Preston Guild Wheel Walk 28th Nov 2021

An East Lancs LDWA production

I collected After Eights Walker Kay from Handforth at 7.30am (the one in the morning) to drive north to Preston and to go for a bit of a walk.

It was very cold, –4degC, and with sleet & snow forecast for later in the morning I was glad to be wearing my Buffalo top.

15 walkers and two doggies gathered at Preston’s Marriott Hotel, Broughton, in time for a good talking-to by Hilary, the walk leader.

After a quick photo-shoot we shot off (this is the LDWA) to walk the Preston Guild Wheel, described as:  ‘A 21 mile circular route that can be ridden or walked in any direction for as far as you want. You can join the route at any point on the way.

The route is mainly off-road and traffic free, providing a scenic and safe cycling and walking route for all the family to use. Use the map to help plan your route around the entire Guild Wheel or to create shorter cycling and walking routes to suit your location and ability.’

I chose to walk in Salomon walking / trail shoes, Kay wore boots – she suffered sore feet after a while, but being a bit of a tough ‘un, she soldiered on to the end.

The route is generally on a good surface, tarmac etc, although there were a few muddy bits.

This was the day after Storm Arwen the cause of a huge amount of damage up and down the country, but mainly up. It wasn’t long before we came across one of the storm’s casualties.

As we started following the banks of the River Ribble it started to sleet & snow, not much at first, but the sky suggested we’d be under attack from the white stuff for a while yet.

Preston Dock is no longer a working dock, but it’s now home to all manner of pleasure craft, and has been renamed Preston Marina. This wasn’t the best day to see it, even so it’s quite impressive.

Remains of the long-since vanished ship building industry are still visible if you look hard:

 

Hilary was expecting the cafe at Avenham Park to be open, but the place was in darkness – daft really, the park was full of visitors, the weather poor, I’m sure it would have done good business.

We snuck under a shelter and sat on the ground to eat our butties and drink our coffee. In true LDWA fashion we were off again after 20 minutes, again following the course of the River Ribble...which had a lot of bridges crossing it:

 

 

It was really great to see Julie after 3 years - almost to the day!

 

We spent a lot of the walk catching up and comparing notes.....a lot has happened in three years!

 

I'm not sure where or what this magnificent building is, other than being located before Brockholes, but I just had to photograph it.

 

Kay with Peter

 

Mud!

 

Mud!We continued following the meandering river until we had passed through Brockholes Nature Reserve when we walked NNW to a cafe where tea and coffee were quickly gulped down…..not quickly enough though, the two minute warning of impending departure came very quickly.

It was now getting cold. Ice formed on the well surfaced paths and many were skidding, slipping and sliding all over the show, I don’t think anyone actually hit the deck, but it was a close run thing.

We were marched through Hindley Hill Woods and on (apparently) passing Broughton Hall and Cromwell’s Mound. I didn’t see them, I was concentrating on staying upright on the ice-rink of a path.

We were now on final approach to The End. It was quite dark and getting very misty by the time we got back to our iced-up cars.

We bade our farewells to Hilary and the rest of the group, some of whom decided the hotel bar would be a good place for a debrief….and a beer no doubt.

We, on the other hand, sat in the car with the heater on and had a nice hot coffee before hitting the road home.

Thanks to Hilary for leading, and to the other walkers who came along – it was great to see you all again, it’s been too long!

Where we went:

21.8 miles (according to my GPS), with 1000’ of up and downery. Hmmm, not sure about that.

Whatever, the GPS reckoned we’d been on the go for just under 8 hours, 40 minutes of which was spent on breaks. That bit was about right.