The Huddersfield and Leeds massive

The hotel, I discovered wasn't for doing breakfasts at a reasonable price so as with yesterday I made do with a cup of coffee and decided I'd figure out something foody later.  First stop, a few miles down the road, was Screwfix for some lubricant for my Africa Twin's chain, which was getting a bit dry.  I then had an idea to ride through the middle of Sheffield, just to see it, but I soon became flummoxed by signs for the Clean Air Zone.  Not knowing if motorbikes were excluded, such as they are in Scotland for the time being, I had to re-navigate to the ring road – any ring road; indeed, anything that even looked like a ring road! – and ended up going round the east of the city instead of the west, though it was probably the quicker option.

I rode northwest towards Huddersfield, and on reaching the high ground at Birds Edge, I spotted a familiar mast on the horizon.  After stopping to take a photo or two I realised I was only three miles away so it was worth a diversion to see it up close.  This was the Emley Moor transmitting station, which as 'that looks like something interesting' I saw distantly from the train many years ago.  The tower is 319 metres tall and now Grade II listed.  When it was built, in 1971, it was the sixth tallest freestanding structure in the world.

Making my way through 'oodezfield I reached Tuel Lane and the Rochdale Canal's lock at Sowerby Bridge.  This is the deepest narrowboat canal lock in the UK and it is very deep!  The car park alongside wanted £stupid so instead I patronised the adjacent Lidl car park and bought some lunch.  I hadn't actually had any breakfast.

The rain arrived as I sat by the canal to eat, and it got heavier when I set out for my next destination.  Heading out through 'alifax on the A58, the rain turned into a monsoon and in only a few minutes the roads were awash and my legs were soaked to the skin.  Thanks for nothing, Ixon and your "waterproof membrane"!  Happily however, my 17 year-old Hein Gericke Goretex jacket still justified the price I paid for it, and my leather Spada boots hadn't leaked a drop of rain.

When I reached RSPB St Aidan's, east of Leeds, I was so happy to see the cafe I could've cried.  But I wasn't there for birding, I was there to see Oddball, the disused Bucyrus Erie 1150-B walking dragline excavator.  It was built in 1948 and worked in the USA until 1952 when it was bought by the UK's National Coal Board.  It was put to work digging at the opencast coal mine at Terpentwys in South Wales, then moved to a site near Cannock. In 1972 it moved to St Aidan's and worked there until 1988 when the River Aire burst its banks and flooded the place.  Mining didn't resume until 1998 and the dragline was by then surplus to requirements.  It walked itself to the top of the hill, and was left as an exhibit that you can go inside from time to time.  All the big draglines had nicknames; Big Murphy was our Ruston-Bucyrus 1260W that spent eight years digging at Damside deep opencast mine near Shotts, before being dismantled and sent to South Africa.  There is of course big and BIG, for which the latter means Big Muskie, the very biggest of them all.  Oddball, however, took its name from the fact that it was designed to run on USAnian electricity (60Hz) rather than British 50Hz!

The rain was still coming down so I hid in the cafe and drank hot chocolate until the clouds moved on and the sun came back out, then took more photos of Oddball and the bird reserve.

It was only 20 miles to York which I reeled off efficiently and I was happy to be on familiar roads again.  My hostel was as warm and friendly as ever, so after changing into dry clothes I wandered to the shops, and once back, enjoyed a good meal of beans on toast – using up a couple of thick slices of the bread our first Airbnb hosts had baked for us!