Sunday 12th September walk

There were 2 walks to choose
from: Vince’s Goyt Valley
low level walk which attracted 18 and Pete’s higher level walk which
took
in Windgather Rocks, Cats Tor and Shining Tor, which 7 people did.

It was rather grey and breezy
to start with, but
brighter with broken cloud and sunshine as the day progressed. The
valley walk
was very gentle, but with good views of the reservoir and heather clad
hills.
Lunch was taken at the Derbyshire
Bridge to the restful
babble of the Goyt, followed by a leisurely stroll down the road to the
ice
cream van and on to the finish and an early drink at The Shady Oak,
where Pete’s
group joined us. We were please to welcome three completely new walkers,
Margo
and Louise who had attended Sue T’s recent talk about the group and
Nick,
who had found us via the website. Our thanks to Vince and Pete for
leading
these enjoyable walks.

Hyde Pub Night

I was apprehensive as to whether anybody would
turn up to my first pub night as various people had already told me that they
had other plans. However I was pleasantly surprised on walking past the pub
window to see Paul, Helena, Rosemary and Ian were already enjoying drinks. We
were soon joined by John, Steve and Simone. We were joined slightly later by
Sean and Les who had stopped off at the Sportsman for a drink on the way.

Although there was a lively atmosphere, we had plenty of space to sit
comfortably at the far end of the pub and were able to partake of the extensive
choice of drinks including some excellent value local Cask Ales. We had a
convivial evening in good company.
Sean and Les came across 4 old school friends that they had not seen for some years
at the bar. It so turned out that I had known one of these friends since I was
17 (which was some years ago !!! ) .

A good night was had by all and thanks to everybody who supported my first pub
night.

Cheers,
Philomena.

Flash Walk Sunday 5th September

On a fine but windy day, 18 of us met up in Flash village to take part in two walks. I led a walk of about ten miles down into the Dane Valley then up to Panniers Bridge at Three Shires Head.  Here we crossed the bridge into Staffordshire, just so we could say we had a three counties walk. We then went up onto Axe Edge before dropping down to the infant river Dove. We traversed several very underused paths where the way was not very evident. My thanks to Paul and his GPS for helping to find the route, also for putting me right when I had a small senior moment and lost all sense of direction. Vince led another of his shorter ladies walks, also visiting Three Shires Head. Afterwards most of us met up in the pub for welcome refreshments.

Jack

Train pub trail Buxton to Hazel Grove 4 September 2010

Five of us met up on the 12.00 pm train to Buxton : Emily, Philomena, Pete, Simone and myself. We started the afternoon in ‘The Railway’, where we took advantage of the good value meals; Simone’s sizzling steak was particularly impressive. We then stopped at ‘The Miltons Head’ on the way back to the station; and, after a scramble up the hill, we made it just in time for our train. 

 

Our first stop was Whaley Bridge, where we called at the ‘Shepherds Arms’, thanks to Pete & Helen for the recommendation; it was an excellent choice.

 

Next stop was all of two minutes away on the train at Furness Vale, ‘The Crossings’. Here we met up with John and Dave who had cycled down to meet us. There was some debate as to whether they would come with us on the train or cycle to the next stop at New Mills. In the end we went on the train, although the next planned pub, ‘The Beehive’ was shut (even although it had been open on the reccie). Pete took us

to ‘The Rock’ instead and we never did see John & Dave, sorry boys.

 

We then travelled on to Disley and met up with Glenys, Campbell and Joanne at ‘The Rams Head’. Our final train leg took us back to Hazel Grove and a tasty curry at ‘The Blue Nile’. There were various further pub stops after this as evening merged into night and night into morning……

 

John H

Fingerpost pub night

This was the first pub night at ‘The Fingerpost’ on Hempshaw Lane in Offerton and I was rather nervous as to the numbers that might turn out. As it was, I  need not have worried, as a total of 19 of us came along. People came from far and wide, including from Hyde (Philomena and Ian), Poynton (Sue & Pete) and even Essex (Lisa, Philomena’s daughter). Others of us came from closer to; I walked to the pub, as usual, and this took me all of two minutes.

 

We were able to use a separate room off the bar and we filled this up over the course

of the evening. Some of us partook of the excellent food cooked by Rob the landlord; the steaks (10”, £ 5.95) were particularly well received. The last of us wended our way home sometime about mid-night.

 

I think that it’s fair to say that a good evening was had by all; and thanks to everyone who came along to make the evening such a success.

 

John H

Cheshire Canal Ring walk, stage 1, Northwich to Kidsgrove, 21 Aug 2010

On Saturday four intrepid explorers met up
at Stockport station to venture out into the salt plains and marshes of
Cheshire. Well actually it was John, Linda,Sue and Tracy setting out on a walk along
the Trent & Mersey Canal.

We alighted at Lostock Gralam and it was
all of about an hour before our first refreshment stop : scones with  jam and cream kindly provided by Tracy. This
was in a delightfully sylvan setting between Northwich and Middlewich.

We made it to Middlewich before our first
pub stop : the delightful ‘Big Lock’. This was accompanied by the first of
several light showers which gave Lindaand Sue the chance to show off their snazzy
umbrellas.

