Backpacking meals

The Mrs JJ had a significant birthday recently. We had planned to go out for a celebratory nosh at Greasy Lizzy’s, Timperley’s answer to the 5 star Cordon Bleu restaurants of Paris, London and Rusholme. Anyroadup, when it came to the crunch she didn’t feel up to it. I can’t imagine why.

Instead of going out to eat, I nipped round the corner for a couple of take-away curries: a Chicken Tikka Mosala for her, Vegetable Dopiaza for him. Both served with pilau rice of course.

You know how it is, we only got half-way through our meals and found that we couldn’t eat another mouthful. The leftovers were put in the fridge and would have likely been forgotten about…but I had a cunning plan.

Next morning I finely chopped up all the lumpy bits of the left-overs and put the resulting mush into my dehydrator. 8 hours later all the moisture had been driven off and the resulting crunchy bits emptied into zip-lock polybags. Along with Tesco’s garlic and something-or-other naan bread, I had two excellent backpacking meals.

Dehydrated Chicken Tikka Mosala 

Rehydration of home dehydrated meals is a much slower process than with the commercial stuff, but the results are immeasurably better. And so it was.

Whilst my neighbours were tucking into their rehydrated cardboard (with added MSG) I was enjoying my excellent curry. Stormin’ was the only exception I was aware of – he dehydrates his own meals and was enjoying a similarly delicious evening meal.

If you fancy making your own meals all you need is a dehydrator. I use an American Harvest Snackmaster, similar to this one. I’d suggest a bit of experimentation, but it won’t be long before you’re making your own backpacking meals.

Wednesday 24th October, An excuse for a curry

It was Gayle. She is entirely responsible. It was Gayle’s fault. There can be no denying that Gayle made this happen. If it wasn’t for Gayle we would probably all have stayed at home.

Gayle said she fancied a curry at the famous ‘This & That’ in the centre of Manchester. Not only did she fancy one of their very excellent curries, she wanted to join the Timperley Walkers And Tipplers on one of their Curry Walks.

The Curry Walks were started by the long-suffering Rick last year. Rick had been visiting ‘This & That’ for many years but now he’s decided ‘we’ were appropriate custom for the place and so he has shared his secret.

Anyway there hadn’t been a curry walk since June so it was about time for another pilgrimage….so perhaps we can’t hold Gayle ENTIRELY responsible.

Folks started arriving at Martin & Sue’s from 9.30am-ish, tempted by rather good carrot cake a decent coffee. By the time I arrived, Alan was already there, wrapped round a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Unfortunately Sheila wasn’t able to join us….she had to work. Mick arrived soon after we all made a valiant but futile attempt at demolishing the cake.  Admitting defeat, the party left to meet up with expedition leader Rick and his next-door neighbour, Pete.

The route is fairly straightforward – canal towpath into Manchester and then just a little micro-navigation around the back streets of Manchester to our final destination on Soap Street, Shude Hill.

Although I’ve walked this route a number of times I always find it interesting, there’s loads of history and industrial archeology to look at. What is quite striking is the contrast between the architecture dating back to before the Industrial Revolution and the uber-modern buildings of today.  The Bridgewater Canal is affectionately known as the “Dukes Cut” after it’s owner, Francis Egerton the third Duke of Bridgewater. He built the canal to transport coal from his mines at Worsley to the industrial areas of Manchester, it revolutionised transport in this country and marked the beginning of the golden canal era from 1760 to 1830.

See, read this blog and learn. Something.

Within a few minutes our little group was on the canal towpath, and sniffing the air for traces of exotic spices, we walked northwards.

There’s not a huge amount to say about the route so I’ll post some photographs, taken with my still new Lumix G3:

 

The Watch House, Stretford

 

  Waters Meeting, Stretford

  At SJ82227 96954. Ask Rick, he knows what it is. I can’t remember what he said.

New and old in Manchester

  Cormorant in central Manchester

 

 

The Beetham Tower – visible from MILES away

Spot the Youth Hostel

  Getting close….

This and That has had a lick of paint (on the outside anyway) since my last visit

 

 

Pete, Sue & Rick

Martin’s gadget-thing measured our distance, something like 9 miles. It was Sue’s first (and not last) visit to This and That. Rick ALWAYS enjoys his visits here. Pete enjoyed his walk and lunch. I had a nice day. Mick had a long day – not only had he travelled up to Timperley by train and tram, he was also giving a talk at Stockport Walking and Outdoors Group that evening. Roy enjoyed meeting up with us again – we had first met him on the Bollin Valley Way walk a couple of days earlier. Alan doesn’t ever need an excuse for a walk. Or a curry. Or a rather good beer in one of his favourite pubs in Manchester, The Ape and Apple. We had to join him of course, he might have been lonely. And it would have been rude not to.

