Monday 29 July 2024 - A 70km bike ride to Pennington Flash and Mucky Mountains

The new building in Stretford continues to grow, and ragwort flowers have replaced the orchids beside the canal, which remains happily only very selectively mown

This was a return to a familiar route, at a very gentle pace, on a beautiful summer's day.

The Bridgewater Canal towpath leads in an hour and a half to Pennington Flash, where I enjoyed a lengthy break with a couple of grandparents and their two year old, much like our days out with Isabella.

There are some very narrow sections of towpath near Worsley;

happily everyone is very polite about passing

Between Worsley and Pennington Flash, the towpath is a delight to cycle along;
it used to be a quagmire here but now there's a path on both sides of the canal.
The Bridgewater Gardens are just off to the right

Water lilies and canal boats and new build housing on the way to Pennington Flash

There was a long wait for service at the new cafe by the Flash,

but good coffee and cake when it eventually arrived

Around 10km on quiet roads leads from the Flash to Mucky Mountains Nature Reserve and the Sankey Valley.

Click on the image for more information about Mucky Mountains

The river runs parallel with the disused canal, whose banks are monitored by tame moorhens

As with many disused canals, there don't seem to be enough ducks to keep the weed down

Aspects of the site of the canal, whose heyday was from 1757 to the 1830s, have been retained, and good paths and tracks lead down the valley all the way to Warrington, where my route joins the Trans Pennine Trail

The Trans Pennine Trail hes been upgraded in places, but here near Lower Walton the (sometimes muddy) old path is still retained. I normally stop for a break in the memorial forest before this point is reached, but this time the bench was in the bright sun, so I moved on to a sheltered spot together with a couple of local mountain bikers. There were lots of cyclists and walkers about today in the scenic surroundings of the Sankey Valley.

The trail passes far below a road bridge in Warrington, running alongside and eventually crossing the Ship Canal, before picking up the disused railway track from Thelwall to Altrincham and a final 3km along the towpath.

New gates and signage have recently been installed on this section of disused railway.

The ride is just shy of 70km, with a modest 150 metres ascent. Today it took me about 4.5 hours plus 1.5 hours breaks. Click on the next image for precise details of the route as indicated by a thin blue line.

Meanwhile Sue was paddleboarding with Richard and Jenny at Rudyard Lake.

And soon I was happily rehydrating in our garden.

Saturday/Sunday - Isabella's First Sleepover

I was a little concerned that come bedtime Isabella might be missing her mum and dad. There was no need for that concern, she had been expertly prepared for her night in a different bed, and before shutting her eyes she announced "I like sleepovers".

After a nice lunch for us all at her house, Isabella came to Timperley. Her first job was to harvest the wild strawberries. And guess whose stomach they all finished up in?

Snakes and ladders and other board games have become a regular occupation.

Dinner of beans, potatoes and fish fingers, followed by apple crumble and ... ice cream?

Many stories later she was fast asleep, with Sue in a bed next to her. 8:30 to 5:30, then the Duplo house came out, together with a farmyard, a zoo with a naughty lion that ate the other animals, and various other toys.

"I think I'll try on grandma's new hat!"

"Perhaps it's a size too big."

A visit to the park was next.

Grandma always seems to be causing a traffic jam at the pedestrian crossing!

Meanwhile, the Community Run set off. We'd hoped that Isabella would take part, but she was too busy scootering.

Eventually she waved me in as I finished the 2km run, and decided that she would like to run around the track.

Then we went to the playground in the park and changed into the rather more appropriate rainbow dress.

Then we went home to Didsbury (via a sleep in the car), where mummy and daddy were pleased to see that the sleepover had been a great success, albeit an early night is probably now in order.

Saturday 27 July 2024 - Wythenshawe parkrun #579

Fuelled by Jeanette's magnificent cheesecake, in Paul and Jeanette's garden and greenhouse, together with Mike and Stella, on Friday night, we were ready to go at 9am on Saturday morning in Wythenshawe park. Rufus, as usual, got very excited and had to be removed some distance away from the Run Director, whose loudspeaker struggled to outdo the dog's volume control even from 50 metres away.

Once the starter's gun had fired, the dog dragged Paul past lots of the 295 participants in short order., as far as position 92, just behind Sue. I stayed behind and chatted to Dan for a while before speeding up and finishing in 35 minutes - position 237 out of 295.

Andy and Cary (as well as Paul, Jeanette and Rufus), joined us for a couple of very leisurely coffees afterwards..

None of us 'bust a gut' on the warm morning. Full results are here.

Back at home, any gardening we do at the moment comes to the attention of a young robin, who ventures within a couple of feet looking for either company or titbits. We hope he can evade the local cats.