Tuesday, 14th August, A hot day from Walton

An email from Rick asking if I fancied a walk on Tuesday was met with the usual reponse…..’Yes’!

At 9.30am I piled into Rick’s car and we disappeared off to the very photogenic village of Higher Walton, SW of Warrington. The sun was blazing down and I was thankful to be carrying a litre of water in my Platy.

Leaving the car on a quiet lane we made our way through the village towards the Bridgewater Canal. Judging by the inscribed stones on some of the houses, the Greenhall family were once quite influential in the area. Their Wilderspool Brewery supplied most of the local pubs for many decades.

We were soon on a familiar section of canal towpath, part of the route on my recent bike-packing trip, albeit in the other direction. Walking East (East is good) along the towpath we came across runners, cyclists, dog-walkers, and of course canal boats – although not all were pleasure craft.Walking through Stockton Heath, under the A49, and on to Grappenhall by the canal, it was very easy to forget that we were very close to  ‘civilisation’, such was the tranquillity of our route.

Leaving the canal to walk through Grappenhall Wood our route took us west-ish

Very pleasant woodland paths of the Mersey Valley Timberland Trail took us around the edge of a modern housing estate and continued through the wooded sandstone edges of The Dingle and Lumb Brook Valley. Although it was a pretty little valley, the brook was a bit whiffy – perhaps it was the hot weather and proximity to housing. Looking at the map, the brook may be called Dipping Brook. Perhaps it was something ‘they’ had dipped into it.

Dingle Lane Bridge over Dipping Brook

(which wasn’t at all whiffy at this point)

Then it was time to get lost. A walk wouldn’t be a proper walk if it all went to plan now, would it?

It was probably because we were gassing too much. Or the bright sun that was shining in our eyes. In our defence we only went a bit wrong and it didn’t take more than a minute or so to locate our position on the map. 

Back on track, we crossed the A49 Roman Road and climbed up to Hill Cliffe for our lunch stop. Munching our butties, we had a good view of Winter Hill, Warrington, and, er, the cemetery. The sun was burningly hot, too hot for me to keep my Tilley on – I think I need to get a lighter-weight one.

Trying (unsuccessfully) to be artistic

Appleton Reservoir, popular with anglers (WAA Members only, No Day Tickets. Have a nice day), birdwatchers, nettle-lovers and biting bugs, was our next target.

  The heat got hotter, I got sweatier, Rick looked cool. It’s his glasses you know.

Then there was (were?) Creamfields. Being a boring old fart who doesn’t get out much, I hadn’t heard of Creamfields. At first I thought it might be a dairy farmers convention. Or a peculiar coloured landscape. But no, it’s some sort of music festival that costs lots of money to get in to…just so you can have your ear-drums blasted with megawatts of sound. I shan’t be going. It’s being held over the August Bank Holiday anyway. And I’ll be washing my hair that weekend.

Emerging from Row’s Wood we spotted little coloured flags stuck into the ground. Then there were the enormous pallets of what we were to later learn were sections of barrier, designed to keep folks out of the Creamfields site. Or maybe to keep them in? The site area was huge. It’s a sell-out event, 55,000 tickets sold….which is the REAL reason for me not going. Perhaps.

 

 Keeping folk in…or out?

 Temporary mobile phone mast, needed if 55,000 fans all phone home at the same time

Leaving the festival site behind, we crossed the A56 to get back to the peace and quiet of the well-manicured canal towpath once again.

Marching Eastwards (East is good) once again, we soon came to Moore village which has a shop selling ice creams. Well it would be rude not to….wouldn’t it? And it WAS very hot. So we did.

Our ice creams were demolished quickly and it wasn’t long at all before more towpath tramping had us back at the car.

The final stretch of towpath before getting back to the car 

The End 

Well it’s not the end really. I’m still here and there will be more.

We had a good day. Next time, and there WILL be a next time, we’ll extend the route slightly. This will put a couple more miles on. The extra bit is plotted so it’s just a matter of doing it.

Thanks Rick! My turn to drive next time…..you can buy the ice creams,

Vital statistics:

21 of your foreign kilometers, 650 of yer English feet of upness.

If you look carefully you’ll see where we were, er, slightly off-route.