View from Oban Bothy

View from Oban Bothy
Showing posts with label Beer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beer. Show all posts

Sunday 8 March 2015

Friday 27th February, In search of curry

The challenge continues…

The challenge wasn’t to find a decent curry – we know very well how to do that, but to find another green route into Manchester City centre, or in particular This and That.

This was a short-notice walk. I’d just returned from two weeks in USA and really needed to get out.

As well as notifying the usual Curry Crew I popped the plan onto the Meetup website and also mentioned it to Judith – who blagged a day off work to join us. This was A Good Thing. In addition to Judith, another newly inducted member of the Curry Crew, Lynn, was able to join us. This was another Good Thing.

Cathy was hoping to join us but at the last moment had been called into work. Hopefully she’ll be able to join us on a future walk.

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Lynn and Judith leading, Rick and Martin trying to keep up

The first couple of miles was on the well-trodden and recently re-surfaced Bridgewater Canal towpath. The new surface has made a terrific difference, it used to be just so muddy in many places.

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The Watch House (JW Lees fizzy-pop), the oldest building in Stretford

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Judith in the dead centre of Chorlton. Sorry…..

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Hough End Hall, yours for a lot of money

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On the Fallowfield Loop (FLOOP), on the course of an old railway.

Wiki has quite a bit of information on the FLOOP, it’s well worth a quick read.

 

P1030808 Entering Platt Fields Park

P1030810 Platt Fields Park Boating Lake

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P1030813Lynn and Martin 

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A once very grand house in Rusholme 

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The Anchor, the former very excellent (Marston’s) Whitworth pub 

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Through Manchester University….

P1030819…where Alan Turing did much work 

P1030822 It might have won an award in 1968, but not in 2015

P1030824More Manchester University 

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P1030826Rick, Martin & Judith…..and curry 

P1030828Followed by a beer or two in the Abel Heywood

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Where we went:

Curry walk 27th Feb 2015

Around 12 miles of flatness

As ever, another interesting route into Manchester in good company. The curry was as excellent (and cheap!) as ever, and we have two new Curry Crew members, Lynn and Judith.

Unfortunately Lynn had an unavoidable appointment and had to get back to Altrincham as soon as we arrived in Shude Hill. Consequently she wasn’t able to join us for the curry or the beer. this means she’s not been FULLY inducted. Yet.

It was good to meet you Lynn, we all look forward to you being able to join us again before long.

Addendum:

There’s going to be another Curry Walk on Thursday 12th March:

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Sunday 16 November 2014

15th November, Tally-Ho! from Nangreaves, Route v4.2

The real thing..

A number of exploratory / recce trips to this area were needed in order to finalise this route, mainly due to the large number of illegally blocked Rights of Way (Right of Ways?), completely unmarked footpaths and generally difficult to navigate ground. An a lot of mud.

Anyroadup, this is what happened on the Big Day…

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The Lord Raglan, Nangreaves

The choice of this pub as a venue for Tally-Ho! had absolutely nothing to do with The Leyden Brewery. Nothing at all.

First to set off from The Lord Raglan at Nangreaves were Ding Dong and Whitworth. They had arranged to meet at the pub at 12.30, thus ensuring an early start. After a leisurely tour around the lanes of South Lancashire, Ding-Dong arrived promptly at 1.30pm thus ensuring a not terribly early start.

Rumours of a collection in the pub to raise dosh to buy Ding-Dong a map are completely false….I think they want to buy him a SatNav so his navigation prowess could match that of Whitworth’s…..and he NEVER gets lost. Well, not very often – especially now he has a new Merc with a built in SatNav.

Whitworth and Prez Park left the pub in a blur (well that’s what the drunk outside the pub said), heading north along a short strip of tarmac. The money men (Ding Dong and Mapless  Taylor) ran together – leaving a little later than normal.

The dryness of the tarmac wasn’t to last long. Leaving the road, the extremely well-laid sawdust trail led our valiant heroes to a soggy path of a couple of hundred yards (around 183.44m). Damp grass drenched their running shoes comprehensively. Nice.

Other runners followed in their wake, all finding the extremely well-laid trail very easy to follow.

Whilst the hounds were enjoying (eh?) following the trail, the hares were taking great care to leave a clear sawdust & paper trail across some seriously rough and boggy ground.

First obstacle of the day was the illegally blocked footpath at  Croston Close:

image A Concessionary Path is offered as an alternative route, but the path through the farmyard exists as a Public Right of Way – the landowner clearly has a different opinion.

Next came the first ‘river’ crossing of the day. In recent weeks the stream that is Cheesden Brook had been a mere 2 – 3ft wide (609.6– 914.4mm….approx), the recent heavy rain had swollen the watercourse quite considerably. This ensured that many pairs of Innovates were suddenly mud-free. For a minute.

An uphill pull to a track led the hounds to Ashworth Reservoir. Once through a heavy metal gate the trail ran alongside a Water Authority-built wall to pick up a minor road at the east side of the reservoir.

The Trail-Layers were on the return leg of the trail and were able to watch some of the hounds, on the outward leg, as they ran along that stretch of road. Fortunately they were too far away to be able to hear the runners cursing, swearing and plotting sweet revenge.

