Tuesday 7 May 2013 - Curry Club at ‘This & That’

Looks a bit of a mess, but very tasty, and only £5.50.

This was a nice little jaunt by a slightly odd route, with Rick, JJ, Alan R and Viv.

We met outside Timperley station. 

“We are on the wrong side of the road” I observed, spotting the others in an unconventional spot.

“I have a cunning plan” announced JJ.

So saying, we headed off towards Altrincham, which those familiar with the geography of Timperley may recognise as being in the wrong direction for ‘This & That’, a curry house in Shudehill.

We strode on through Altrincham, past the Budenberg Haus Projekte.

Altrincham’s bluebells were wilting in their unaccustomed sunshine.

The Bay Malton signalled our departure from the Bridgewater Canal, in favour of the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT).  The TPT follows roads as far as our local hi-tech waste disposal centre, so JJ carefully directed us along some pleasant alternative footpaths.

The TPT then remains off road past Carrington Moss and beside the Carrington Spur to reach the River Mersey, by which time Alan hadn’t much idea of his whereabouts. 

Cake kept him going, as it did the other three.  They had all suffered yesterday at the hands of R Norman, the master plumber from Horwich, on one of his short guided walks.  17 miles or so.

A heron was vying with the kingfishers to stab the fish on the salmon leap.

Alan soon relocated himself as we crossed about ten lanes of the M60 motorway on our journey back to the Bridgewater Canal in Stretford.  Luckily a footbridge was provided. 

The locals seemed to know JJ.

We walked past a pub.  (It was shut.)

A few metres further on, JJ spotted a Metrolink tram station.  “It’s gone 12.30, time for a curry” he announced.  So we all jumped on a tram to Shudehill and enjoyed said curry.

A delightful outing of about 14 km (around 9 miles), with not much ascent at all, in about 3 hours.  Thanks go to JJ for organising it.