Thursday 18 June 2020 - A Walk around Timperley and Brooks Drive

 

Sue and I had planned a walk from home today. We woke to rain, that seemed to be forecast all day, so we went out anyway. As I write this (3 pm), it's still raining, so our 8 am departure was a good move. No social distancing was necessary, as we hardly encountered a soul.

 

We started along the canalside path that is accessed from the platform of Timperley Metrolink station. A couple of rowers passed us as we strolled along the bramble lined path.

 

After a while a bridge is reached, from where the next two pictures were taken. This is where teenagers sometimes hang out in the shelter of the steps up to the parapet. A new sign encourages folk to pick up their dog s**t and take that and any other litter home. There was no evidence this morning of anyone disobeying that guidance.

 

 

 

We took a very convoluted route across a meadow to Northern Moor, then made our way laboriously to Brooks Drive, a thoroughfare dating from the 1860s that has now sadly been blocked by residents at the Hale Barns end of the road. Their claims that it is a private road that they have the right to close are being contested by those who have evidence to support it having been used by the public since it was built.

 

Here's Sue, on the pleasant Brooks Drive footpath near Wythenshawe hospital.

 

I've described a shorter way of getting to this point in an earlier report, here. That walk, in December 2017, follows more or less the same route as today's venture from here onwards. There's a big difference in conditions - no mud today, just wet grass.

 

 

The fields leading to Davenport Green weren't muddy, but the rain and wet grass did eventually take their toll on our trail shoes.

 

 

The route goes past a garden centre - Dobbies, formerly Wyevale - where Sue was convinced that the café would be open. A quick trail around the deserted one-way system in the shop revealed no such luck, so we continued on through Altrincham Golf Course to the George V Pool on the edge of Altrincham. There's lots of bird life here. Can you spot the coot's nest in the next picture?

 

 

Here it is from a closer viewpoint. Beneath the bird, unseen in the picture, are a bevvy of red-billed youngsters nestling under their parent.

 

 

I'll have to return there for some bird pictures with a better camera. From there (near the 'A' of Altrincham on the route map below) it's an easy 20 minute stroll home, where coffee and hot cross buns were our reward for a wet but satisfying 18 km walk in a little over three hours.