific - lunch once we'd anchored was tuna, fresh bread, salad, baked potato and a very passable red wine, then we were taken ashore via a small inflatable dinghy for a "very" short tour of the island.

"Tour" probably inflates the experience - it's actually a footpath with some information boards, around 1/4 mile in total but still you do get to see the odd inhabitant.

In fact the Desertas also host an endemic Tarantula, but we didn't see that!






There was an opportunity to buy the T-Shirt, the brochure AND the DVD but we passed on that and then it was back onto the Ventura do Mar and sails set, back to Madeira, getting back to Funchal as night fell around 6:30 pm

Walking the Levadas

Madeira is famous in walking fraternities for its Levadas. These are small (in width) watercourses built to bring water from the wet north and central mountains to the southern part of the island.

They are typically small concrete channels, sometimes with path alongside, but sometimes with one wall of the channel a bit wider than the other so it can be used to walk along.
The picture is of the Levada Piornais near Funchal - a little earlier in its course it is covered over and you walk on the covers.

The levada meanders along up one side of the Socoridos valley, in some parts protected by a handrail (though whether that would pass UK Health & Safety is pretty debatable!)

It also goes through a number of small tunnels driven through the rock, and populated, rather alarmingly when we were there by men with shotguns - who gave a warning "be very careful", though whether that was relating to balancing along the levada edge or dodging the shooting was not immediately clear!


After the tunnels you finally emerge on what seems a very precarious path - one of our party definitely needing two hands and a list to starboard to avoid looking into the gorge to the left

Another Place

Now, heaven knows I'm no great art lover, and certainly much modern art leaves me cold (Mark Rothko - Emperor's New Clothes anyone?) but the Anthony Gomley statues on the beach at Crosby are impressive, thought provoking (what are they doing?, where are they going?, WHY?) and just plain FUN - so many looking out to see (or even out to sea!), just stood there; impervious to the wind, rain and tides - here are a few pictures:

My new (2 previous owners!) Varadero

Well the insurance paid out, the Pan is gone and I have plumped for a Honda Varadero

Here it is (photo courtesy of the previous owner)

A 960cc V-Twin. Lighter than the Pan and feels a lot more "agile", certainly great fun to ride and I am enjoying it immnensly. Slightly less stable and secure feeling at motorway speeds and a bit more wind noise and buffeting (but then I haven't got round to looking at the plethora of after market add-ons yet!)

Ellie The Lurcher

It was Sera's birthday recently and to acknowledge her love of dogs she was given a present of a sponsorship of Ellie, a 6 year old Lurcher being cared for by The Dogs Trust at their Merseyside branch in Huyton.




Today was the day to go and visit Ellie, so in driving rain and miserable weather off we went, and spent a hapy half hour walking Ellie around the grounds.

Some more photos:




And just to prove I was there, Quinn took this one:

A Little Update

Well, much has happened since my last blog posting - a holiday in France (and I'm sure I'll be boring everyone with the photos before long), the insurance payout on my bike (which did get written off) and the search for a new bike (pretty sure I'll get a Honda XL-Varadero as a change from the Pan).
Watch this space for more updates soon!!

Trashed on the M6

I was out with the Hell's Grandads yesterday coming back from The Lakes - just south of the M55 junction, I was leading doing a steady 70 in the outside lane, in busy traffic.

Up ahead a classic M6 shunt - van & car collided & stopped in the fast lane, I pulled up pretty sharp as did Mick who was just behind me and we both stopped in the now stationary queue - just about got my feet down - looked round & a guy on a CBR was flying down the outside lane obviously no way could he stop. He tried to avoid me but clipped the back & near side - knocked me very hard & I fell off and the impact took off the exhaust, rear peg, pannier and I think has bent the frame as looking at it from the rear, the seat was definitely at an odd angle.

The others in our group were about 1/2 a mile behind & later said that they'd seen this guy in a group of 4 pass them and all hurtling towards the slowing traffic without apparently slowing down!

The guy had his girlfriend on the back & I think she broke her leg - as their right legs hit the left side of my bike - anyway ambulance & police called & the two of them got taken off in the ambulance.
The police were excellent - sorted the whole thing out - and probably fortunately stopped my trying to ride the bike home - as it did start up (amazing just how noisy a Pan is with only one exhaust) - so they arranged for it to be recovered - I went home on the back of Mick's bike and I'm glad to say lived to ride another day! I'm guessing that they'll write it off, especially if the frame is bent, but will have to wait & see. So all in all it rather spoiled what had been a good day out!

The rear view - looks like the frame may be a tad out of line! note the lack of nearside pannier & exhaust


note lack of silencer & rear peg

On the Pont-Neuf bridge

After a stressful sales presentation a little stroll through Paris before flying home.

