For a fourth Monday morning venture out with Graeme from his Wilmslow HQ, Sue and I arrived in rain, a few minutes early. But by departure time, 10:00 prompt, the rain had ceased, though Sue and Graeme retained their windproof tops throughout the morning as it was quite cool. 13C plus breeze chill.
Heading across the golf course and through lushly vegetated fields, we made our way to 'The Edge', pausing half way up to admire the view, which extends to the still out of bounds Welsh hills between Mold and Llangollen.
A short pull up the only real hill on this walk brought us past our first encounters with other walkers, to a socially distanced tea break. (I hope there wasn't any virus on that bench!)
One of the many mine entrances is here. If you look carefully at the next picture (as usual, click on it for a better version and slideshow) you can see the barred entrance that's accessed through the 'crack'.
We wandered around to the Wizard Tea Room - open for takeaways - and a large sign explaining their re-opening plans. Sadly, the pub/restaurant next door (back in the 1980s I knew the owners of this then thriving establishment) is boarded up and in a very sorry state - dating from before Lockdown.
Our route today saw us strolling (limping in my case due to uncomfortable new boots that need the ankle leather softening a bit) down Artists Lane, which Paul and Jeanette often refer to as being an intrinsic feature of many of their bike rides. It's quite steep in places.
Down in Nether Alderley, we pondered the purpose of the structure pictured below at a cross roads.
A few feet away, we found the answer.
Then it was back to base through fields and golf course. Do they actually seed the fields with clover?
Here's Graeme's most pleasant route, and thanks again to him for acting as guide.
13.3 km with 150 metres of ascent. It took us about three and a half hours.
Good timing today, as it rained for most of the afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment