View from Oban Bothy

View from Oban Bothy

Saturday 14 March 2015

Sunday 8th March, A Rainy Roaches Ramble

A Magic Midlands day walk exploring the ridges north of Leek

I’m not sure, but I think it was Skip’s idea that Yavanna should lead a walk for a group of mates who lurk on Outdoors Magic. Skip’s good at delegating!

Anyways, this was planned (wot?) to be a similar walk to the one Yavanna led in June 2013 – it was…..apart from the weather.

You can read about that walk here, and better still, you can see the lovely views that we couldn’t see on this walk. The area is one that Yavanna knows quite well, she lives just down the road from the Roaches.

P1030896 Heading to Hen Cloud….in the wet

Skip’s words on the day:

Well, that was a wet one!

We convened at the pub - the group was Yavanna with her mum and dad, Miko, Alex (racer66), Simon (Meravingian), John (JJ) and me. Our route took us over Hen Cloud then along The Roaches.

At Roach End Simon had to leave us. We continued to Lud's Church then looped  back along the ridge before retracing our steps over The Roaches.

All told, I make it 10.2 miles on mapping (Alex's GPX makes it 120.3 {eh?} so pretty much unanimous). We took it at a reasonably steady pace and had a short lunch stop.

It was pretty claggy and wet on the way out so no views to speak of. But the cloud lifted on the return leg and by the time we got back to the cars the sun was coming through - typical.

All in all, a very pleasant walk in excellent company - thank you all for an enjoyable day.

P1030895 Hen Cloud

P1030897

The Outdoor Magicians at Doxey Pool

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Simey's Mum's lovely cake demolition 

Simey (Meravingian) had brought some lovely mincemeat cakes that his Mum had made – the group made short work of them, they were a bit nice.

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P1030905Yavanna's Dad looking for the ice cream van

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Lud's Church...and Yavanna's interestingly shaped bald spot.

P1030915Lud’s Church 

P1030925 Racer66...Alex, leading Yavanna and Skip

P1030926Yavanna and her Ma

P1030932Skip on his throne 

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P1030936Don Whillans Memorial Hut

Where we went:

Route 2

More pictures here.

It was wet but it was a great day out, I’m looking forward to the next one. Thanks to everyone, especially Yavanna and her parents for putting the walk on.

Friday 13 March 2015

Friday 13th (ooh-er) March, Tracksterman’s Flapjacks

Backpacking food

The size of my girth is testament to my enjoyment of food – the more I enjoy my food, the more I expand. Funny that, I wonder if there’s a connection?

Tracksterman has been a man on a mission of late – trying (successfully) to lose some weight. His blog has detailed some of the stuff he’s been eating in his quest – what caught my eye was a recipe for flapjacks.

For some reason I can’t load a link to the relevant page on Tracksterman’s blog, but if you look at the entry for 9th March 2015 you’ll find it.

The recipe copied directly from Tracksterman’s blog:

200g oats (I used ordinary porridge oats)
3 large desert spoons black treacle
100g dessicated coconut
100g chopped nuts
1 jar of good quality apple sauce
(I used a jar of Aldi apple sauce)
3 desert spoons olive oil
Mixed spice
(I used a level teaspoonful – not enough)


Warm the treacle, oil and apple sauce. Mix in the dry ingredients then transfer to a greased baking tray. Cook for 15-20 mins 180C (Gas 4), or until firm to the touch and golden brown.
This makes 6-8 pieces, approx 350 Kcal each. They’re good, healthy energy bars - protein from the nuts, slow release carbs from the oats, potassium and sugar from the treacle, quick energy from the apple sauce.

You can freeze them for future use.

I baked them in an aluminium foil lined 8” square tin, 1.5” deep.

Anyway, they were dead easy to make and they turned out well:

image

They have fairly dominant flavour of apple although the mixed spice flavour is noticeable too of course. I’ll make them again but next time I’ll double the mixed spices and perhaps add some grated root ginger.

Thanks to Tracksterman for the recipe. Unfortunately his blog doesn’t have any contact details or any means to leave comments or thanks – so I hope he’ll accept my thanks and appreciation here.

Anyroadup, these bars are good – they’ll be coming with me on my next backpack…which might just be next week.

Wednesday 11 March 2015

1st & 2nd March 2015, Frodsham Frolics

A(nother) John Bullen Production

John doesn’t do a great deal with the LDWA these days, although he’s certainly paid his dues by the selfless service he’s given to the East Lancashire group in his time as Walks Secretary. In recent years he’s organised hugely successful walking weekends based at Forest Hills, just above Frodsham. This year’s trip to Frodsham was on a much smaller scale but it was to prove just as successful as previous trips.

Sunday 1st March

P1030831 Weaver Navigation at Frodsham 

John likes a coffee before a walk, so he’d arranged to meet his loyal followers at a sort of roadside outdoorsy cafe kind of thing. At 9.30, his thirst for caffeine sated, John led us down to the banks of the River Weaver and the start of the day’s walk.