Once across Edenfield Road, Knowle Hill came into full view. Curses were heard to be uttered as it slowly dawned on the hounds that the trig-point at the top was to be their next objective. And so it was.

Mud, bog, streams, windmills and sheep were just some of the hazards to be encountered on this uphill stretch. The sheep seemed intrigued:

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image The view south from Knowle Hill

A clear path off the eastern flank of Knowle Hill led the runners along part of the Rochdale Way, (thank-you Wiki!) in the direction of the Naden Reservoirs. The reservoirs only became visible after climbing a stile at Dixon’s Brow. The change of scenery was quite a revelation – so far the views were mainly of moorland, bogs and mud. To see the land open out in such a dramatic way almost caused some to stop and stare for a few minutes. It was either that or they were knackered after Knowle Hill and they needed a breather.

P1030208aNaden Reservoirs 

Clumps of sawdust and the Rochdale Way made for easy navigation as the route swung south and then west(ish) on the return leg.

Another stream crossing and on through Knowl Farm:

imageKnowle Farm, used for filming ‘Last Tango in Halifax’ 

Re-crossing Edenfield Road gave temporary relief from the mud and gunge, in fact there was a good 10-15 minutes of relatively clean running. Until a particularly muddy, sludgy stretch of track that led to a particularly muddy, sludgy river crossing. It wasn’t long before Ashworth Reservoir once again hove into view, this heralded some nice running along only slightly horrendously waterlogged ground.

The Right of Way runs through Yates Farm but there was so much rubbish and detritus on the ground that a diversion was needed. It looks like the place is used as a scrap yard, a real mess.

Much nicer running followed once passed the farm: good tracks and paths, a short stretch of tarmac, and then a really gloopy farm track.

An uphill pull to a ‘notch’ on the horizon indicated the last stretch of the trail, although it was only once through the notch that it became clear the running was almost done. A stile and a short stretch of tarmac had us back at the pub.

20141115_161112First runners in 

imageNext in, Paul and Les 

The trail seemed to have been generally well received – although the beer at the pub got a better reception. It was rather good – just a shame I was driving.

Numbers were a bit low today, only 14(?) members sat down to a filling dinner of stewy stuff and mushy peas followed by fruit crumble. ‘Always hungry’  Blackshaw was unable to stay for dinner due to family commitments, this left Murray in a bit of a quandary regarding his pudding. He needn’t have worried though, help was at hand and his pudding vanished in the blink of an eye.

Layers of trail were Blackshaw and Jocys who had a thoroughly good day out – and even managed to beat all the hounds back to the pub.

This is where we went:

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Around 9 miles with about 1200’ ascent

That’s according to Memory Map and my Garmin Etrex20. I felt I could do with a good laugh so I took my SatMap Active10 along too. According to that heap of junk we covered 16.75 miles.

Impressed, eh?

Saturday 23 August 2014

Saturday 23rd Aug 2014, Stalybridge Station Buffet Bar

 

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With Rick, en route to Saddleworth Longwood Thump Rushcart, Stalybridge Station Buffet Bar is a jewel! It serves 10 cask beers, including a mild. CAMRA members get a 10% too!

Friday 8 November 2013

1st November onwards….Souling time again

This is the time of the year that the Warburton Souling Gang take to the pubs road to spread mayhem, disquiet, misrule….and to sample far too much ale than is good for us:
First night 2013 Tooled up and ready for action
P1000210 Dick (aka ‘Old Hobbs’) with The Driver
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Beelzebub got fed up of waiting to get served
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The lads in the Wheatsheaf, Agden, trying for a place in next year’s Play
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Invasion of The Star in Statham
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The Quack Doctor does his stuff
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Wimmin’s talk

This is The Plan for the rest of the season….tonight and tomorrow:
Itinerary
Come and visit if you can, but hold on to your beer. Tight.

And after all that, this:
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I know what this is, do you?

Addendum:

On a more serious note, and it was the Pieman’s Blog that made me thing I should mention it, The Play raises money for local charities. We tend to concentrate on two, raising much needed dosh for each in turn: the local MS Research Charity and Cotebrook House.

This year we’re making fools of ourselves and sending the hat round for the very excellent Cotebrook House in Lymm. They say ‘Cotebrook House offers both continuing and short term care for residents and we have experience dealing with a variety of physical disabilities.’

We say that it’s a marvellous place that offers a superb level of short and long term care for those with physical disabilities. It has a lovely homely feeling, and deserves all the financial support it can get. Last time we supported them, two years ago, we donated £1350. Last year we raised £1450 for MS.

And another thing:

P1000227 With the statue of Frank Sidebottom, the Bard of Timperley, last night. In the rain.

Thursday 24 October 2013

Saturday 7th September, Thelwall

Thelwall Morris are a fine bunch of lads, always up for a bit of fun and a leap around. Every year they invite a few Morris sides to Warrington to join in the fun and leaping around. This year was my first Thelwall Day of Dance – and what a cracking day out it was. A bus was commandeered hired for the day which provided transport around the various venues. This was a good plan….most of these venues seemed to provide lots of rather good beer.
Just some pics from the day….and more pics here.
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P1020835P1020860  P1020858
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P1020869  A grand day out Grommit!

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