It was an entertaining day with plenty of
action on the canal, with lots of boats coming and going with the many locks on
this section; and everyone very friendly.

We had a further stop at Sandbach at ‘The
Commercial’, a wonderful old fashioned type of an establishment, before moving on
via ‘The Broughton Arms’ (very busy)  and
finishing up at ‘The Red Bull’ in Kidsgrove. We had a tasty meal but had to jog back along the canal, just in time to
catch our train. It was a full and enjoyable day and we’re already planning the next
stage : Kidsgrove to Macclesfield.

 

John H

The last evening walk of the summer

Well it was already growing dark at 7pm as we picked up our boots to set off for the last Wednesday evening walk of 2010. Then as we stepped out of the house the first raindrops fell. But we thought "we cannot let Steve down, he has already been soaked when he rehearsed the walk last week."

 

We arrived at Bramhall Park to find that others had turned out despite the bad forecast. However it was not raining yet so we assembled to be given our instructions.

It had been advertised as "Map, Compass, Torch and Treasure" so we suspected that this would not be an easy, follow the leader, stroll around the park. And we were right. Steve divided us into teams of 5 and handed us a sheet of instructions before sending us off at five minute intervals so that we couldn’t cheat. We had to follow the directions, take compass bearings and answer a few questions as we walked the route. Some of the questions were easy – who is the bench dedicated to? how many trees on the little island (if I was setting the questions I would have asked "how many ducks on the island!!) and so on. Some trick directions added to the fun – if we turn left we go uphill, not down – but by reading ahead to later clues we deduced that if we turn RIGHT and downhill we would come to the lake.

Every now and then we met another group who had either got lost or had directions which led them in the opposite direction to us or we met Steve who kept popping out from behind trees to see how we were getting on.

So far so good but now the directions led us out of the safety of the park and onto other footpaths and it was growing darker by the minute (thankfully the rain held off so at least we are staying dry). Just as our eyes were adjusting to the dark, someone who shall remain nameless switched on her torch and we lost our night vision!

But we continued until the path seemed to come to a dead end – we had missed the footbridge, it was getting late, we were getting thirsty – so we turned back, and met a group that had set off before us coming the other way! Bravely they decided to continue as we headed back to the start. Before long we saw torches ahead – the other group had succeeded in finding the correct route (but only because they met some dog walkers coming down the hill from the footbridge – so we had not reached it after all).

Before long we met everyone else back at the Hall, all safely returned.

 

And now for the really tricky part of the evening – finding the pub from various sets of directions. But we got there in the end.

 

thanks Steve for a very good evening – maybe do one in daylight next year?

Sue T

 

 

But hang on a minute – where was the treasure????

 

Anderton Boat Lift

Twelve of us set out to explore the wonders of the Anderton Boat Lift.
This is a massive structure built in 1875 to lift boats from the River
Weaver to the Trent and Mersey canal, a height of 50 feet. We were very
surprised to learn that the lift was built by a Stockport engineering
company. We boarded a boat on the River Weaver and were soon whisked up
(very slowly) to the canal above us. After the boat ride we split into
two parties to undertake walks. My thanks to Vince for leading a gentle
ramble round Marbury Country Park. Ice creams and tea were taken at the
half way mark. For the more seasoned ramblers, we went a walk all of six
miles! This took in Budworth Mere and Great Budworth Village, where a
refreshment stop was made at the local pub. After this we walked past
the Lion Salt Works Museum before returning along the canal. We all met
up again at the Visitors Centre before returning home.

Mass Trespass Walk

Last Sunday saw 22 of us set off from New Mills station to
walk the Trespass Trail, a way marked 14 route established to celebrate the 75^th
anniversary of the Kinder Mass Trespass in 1932. Despite some dark clouds it
remained largely dry, and very warm, all day. Late morning saw some confusion
when we realised that the reason Joan thought there were only 21 people on the
walk was because we had in fact last someone, and no one could remember when
they were last seen! After some debate about the leader retracing our route, we
decided to carry on, only to find the missing person sat outside the pub in
Rowarth knocking back the beer. We carried on to Little Hayfield for a welcome
lunch stop and pub stop at the Lantern Pike. After that it was uphill part way
up Williams Clough (losing a few more people on the way) to the approximate
spot where the trespassers encountered the Duke of Devonshire’s gamekeepers on
the original Trespass. After that it was downhill all the way, back to Hayfield
and along the Sett Valley Trail to New Mills, picking up assorted folk on the
way, to finish with 22 people again.

 

For those feeling tired after the walk, while the
leaflet stated the route as 14 miles, when we measured the route out, including
the extra part through New Mills, it came out as 15.9 miles in total!  

Family camping weekend in the Lakes.

The camping weekend went well. Rain shortened a walk up Place fell but we did the best bit of the horseshoe.

There was drama on our Sunday walk when we saw someone(not a group member) fall into part of Aira Force and Pat helped get her out, bruised and shaken but OK.

There were 6 families :11 adults 12 kids

Cheers

Helen