Scouts or Parents - E-mail your comments and/or version of events for the walking weekend to
Marplescouts@yahoo.co.uk
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Cycling
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The home of Scouting since 1908!
Scouts or Parents - E-mail your comments and/or version of events for the walking weekend to
Marplescouts@yahoo.co.uk
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Ten o'clock on Saturday morning, Cobden scouts set off to their mystery destination (The Leaders didn't know where they were going!!).  Adi Togs arrived on his third bike of the day, albeit late, and finally our "Tour de Middlewood way" could begin.  The early race leader was Matthew Bostock, who could generally be seen on the horizon.  The leaders, never the most energetic at the best of times, bought up the rear, aiming to stay in the slipstream (Getting Technical now huh?) to avoid "wasting" energy.  We overtook one man four times - each stop we had he'd go past us, and we'd have to hurtle past him at racing speeds.  Eventually we had reached our oasis - Bolling ton, where we refuelled.  Pie, ever remembering the scout motto of "Be Prepared", bought his lunch from the shop.  We trundled up from Bollington to the West gate of Lyme park, passing over the canal in the process, where we offered the scouts the chance to swim home!  Tommy Togs' stupid useless bike decided to break, so he ended up running up most of the hill, and peddaling in the lowest gear for the rest. 
In Lyme park the scouts went to the play pen - sorry park, where there is no longer a huge slide, nor a zip-line, much to their dismay.  Pie, and the other ventures/leaders were doing more important things, i.e. Resting and checking out when the shop opened!
A quick break for lunch by the lake, and a coffee stop (with Rachel Gavin), before a tour of the park  (And some private property, from which we were escorted) on bikes.  We headed up towards the cage, rode to the main gate, in and out of a Farmers' private land, and back to the shop, where there was only time to stop to buy Kinder a postcard. 
The cycle ride home proved uneventful, although Adam Dykins did manage to headbutt a gate, and Nippy Nolan nearly crashed into a parked car.  At the Bollington shop again, Pie bought us all an ice-lolly, and we arrived bang-on time at 3pm at the Rose Hill station car park, where parents had eagerly awaited the arrival of their mucky sons.  Most were in cars, but the ADC of Cubs (Mike Nolan) impressed us all by running from High Lane ("It's only two miles you know").  We all went home, had a wash, and relaxed, glad of the days good weather.

Those who went: Jimbob, Ronaldo, Nippy, Jake, Lucius, Ben, Bozzy Snr, Hibbsy, and the Leaders (Pie, Statham, and the 1996 Goyt District Mountain Bike competition Champions: Andrew, Adrian and Thomas Tognarelli).