Wednesday 6 May 2026 - Spunch Monton and Worsley

This was our third go at a Spunch event, the first two being recorded here and here.

Despite being poorly attended - with just 31 participants - this was another most enjoyable outing on a lovely evening in pleasant surroundings.

We started at the Waterside Bar in Eccles, opposite the Bridgewater Canal lighthouse that needs a coat of paint.

Sue and I got off to a steady start and progressed well until a hiccup found us on the wrong side of a fence, and there was a short 'lost in Worsley Woods' episode that we shared with one of the other runners who we kept bumping into.

The evening light at the canalside in Worsley was lovely - the camera came out and was kept out for much of the remainder of our outing.

Sue stayed ahead of me for most of the event, and as has become the norm, she bagged a few 'outlier' there and back satellite checkpoints points whilst I enjoyed walking for a while.

There were quite a few folk enjoying the evening light in Worsley Woods, a small proportion of which are familiar to us, and we recognised sections of our bike ride from home to the RHS Bridgewater Gardens, and also points on the parkrun that thankfully weren't as knee deep in water as we found them last time we did that parkrun.

The next picture is typical - Sue with her head in the map, forging ahead towards the next checkpoint, whilst I stroll along in her wake.

She does wait for me now and then, especially when she reaches a checkpoint.

Towards the end of our outing, from checkpoint number 74, we found ourselves by this monument near some interesting half timbered housing.

Here's Garmin's take on our route, though both of us failed to record the first five minutes. On the far right you can guess that we turned back at point 55 rather than risk being late to finish. On reflection, we could probably have bagged four more checkpoints had we gone around the top of the golf course. Never mind, we did ok as shown by the results shown below.

Here we are, 12 out of the 31 participants chose the 120 minute option. Click on the image for a better view. Apparently I did 13.09 km, and Sue did about 14 km - a good evening's exercise.

Adjourning to the bar for food and drink, we spent a pleasant half hour chatting to Sue and Steve Marsland. Sue was 65 today, and chose this outing as her birthday treat! She has just 40 Munros to complete (Sue B is now down to 48 to go) but doesn't seem to have the same desire as Sue B to get them finished.

Thanks as always go to Andy Thornton, who must put a great deal of effort into organising Spunch events in Manchester  and Cheshire.