P1030832 Eastwards(ish) on the banks of the Weaver

Half the party were LDWA members, the other half were John’s friends and neighbours, it was a cheerful and rather noisy party that disturbed the peace and quiet of this Sunday morning. Judith, suitably recovered from her recent Curry Walk, joined the party for the day. As a member of the LDWA and a TGO Challenger she certainly had the right credentials for the walk.

P1030834Our glorious leader….and Jan

   P1030835The LDWA part of the group leading the way

 P1030837

Bridge on the Weaver’s north bank linking the island to the ‘mainland’ by Dutton Locks

P1030838

Dutton Locks – and our lunch stop

image Waiting for the AA?

Although I’ve walked and run in this area before I was really surprised to find that Dutton Locks bridges the Weaver to an island in the river. I’m guessing that the rather acute bend in the river needed to be straightened out when the waterway was made navigable. The sluice to the eastern side of the island provides more evidence that this may well have been the case.

image  The island in the Weaver, by Dutton Locks

P1030845

Acton Bridge

We left the Weaver Navigation at Acton Bridge to continue the flatness on the towpath of the Trent and Mersey Canal and the return leg of the walk. This part of the canal coincides with the Cheshire Ring Canal Walk route, a 98 mile canal towpath walk. That’s a rounte that still on my ‘to do’ list, although I intend bikepacking it at leisure with my mate Jon….although I don’t think I may have told him about his plans yet….

Back to the walk: at one point The Plan didn’t look to be going as planned…

image …but we didn’t let a little detail like that stop us.

As it happened, the Towpath Closed sign was a bit out of date and we were able to continue unhindered. The sign probably dated back to the repairs carried out after the canal burst it’s banks in 2012 causing mega problems to boat owners who had their boats on the wrong side of the breach…..like my mate John who had bought a boat the week before the breach. The boat, of course, was on the ‘wrong’ side of the breach.

image

The brilliantly blue sky of the morning had now vanished and had been replaced by low, grey cloud. Leaving the muddy towpath just beyond where the breach had occurred, we were back on tarmac for a short while. By now the rain was raining and shelter was needed for Lunch No2. The church porch at Aston served nicely:

P1030853

Next up we were back on the banks of the Weaver Navigation and before we knew it had arrived back at the cars. Judith legged it back home whilst the rest of the team headed up to Forest Hills for some R&R and a lovely meal.

Where we went (widdershins):

Route Day1

12.3 miles (19.8km) and fairly flat

 

Monday 2nd March

After a ginormous breakfast we were all on parade at 9.30am. Rick arrived in good time to join us for the day’s adventures. The paparazzi were called in before kick-off:

P1030859 Posing by the war memorial, the Mersey estuary and Liverpool in the background

P1030862 Worrabunch of posers, this time at the start / finish of The Sandstone Trail, which we didn’t follow, well not yet.

After a not very quick food-shop in Frodsham, we set off along the banks of the Weaver Navigation, re-tracing the previous day’s route – for the first couple of miles anyway. Leaving the waterside path, we followed tracks and tarmac into Kingsley. 

 

P1030865The day was good but it was cool and breezy first thing 

image

P1030870Jan, in subdued mode

P1030871 John B, the man with the map, with Diane & Jan

Somewhere along the way the route was shortened by a couple of miles from around 14 miles to around 15 miles. Don’t ask me, I didn’t plan the walk.

image

The tracks through Delamere Forest are dead easy to follow. At weekends they’re heaving – but today there were very few out and about. The first, or maybe it was the second, lunch of the day was taken in the forest. After the large breakfast I didn’t need much at all.

We were now walking on the very well way-marked Sandstone Trail:

P1030874 John B, a man full of surprises, had arranged for a tea (& scone) stop somewhere out of the forest. it may have been near Alvanley Cliff but I can’t be sure.

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The 15th Century Austerson Old Hall. And a horse.

In the 12 years from 1974 to 1986 this building was dismantled and re-located from Coole Pilate near Nantwich, 27 miles away.

On the final approach to Forest Hills we had wonderful views over the Mersey Estuary from the sandstone edges – but I didn’t have the presence of mind to get the camera out. Silly bugger.

The gentle route had a real sting in the tail: the Bakers Dozen steps – it’s only 13 steps, but they’re quite steep - you really don’t need that at the end of the day:

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P1030882 Scary Mary Aunty Mary Mary climbing the Bakers Dozen steps

 

Where we went (clockwise):

image

Around 15 miles with some up and down, but not much.

Rick and I headed off home after the walk, the rest of the group stayed behind to enjoy another night at Forest Hills. As we live less than half-an-hour away it seemed a bit daft to stop the night – although I’m sure it was a fun evening.

Thanks to John for putting the trip together, and to the whole group for making it so enjoyable.

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.

P1030802

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.

P1030803

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

P1030805

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

P1030806

Hough End Hall, yours for a lot of money

P1030807

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

P1030811

P1030813Lynn and Martin 

P1030814

P1030815

A once very grand house in Rusholme 

P1030816

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

P1030818

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

P1030829

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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