23rd August 2020 ride to Gressingham (Page two)

- Page one - Route - Ride report -

This cow came to see what I was doing with my camera and tripod taking photo of Lyon Bridge.

A tree in field at side of Fleet Lane.

Himalayan Balsam at side of Fleet Lane.

Lunch time view in Gressingham

A view of St John Evangelist’s Church in Gressingham

Three crosses outside the church.

The view looking down into Lune Valley on the climb out of Gressingham up to B6254

Reflections at side of the lane.

Gate post near the B6254

A barn at side of Aughton Road.

A view from Aughton Road looking across the fields towards the Lune Valley.

A cow looking over the gate near Aughton.

Cows in field at side of Aughton Road near Oaken Head (Image taken on Auto setting on tripod)

Same view taken in Aperture Priority mode at F29.

Two Hawthorn trees in field at side of Kirkby Lonsdale Road.

Ride report by Simeon Orme When Sunday is the only sleep in day of week, its very hard sometimes to get out bed but the more miles you do on bike the fitter you get and that what keep telling my self when the weather not playing ball. To be honest it was not a brilliant weather forecast for the weekend with the Sunday being the better day. I had no real plans where I want to go, as it was case of trying dodge the rain showers and stay dry, so I got a bit practice stopping to take some photos on a tripod, with the camera set in Aperture Priority mode and the Aperture set at highest F number , to try some get depth of field into the landscape photos that I was taking on the ride, has slowly followed the cycle path up the Lune Valley to its exit on to A683 just pass Bull Beck Bridge. The sky started darken, has turn on A683 and followed it up the Lune Valley and then headed along the B6480 for coffee and cake at Bridge House Farm Tearooms in Wray, yes know my bike seem to take me in this direction on quite a lot of bike adventures in the last few months my excuse they have good cake and its about right distance from home to stop for a morning brew. I t was a bit crowded in the bottom part of the tearoom so headed up to top part of tearoom which I had to myself. After my coffee and cake, for those of you wondering where I took those photos of the River Roeburn and River Hindburn meeting, I push my bike across grass area outside Tearoom towards the willow maze where the access down to stone shore between these to rivers of the Bowland fells. For photo taking its interesting setting which unfortunately for me was curtail my heavy rain shower or may took a few more photos to bore you with but I think it worth detour to get few photos on better weather day. Has I getting a bit older, I do like to stay dry on my cycling days its something to do getting a good soaking at work at least one week even in August and America politicians or is certain America President try to tell us climatic change is not happening. So when rain clouds start roll in off the coast, its good ideal in this part of the world to head towards the coast where the day may be a bit drier. So has I headed into Hornby the day got a bit drier, so decide to try my hand at taking a few photos from under Hornby Bridge looking across the River Wenning towards Hornby Castle. You can get access to this viewing point through the car park by Hornby Bridge which is good place to start ride from if don’t live in North Lancashire and cost about £1 to leave car there all day and its up to you if wish pay as there only honesty box. Once finished my photo taking, I headed through Hornby and followed the lane from A683 down to Loyn Bridge which is the only place between the Crook n’Lune and Kirkby Lonsdale that us cyclist’s can cross the River Lune with dry feet, there are few fords nearer Kirkby Lonsdale where you can cross the River Lune but you need a few months of dry weather to do this, and crossing over the bridge I lock the bike up and decide to take a photo of the bridge which is quite easy to do as public footpath on both sides of the river, a cow came across to see what this human was doing with tripod with camera on it. The more I use tripod to take photos with to get that depth field to image, its some thing could not be shame to strap on back of the stable bag, you may get a few strange looks and few comments from fellow cyclist’s about are you going camping but if interest in taking good photos while out on bike, you need a tripod and now carry two tripods and like thank Roger Thorp pointing this out to me earlier on in year my e-mail which did not go down that well with me at time but he was right, when you move up from taking photos with bridge camera to taking them with Digitail SLR Camera you need a tripod Once finished taking a photo of the bridge, I followed Fleet Lane into Gressingham where stop for some lunch. After my lunch, I try my hand taking some photos of St. John Evangelist’s Church which is the only church in Gressingham before heading up the lane to B6254, there few nice views looking down into the Lune Valley which I hope capture with the camera, has slowly climb out of the valley. When I got to the B6254, I decided it was time to head for home via Aughton Road which as some beautiful views looking across the Lune Valley to Bowland Fells and you understand why Way of Roses detour from the Lune Valley along this road. Having photography as hobby and mixing with cycling give you good excuse look at these views and stop take a photo and surprising what you see on bike which you would not see in motor car and when you on two wheels, you do have time to stop and take that photo or look at the view. Aughton Road so ended, headed back to Halton along Kirkby Lonsdale Road. The ride may be short for some of you but I enjoy it and maybe next week ride maybe longer but that down to the weather gods. You can click here to see photos of 30th August ride to Clapham Station or you can click here to download 18.56 mile route or you can checkout the What’s New Page to see what’s new on the site and you can also sign up for site’s free weekly newsletter.