BathMTB: Hallo'wheel Ride Report and anyone out tonight?

[DES ESCIT-SSS AS (Stewart, Andrew C1)]

A slightly late Hallo'wheel report from last week:

 

Hallo'wheel - the annual, now legendary, Weds night spooky tour of Bath's most haunted locations by bike.

 

This year attended by 'Morph/The Blue Man/Papa Smurf/Gimp' Tony, 'Monster (Munch)' Chris, Kevin 'The Joker', Dave 'The Zombie', 'The Jolly Green Giant (Monster) Rich, 'Killer Claws' Aileen and 'The Count' (Andy).

 

We visited (mostly) the same haunts we've been to before over the years and heard (mostly) the same ghastly (ie. dreadful, ie. 'full of dread') stories: 

 

On Half-Penny Bridge (behind the railway station) the child who cries out from their crib (cot) as they float down the river when it's in flood. On the canal, the face of the girl who stares back at you trapped under the ice. At Widcombe Crescent the poltergeist @ No 6 who only appears during the night (and the reason that, to this day, the house is used as offices). We visited spooky grave yards and attempted to awaken the dead before heading up Foxhill where we got buzzed by a low flying bat whilst we heard the story of the runaway (Ghost) train that tore through the valley before crashing in Green Park station killing its driver.

 

We went past the old stone mines and heard about the ghost that haunts the Hadley Arms and moves snooker balls in the night.  Then a bit of off road along the ancient (and almost certainly haunted) 'Sheppards Walk' to South Stoke where we dared venture inside the most haunted pub in the south west: 

 

Our very own Pack Horse. Dating back to the 14th century it's haunted by monks who used to carry the dead through what is now the pub to a burial ground out the back. Then.. as we sat drinking the mandatory 'Hallo'wheel' beer, the lights suddenly went out. One of the girls in the group opposite let out a cry... we all thought someone must have just leant on the light switch.. until we realised the light switch hadn't been touched.. The landlord, came down and managed to get the lights back on by switching the circuit on and off at the fuse box. Until a few minutes later it happened again. "It must be the rain" he said. Or perhaps we'd upset the spirits??.. cue Kevin telling us about a weegie board session they'd once arranged "for a laugh" a few minutes into it they all distinctly heard a moaning sound in the room. It appeard to be coming from the radio in the corner. They heard it again. They thought they'd put a cassette on to drown it out. Still they distinctly heard the sound of someone moaning over the music.. As if we needed confirmation that Weegie boards are indeed 'nasty sh!t', Tony then told us about a group of his mates who also thought it would be 'fun' to mess with the Board. In the subsequent weeks and months they all ended up being affected in some horrible way.. 

 

. All the while the lights kept going out. Eventually the landlord was forced to get out the candles and we sat there in their flickering light drinking beer and eating chips until faced by the most horrible fact of the evening: we got the bill and realised we'd drunk over £70 worth of beer!! 

 

So who's out tonight?

 

Me, but still feeling not 100% so taking it easy.

 

O/O

 

Andy

 

 

 

 

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