Tuesday 25th June, Lewis Carroll woz ‘ere.

Avid readers of this blog (all three of you) may remember that last August, the long suffering Rick and I tried out a route with a view to him using it as a social walk for the LDWA. Details of what we did are here.
Rick was pleased with his route, so pleased that he’s changed it. It’s now longer. And it now goes anti-clockwise rather than the clockwise direction of the original route. So it’s almost the same. Just different. Today’s walk was a recce for the real thing - the proper walk is next Wednesday….you can come if you want, details are here on the LDWA website.
Leaving the car at Walton, we set off along the Bridgewater Canal towpath on a section of the Cheshire Ring in the direction of Moore.

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the pollen was making me sneeze and my eyes itch...the bees were happy though:

The advance party speeding along the Bridgewater Canal towpath: Long Suffering Rick, Fast Pike, and Even Faster Blackshaw

The last time I was on this section of the canal was August last year when Jon and I did a very pleasant bike-packing trip to Chester.

Leaving the canal just to the west of the world-famous Daresbury Labs (looking like something from Quatermass) we climbed up through  Daresbury Firs, a wood on the west face of Keckwick Hill. It wasn’t a difficult climb, but the first up of the day is always a bit of a tug.

Much of this section of the route follows part of the Mersey Valley Trail, a well signed path 22 mile route that is easily completed in a day.

Daresbury is also famous as the birthplace of Lewis Carroll. The church stained-glass windows pay tribute to the lad:

If you look REALLY hard you may just be able to identify some Lewis Carroll figures. Alternatively, have a gander at this:

Leaving Daresbury by Daresbury Lane and Hall Lane, these signs made us feel very welcome…not.

In fairness to farmers, dogs CAN cause a huge amount of damage to sheep and lambs. And bulls can cause serious damage to walkers. We didn’t detect any sign of bulls, sheep or lambs. Or dogs.

Stomachs were starting to rumble, lunch was needed. Rick’s a hard taskmaster and he marched us on through gentle countryside, through nettle fields and paths to walk alongside Appleton Reservoir:

Our intended lunch stop was overlooking the graveyard on Hill Cliffe. As we scoffed our butties in the hot sunshine, we enjoyed a cracking view of Warrington and over to Winter Hill:

The substantial red-brick building is the old Greenhall’s Wilderspool brewery. Look hard and you might see Norman waving from Rivington Pike.

The next mile or so was on tarmac, but apart from having to cross the busy A49, we were on fairly quiet roads. Still on the Mersey Valley Trail, we left the tarmac to follow The Dingle, the shallow valley of Dipping Brook. A couple of east-ish miles took us back to the Bridgewater Canal towpath, just to the south of Grappenhall.

Rick and friend

 

Fast Blackshaw at rest

Rick was a bit worried about there being too much canal towpath walking on this route, but at this time of year it’s delightful: canal boats chugging up and down the cut, plenty of greenery to look at, all sorts of birdies in abundance – really lovely. I think his worries are unfounded.

An hour later we arrived back in Walton, very close to our start point. There was just the Walton Arms to contend with:

Unfortunately the proper ale was rather vinegar-like…..it meant all we had was lager. Oh well, I suppose every silver lining must have it’s cloud.

This is where we went. Sort of.

Around 14 miles with a surprising 800’ of up and down. 

More photos here.