Tuesday 8 September 2020 - Appleton

 

A little while ago, Jen Darling gave me a copy of her book, 'Walks in West Cheshire and Wirral'. Most of the walks are fairly short, and I have to admit to the book, until I undertook this walk ('Walk Number 1. Appleton'), remained in fairly pristine condition. Then, last week, Jen indicated that the publisher may seek a new edition of this book, and if so may I be able to help by re-walking some of the routes?

 

Of course, I'd enjoy doing that, and why not walk the routes anyway, I'm sure they'll lead me to some interesting nuances to routes with which I'm familiar, and one or two friends who aren't up for longer outings any more may be happy to join me.

 

Walk Number 1 seemed a good place to start, so I drove to Warrington and parked behind what Jen's book describes as a Spar shop. It's now a Co-op, and that's the only significant factual 'edit' that I came across, though - as Jen knows - I could add a few non essential edits to aid anyone trying to do the walk by simply following the instructions in the book, without the aid of a map.

 

Jen used to live (almost if not in sight of the above-mentioned Co-op) here, so this would be a walk from her front door. Her book highlights some points of interest that I will not repeat here, not least because I've already mentioned some of them elsewhere on these pages! Here and here, for starters.

 

Jen mentions the original features of The Lodge, near the start of the walk, but they are now concealed by a high brown gate/fence, but the old gateposts shown below lead through a lovely avenue of beech trees next to Pewterspear Lane.

 

 

 

The double-faced sculpture of the Roman god Janus (also pictured above), marks the point where this walk leaves the Roman road and heads off to Hillside Farm.

 

 

 

Beyond Hillside Farm, which is skirted by a pleasant path with twittering birds in the hedgerow and mewing buzzards overhead, Dennow Cottage soon appears in the distance.

 

 

Bellfields was built by a retired naval commander, who modelled the interior on a ship. In front of the house is a sandstone pillar that is said to mark the spot where Cromwell's horse was buried, after being killed in a nearby skirmish in 1648.

 

 

Next to Bellfields is a duck farm.

 

 

Unlike other versions of this route, this one passes around Appleton Reservoir, where mallard, coot, moorhens, swans and great crested grebes keep the fishermen company. It's a permissive path in tranquil surroundings. Delightful.

 

 

 

 

 

There's no escape from Himalayan Balsam and Hedge Bindweed at this time of year.

 

 

 

Soon afterwards, the Bridgewater Canal's towpath is reached after crossing Hough's Bridge, on a very pleasant, heavily shaded stretch.

 

 

A short diversion in the direction of Moore leads after 300 metres to the entrance to Walton Hall Gardens, the former home of Lord and Lady Daresbury, where there's a bicycle museum and other attractions. (Click on the image to view it properly.)

 

 

After this distraction, the towpath leads back in the other direction, past housing, to Stockton Heath.

 

 

The canal is left behind at London Bridge, after crossing which bridge the route doubles back for a while, passing the old customs house and toll keeper's cottage, before ascending through a series of ginnels to a large cemetery.

 

 

 

 

Today, a mass of Green Alkanet foliage and flowers adorns some of the ginnels.

 

 

From the lychgate of Hill Cliffe Baptist Church, there's a good view to the spire of St Elphin's, Warrington Parish Church, and beyond to the tall mast on Winter Hill, and the South Pennines.

 

 

The walk enjoys a final flourish along a fine footpath beside a golf course (which is the other side of an impenetrable hedge), before reaching Pineways and skirting a delightful pond, from where the Co-op and its car park can be seen.

 

Near here I stopped for a chat with someone in his garden and told him what I was doing. He remembered Jen as having lived "just around the corner".
 

 

Thus ended a delightful stroll that amounted to 11 km including diversions and took me two and a half hours.

 

 

Red Hot Pokers

 

A quick entry today, from a trip in 2005 that's another candidate for a full report.

 

This picture, which I think is of a variety of Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia), was taken in Madeira on 26 November 2005, at a time when I was juggling consultancy work with trips, leaving no time to process photos.

 

I can think of a few candidates for RHPs just now, but I'd better stop there...!

TGO Challenge - Wild Camps (No 32: 23 May 2010)

 

The ninth and final wild camp of my 2010 Challenge was on the shore of Loch Beanie, where, after a twelve hour day that included a good meal at the Spittal of Glenshee Hotel*, I was joined by Brian (pictured above after politely asking if I minded him camping near me - "yes, that's fine, it's the best spot"), a New Zealander with a 30 kg pack who was walking the Cateran Trail.

 

 

 Two mating swans cavorted on the Loch whilst I cooked my supper.

 

 

Brian had a load of fishing tackle and spare clothing, but very little food. He caught a lot of weed, but no fish!

 

 

After a day during which it had rained for a few hours, we enjoyed a lovely sunset.

 

The following morning offered fine views back across Loch Beanie, as I moved on, leaving Brian to slumber in peace.
 

 

* 20% discount to Challengers, but sadly it burnt down in around 2014.

22 July 1989 - Alta Via 2 - Day 8 - San Martino to wild camp near bivouac hut Carlo Minazio

Saturday 22 July (Diarist: Martin W)

Despite delivering last night's meal in a somewhat random order, our waiter was good enough to supply us each with a 'shot' of 'Grappo' (aircraft fuel according to John). This probably helped us all to sleep well and wake to a fine morning, rapidly becoming hot. Laurie is a little slow off the mark and has his kit in total disarray whilst everyone else is neatly packed and ready to go by 8:45 am.

 

 

 

We pay, have odds and ends to buy in town before taking to the Funivia once more, this time back up to La Rosetta. An exciting ride, everyone experiencing difficulty in leaping off the chairlift carrying 20kg sacks in front of them.

After a delay due to having to make a phone call to confirm their flight home, Martin B, Dave and John moved off sharpish. I dallied a while, taking photos of Italian kids playing in the snow (probably quite a rarity for most of them).

 

[Again today, the pictures are from the 'advance party' and the text is from the 'rear gunner'.]

 

 

Suddenly the dynamic 3 could not be seen. I moved to a vantage point to try and spot them. I wait a few minutes and Laurie appears. The Guidebook says to follow a water pipe up to the col where there is a sign, and then descend.

We don't realise that we have already reached this point because the sign we see below is pointing in the wrong direction and the pipe continues up the mountain We therefore climb about 300 metres up Cima di Roda before realising our mistake and spotting the zigzag path below. One hour and much energy wasted. In fact, in our defence, it's not easy to see from the map whether the zigzag path goes up or down.

Finally back on the right track, we descend maybe 300 metres until the path curves around the south of Cima di Roda, levelling off on a grassy plateau. We stop for a quick brew and lunch before moving onto the aided section and pass that follows.

Roughly 100 metres of steel cable aided a traverse along a steep cliff. A good ledge was provided most of the way, but one particular section was tricky, requiring leaning out from the cliff for those with high packs, or perhaps ducking under the cable and walking between it and the rock for a few feet for those with packs of reasonable size. I would say that this section was definitely 'airy'!

 

 

A short break was followed by another long cable that was hardly necessary, leading up a sloping section to within a few minutes climb to the top of the col, Passo di Ball.

 

 

 

Down the other side we were in climbers' country proper. Enormous cliffs surrounded the plateau containing Rifugio Pradidali, and little figures could be seen clambering about high above and often heard shouting to each other.

 

 

A short stop at the Rifugio (soup for Laurie, cappuccino for me), followed by a climb up the valley to the north past Lago Pradidali, which was very low.

Bearing east we then began the ascent up to Forcella di Lede. There was much more of this than first met the eye. The first blind summit led to a rocky section where a considerable amount of unaided climbing was in store. I enjoyed this: plenty of good hand holds in the old pitted limestone, and the route was well marked with red paint. From high up, this particular valley could be seen to have a stepped structure - at least three levels were clearly visible. There must be some clear cut geological reason for such a striking feature (- raised beaches?).

After much longer than expected, the 2640 metre col is reached - nearly as high as the surrounding peaks. Stupendous views are by now becoming commonplace, but they are there all the same. To the south, a sea of cloud made for some interesting photos.

 

 

Then a long descent over loose stony paths begins - many photos were finally curtailed by descending below the cloud. Bits of what appeared to be aeroplane wreckage were scattered about.

 

 

 

At about 7 pm we arrive outside the bivouac hut Carlo Minazio.

 

 

Some Italians, one lucky chap wearing a yellow "think pink" sweatshirt (?!), and two girls point out a cluster of tents below in the mist. It is indeed the dynamic trio come to rest before Rifugio Treviso. We are quite pleased we don't have to go any further today.

 

 

 

A lot of purility on the campsite tonight. Big bully boy Dave rubs sheep poo into Laurie's hair after cornering the latter in his tent. Revenge for the electric fence joke? If so, it was not matched in subtlety. However, I believe it was Laurie who started flicking bits of poo around to start with, and although I cannot be sure of the train of events, the war probably escalated for some reason. He who plays with fire...

 

 

(Dave adds: Yes indeed - Laurie flicked sheep shit at my dinner - very puerile - though my reaction was a little over the top, I think Laurie enjoyed it!)

Initial calm tonight was followed by rain and blustery wind that died down again by 10:30 pm.

 

 

  Here's our route - 10 km, with 950 metres of ascent. 

Later:
Martin W has kindly provided the following additional images:

                                    Laurie negotiates a wired section

 

A view from near our campsite

 

             Round-leaved Pennycress