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Ride Round The Cheshire Fords 2004 - By Ren Withnell
Wahey!!. The gf aint working and we got the day to ourselves, sorted. In an effort to save money between us we've managed to organise some butties and a bottle of pop. Time to ride.
We set off and avoid the motorways by travelling through Leigh, Altrincham and out towards Knutsford. It's a very pleasant day, not too hot so the bike gear is still comfortable but the cheshire countryside is quite beautiful for being bathed in sunlight. The first place we head for is Swettenham, a tiny village east of Holmes Chapel. Of course the usual ford-trip shenanigans start with a road I planned to use being closed. This leads to the inescapable detour followed by many u-turns and map stops. Overall I'm actaully quite pleased with myself as I find my bearings, and indeed the ford, quite quickly.
Beautiful ford next to a beautiful house in beautiful countryside. Beware the slime though.
The ford is shallow but long and concrete bottomed. Previous experience tells me to watch for the ford-slime and cross slowly with my feet down. Sure enough I'm slipping and sliding but going slow makes it manageable. We stop at the other side for butties, piccies and a rest. Along comes a Dad with 2 young ones in tow, on pushbikes. Sure enough the youngest takes a dive on the ford-slime. But he's a tough 'un, so he gets right up, back on the bike and carries on regardless. I like this ford, might bring some bleach next time to see if we can remove the slime!
We venture briefly down a track nearby but decide against it at the locked gate. Off we go again to the second ford of the day, Aston. I find myself again travelling down a track and stop at what I think is the ford. Upon closer inspection I realise its a very large puddle on the track. Sod it, it's a dry sunny day, so I wade through to guage depth. I find the ford just beyond and it's a deep one. The marker shows nearly 2 feet. I return to the bike and the gf and consider my options, it's too deep to risk killing the bike and getting stuck out here. I send the gf along a handy path that avoids the puddle and takes her to the footbridge. On return she seems confident we can cheat...by crossing the footbridge. We do this, take piccies and carry on. Oooooh we are soooooo naughty!
Too deep for me!
The last ford, Newton, is another bugger to find. We get lost on a road that leads to a ditch, so we turn around and try to reach it from the other end. We end up on another track that deteriorates into grass. At the end we find a ditch...the same ditch as before. Wetroads.com has this ditch as being passable with a motorbike, HA, no way. It's deep, muddy and rough. We eat the last of the butties and turn around.
Cheshire is lovely in the sun, we had a really good ride out. The first ford was splendid, the other 2 interesting but not as pleasing. Still, glad we went and saw them.
Reader's Comments
ashley said :-
you should have visited the swettenham arms!!!
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
DannyT said :-
Do you still go fording? I've been exploring the fords around Lincolnshire with my Suzuki Jimny. They're usually in interesting little places. I see you know about the wetroads website.
15/06/2017 09:45:44 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Not so much these days Danny, times have moved on for myself as well as people. However I still get rather unnecessarily excited when I do accidentally stumble across a random ford!
Them Suzuki Jimny's are supposed to be rather splendid off road for their price aren't they?
15/06/2017 16:35:26 UTC
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