Tonight's wine

Tesco's finest - works for me an excellent wine, full bodied and very flavoursome

An interesting diversion on The Web

One fascinating feature of the internet is the number of get-rich-quick schemes that pop up everywhere you look. Are these just the latest incarnation of the old pyramid selling scams, or is there really an opportunity to make money by imparting knowledge?

Well - only one way to find out and that's to set one up !

A bit of research (admittedly probably influenced by too much red wine) and I've registered my domain www.sunglassesforless.co.uk and bought a hosting package (PHP & MySQL) with the cheapest UK provider I could find and also signed up with Build A Niche Store (or BANS as it's nicknamed).

So the site is up and running - let's see what happens!

A walk from Bolton-by-Bowland

With rain forecast for the afternoon, I made a (relatively) early start and parked up at the information centre in the village.

The walk is another from the Hillside Publications "Walking Country - Pendle & the Ribble" - an easy circular route heading North from Bolton-by-Bowland, then circling clockwise to return to the village.

Bolton-by-Bowland is a very pretty spot, the village green and church both being extremely attractive:


The walk took around 2 1/2 hours, with plenty of stops for photographs - that of course is the great excuse for the unfit walker!







One interesting area was near the end of the walk which went past Bolton Hall. Now a rather luxurious set of residences created from the old stable blocks. The grounds of the hall are still pretty extensive and have a lot of rhododendrons which were in spectacular bloom on the day I passed by.

Walking near Pendle

With my new found leisure time, one aim is to get back into walking in the countryside. So armed with a new guidebook "Walking Country - Pendle & the Ribble" from Hillside Publications
I chose walk no 7 - Rimington and set off for the car park in Downham.

The walk was easy going but well planned taking in some great scenery and a fair bit of industrial heritage - mines and lime kilns as well as mills and farms.

Being June, buttercups were out in force and rather suprisingly (to me anyway) a lot of large fungus on trees.

I said it was well planned and with a carefully chosen start time and leaving plenty of time for photo-opportunities I contrived to arrive at Rimington, or more specifically the Black Bull just in time for lunch. A Thwaites house with properly hand-pulled cask beers and an excellent range of sandwiches - thoroughly recommended.

Some photos taken on the way, this is Ings Beck.

Everywhere on this walk, Pendle Hill imposes it's looming prescence














These two were taken after Rimington on the
walk towards Hollins & Ings End.










The clouds really were threatening, though thankfully it did not really start raining until the walk was almost finished.

Looking in the other direction from Pendle there is a terrific view towards the giants of Ingleborough and Pen-y-Ghent.

Sunny Sunday In The Peak District

9:30 am, the sun is shining so having met up at the PC World car park in Bolton we decided on heading towards Buxton, then over to Carsington Water.

Graham is back on two wheels again riding his newly acquired Gold Wing, the sounds of Radio 2 wafting from it rather spoil the Hell's Angels image!

Breakfast was planned for the Grouse & Claret Inn at Rowsley, but due to traffic and us being pulled by the police at Doveholes - "inspecting tax & tyres sir" we were 10 minutes late so we had to stop for lunch instead.

Now I'm all in favour of our brave boys in blue catching criminals, but the copper who stopped us was ONLY stopping bikers - don't car drivers evade tax & have dodgy tyres too? Anyway we were all judged fine upstanding citizens and allowed to continue our lawful passage along the queen's highway.

Through Matlock & Matlock Bath then parked up at Carsington Water where fun abounds and ice cream is served very slowly.









Some visitors - two wheeled and two winged!

Then off towards Leek and Rudyard Lake. I got the satnav to take us the pretty route and apart from wanting us to go through a ford that looked rather too wide & deep for my liking, it did take us down a series of country lanes before putting us on the A roads.

One photo opportunity arose so here it is:

Taking the Family Flying

Having revalidated my licence, I was able to fulfill a long standing request to take my grandchildren (and along for the ride my daughter and son-in-law) for a pleasure flight.

Although they have all flown on commercial services, only Caroline had ever been in a light aircraft, so this was quite an adventure. I gave a stern safety briefing, majoring on avoiding propellors (which was a little underminded when Seraphina voluteered that she didn't know what a propellor was) - but suitably warned, both children behaved impeccably.

We booked out at the tower, then checked out the aircraft and got everyone strapped in, then off and heading out towards the north west, loooking in at The Reebock, then over towards Southport.

On the way we climbed to about 3,000' on top of the clouds, then a turn for home, descending to be under the Manchester TMA and back to Barton.






I think Quinn may need just to be a little taller if he ever wants to be a pilot!











Not at clear just why Rod has his eyes tight shut, I'm sure my flying wasn't that bad!