Oh, and Gayle. She didn’t make it, she had to go to work. Poor Gayle.

She wouldn’t have enjoyed it. Honest.

Thursday, 21st June: A Longish Day

Well there HAD been a plan, but just did the curry walk instead.

My original idea had been to nip up Alderley Edge with the tent last night so as to be ready for sunrise at 4.40am. The sandstone cliffs of Alderley Edge are quite magical – legend has it that King Arthur and his knights sleep in a cave beneath the cliffs, ready to leap to the defence of England in time of peril.

The only peril last night was the rain. So I stayed put at home.

But that was only the first half of The Plan. The next bit of the plan was to meet up with the long-suffering Rick again, and Jon, sometime lightweight TGO Challenger. Not that Jon does his Challenges in a wimpish manner, oh no. Jon goes lightweight – cuben fibre rucksack, tarp, uber-lightweight cooking gear…you get the picture.

We met at Timperley Metrolink Station at 10am, then followed the steps down to the towpath of the Bridgewater Canal. Up until fairly recently the towpath was a muddy mess, but investment by Sustrans has transformed the path northwards into a well surfaced track, suitable for walkers, runners and cyclists. Unfortunately the southbound towpath from Timperley hasn’t had the benefit of this treatment and is still a mess, particularly in wet weather.

The morning was overcast but dry as we set off north. Our fingers and other bits were firmly crossed that the rain would stay away. We didn’t do too badly considering the poor weather forecast but within half an hour we felt the first drops of the wet stuff.

We went north, through Brooklands, Sale…The Bridgewater Canal at Brooklands Station Bridge

Under the M60 towards Stretford

 

Some of the wild-life

Canal boat graveyard in Stretford

Marina in Stretford

Although I’ve walked this route a number of times, I always find it interesting. Seeing Manchester from it’s backdoor is a privilege that is available to most, yet few seem to take advantage of it. Many of the old mills have been converted into swish flats or offices. Others, derelict, are still awaiting conversion – or demolition.

These derelict areas surprise with all manner of plants growing wild:

Just across the way from Manchester United’s Old Trafford:

What started as light rain had now turned into big lumps of water falling from the sky and overtrousers were pulled on – Goretex Paclite is as useful on an urban walk as it is in the hills. Rick and I stayed dry, Jon wasn’t so lucky – he hadn’t brought his wetlegs with him.

      At Throstle’s Nest Bridge, Old Trafford

As we got closer to Manchester City Centre the views opened out – so much of industrial Manchester has been flattened.

 One of the many new buildings on Salford Quays, built on the old Salford Docks.          This is a block of fashionable and very popular flats overlooking the now clean Manchester Ship Canal. My No2 son lives in one of them. He’s got more money that his Dad….who doesn’t do fashionable!

 

Closing in on Manchester we passed through Castlefield, once a bit of a dirty hole, but it has been cleaned up nicely. It’s a shame that the cloud and rain doesn’t show the area off to it’s best :

  Wild-life in the city centre

Des-res for the wild-life

Leaving the canal towpath, and now following Rick – because I’m clueless in the city centre, we head through the back streets towards Shude Hill. This area of Manchester was once home to sweatshops producing everything from ladies knickers to, er, other stuff. There are still lots of Asian-owned clothing wholesalers in the area.

Our target for today’s walk was ‘This and That’, a wonderful curry house situated in Soap Street, a grotty back alley. It’s more of a canteen than a restaurant, and I gather it used to provide meals for the Asian employees of the various factories that were once so prolific in the area. Today it’s very popular with workers wanting a decent lunch for not a lot of money.

The appearance of ‘This and That’ belies the quality of it’s food                       

Rick and Jon getting stuck in

The food served here is excellent. Although the place doesn’t look at all inviting, the Food Standards Agency has awarded it 4 stars out of a maximum of 5. After eating our fill it was time to head for the tram to take us home…well you didn’t think we were going to walk back as well did you??

We called by Vinyl Exchange – a record shop I usually avoid not because I don’t like it, but because I find it almost impossible leave the place without buying at least one CD. Today I made up for my avoidance of recent years – buying 6 CDs, admittedly for only £27. And they are by artists I really like.

Before I had chance to spend any more money we headed straight for Piccadilly, our tram, and home.

A grand day out Gromit!

Today’s vital statistics:

9.5 miles with 180’ of up.