An email from the Long Suffering Rick gently hinted that a Curry Walk was overdue. I fired off emails to those well known Curry Walk aficionados, Martin & Alan. Alan was predictably enthusiastic, Martin was willing but the flesh it was weak – a particularly painful back problem meant he was virtually immobile. The decision was taken: we’d do the walk and eat Martin’s curry for him. Oh, and drink his beer at the end.
My old friend John had been cajoled into joining us. He’s not that old really, but he does enjoy a curry. And a walk. He’s quite partial to a few decent beers too.
Rick planned the route, it was his fault turn. A tram ride from Timperley whisked us up to our rendezvous point with Alan: Prestwich on the north side of Manchester.
The Plan (Ho-ho!) was to follow the banks of the River Irwell into the centre of Manchester. To get to the river from our start point meant wandering down a short section of the busy A56 Chester to Broughton (North Yorkshire) road. You can often turn up some real gems if you keep your eyes open when walking through built-up areas, like the delightfully named ‘Railway & Naturalist’ pub:
The Railway & Naturalist, Prestwich
The building has been extended over the years You don’t need to look too carefully to spot some of the alterations. Alan knows more about it (and the pub opposite), he and Sheila used to live locally.
The River IrwellMost people think that the course that rivers follow as they wend their merry way into busy city centres as being dreary at best. The route the River Irwell took was anything but – it was quite delightful.
The path was very pleasant indeed although there were constant reminders of our close proximity to central Manchester:
I think this building may have some connection with the old trolley-bus system that was in use in Manchester until 1966.
A sadder-looking River Irwell. The building behind the bridge is the old sorting office. So Alan says. And he knows about these things.
Manchester Cathedral with the Cathedral Pre-fab to the left.
No idea, but it goes to show that you should always look up when in a city centre. Not all the time though.
Getting closer….The Urbis and The Printworks. I can almost smell the curry.
John McN and Alan, hunger satisfied.
Poor thing. Hot, sweet tea will help.Alan reckoned we walked 13.3km, that’s around 8.3 miles in English. It was downhill. I know this ‘cos that’s the way that rivers flow.
A grand day out in excellent company. Oh, and we all thoroughly enjoyed Martin’s curry and beer. Thanks Martin, I’ll be down for a coffee in a bit.
You can read Alan’s report here, it has much nicer pics and a map.
More of my pics are here. No photos of the curries or the beer, we were too hungry and thirsty to be mithered.
