Friday 13 January 2017 – An Evening Stroll in Stretford and Chorlton

After a hasty return home from the Leather’s Smithy at Langley (see previous entry), I grabbed a bite to eat and followed Sue down to Dane Bridge Metro Station where Andrew was waiting for us to commence an evening walk at 7.30.

We lingered until the allotted time before heading towards Manchester along the Bridgewater Canal towpath on a lovely moonlit evening.

The route is shown below – basically a stroll into Chorlton, past the Bowling Green Hotel favoured by Chorlton Runners, past my old house in Chorltonville, across the meadows to cross the Mersey at Jackson’s Boat, pictured below,

then on along a narrow path to the Visitor Centre, passing between Sale Water Park and the M60 before re-crossing the Mersey, re-joining the canal towpath, and ambling back to the Bridge Inn for welcome refreshments.

Phew, that was another 9+km and a couple of hours’ walking to add to the day’s stroll in the Peak District. A lovely evening though and a very pleasant saunter along paths familiar from days gone by. Jackson’s Boat was often visited in my student days; just nearby was a concrete tube that was great for testing home made fireworks, and I recall at least one of my bicycle wheels being destroyed by an annoying kerb after a Friday night session. Happy Days!

A short period of rest was then called for, starting with the 5km parkrun at Wythenshawe Park at 9am on Saturday morning, and various other similarly ‘restful’ activities during the course of the next few days. Readers may be pleased to hear that none of these were deemed worthy of a diary entry, and given the dark, drizzly weather, no photographic record exists.