Wednesday 8 January 2025 - Another Bollington Circuit

We've been here before, so little by way of commentary is needed - just enjoy the pictures. Click on any of them for a slideshow. Click here for an earlier report on this walk, with  a history of White Nancy, and here for all our Bollington walks since 2007.

I think it's the first time we've walked this route in snow. Sue and I were joined by Cary, who conveniently has winter tyres for his car. Here he is, slogging his way up the final steep slope to White Nancy, with (above) views back to snow clad Bollington and as far as the skyscrapers of Manchester.

We  soon set off along the Saddle of Kerridge, into a hazy sun.

The Saddle is blessed with  some lovely woodland, particularly attractive in the fresh snow.

There are views to the east down to the village of Rainow.

It's a good walk up Kerridge Hill, seen below in the distance beyond a lady carrying a child in a papoose who had passed us, from where you can continue towards Rainow for a choice of ways back to Bollington. 

Our route goes to the right by the wall in the middle distance.

A gentle descent on a good path, with some switchbacks needed to stay on the right of way, brought us conveniently to an elevenses bench near Swanscoe Hall. Cary's fig rolls were much appreciated.

Soon we reached the Macclesfield Canal, and an easy walk back to Bollington along the snowy towpath.. Here, way below the ridge, it was not quite so scenic as cloud had rolled in and the tree branches down here had released their overnight snow.

Some of the flowerheads had gathered a crust of hoar frost.

I think Sue's picture (below) trumps mine.

There were some slithers involved in crossing from one side of the canal to the other.

Soon afterwards we strolled into Bollington at 13:19, after a three hour walk of 9.26 kilometres, according to my 'phone.

We decided to look for a cafe for lunch, rather than drive home. The Mulberry Leaf saw to all our needs, with excellent, tasty food for up to £10 a head.

A very jolly outing in excellent conditions. Thanks to Cary for joining us and providing the transport.

Here's the current programme. Feel free to join me/us, but best check the topwalks.com website for any changes, or let me know if you are coming.

Thursday 16 January	Bike Ride	The Fallowfield Loop - a 40km circuit, starting from Timperley Bridge at 9.30am. Cafe at the Velodrome.
Tuesday 21 January	Day Walk	Rivington Terraced Gardens - A Leisurely Exploration. Meet at the Great House Barn on Rivington Lane at 10:30am.
Wednesday 29 January	Bike Ride	From Rose Hill, Marple, a 35km circuit > Middlewood Way > Lyme Park > New Mills > Brook Bottom > Mellor Church > Marple Bridge > Marple. Start at 10:30am. Bring a snack - it'll take 3-4 hours.
Thursday 13 February	Day Walk	GM Ringway Trail - Stage 1 - Manchester to Sale Water Park. Meet at 10:30am in St Peter's Square for this first 12km stage of the 20 stage circuit of Greater Manchester. (An experiment.)
Tuesday 18 February	Bike Ride	A 50km lollipop route to Moore Lane (by Moore, beyond Warrington) and back, mainly on the Trans Pennine Trail. Start at 9:30am from Timperley Bridge, 9:35 from Seamons Bridge.
Wednesday 26 February	Day Walk	Delph Reservoir. A 12km circuit from the car park at SD 699 166 to the north of Delph Reservoir, near Dimple, north of Egerton, for a circuit of the reservoir. Start at 10am.

October 1997 - The 'Shipton/Tilman' Route - Day 6 - October 16

Thursday 16th October

We have set a routine: tea will be provided at 6:30. We must be packed up by 7:30 - hot washing water having been provided shortly after tea - and breakfast is served at 7:30. This is to be fairly leisurely, as we don't leave camp until 8:30.


                                    A Dog's View from the Mandoli campsite

In fact it is a lovely morning and we sit happily in the sun eating cornflakes, omelettes and other things (chips) and toast and jam / marmalade.

                                                Anil at camp

The campsite at Mandoli

                                   Buildings near Mandoli camp

                                                          Children at Mandoli

                                              Packing up at Mandoli camp

We admire the distant mountains and eventually leave on the 6-hour walk to Wan, at 9am. We have seven ponies, with three/four handlers.

                                                        A view from the trail

Again, we four set off together, but only briefly as the others soon get distracted. 

                                                            Julia takes a break

The path winds gently through forests. There are wonderful mature trees and occasional distant views of Nanda Ghunti.

                                        Pictures from the path to Wan

I walk alone until meeting up with Anil, who provides company through the ongoing woods. There are occasional glimpses of mountains, but this lovely path is more reminiscent of European forests. The trees include cyprus and many more. There are magpie like birds with long tails, jays, tits, creepers and more.

                                                                 En route to Wan

                                    Views from the path between Mandoli and Wan

Lunch, which had been laid out on a sleeping mat at 8am, comprised a boiled egg, a mango fruit juice, a potato (!), a packet of biscuits, a small sort of Mars bar, and a cheese, onion and tomato butty.

The ponies were well ahead. There were numerous more flour mills as Wan was approached. This village has nicely painted houses which I didn't have the nerve to photograph, with residents working outside. 

                                                   Flowers of the Himalaya

                                        Bark (with termites?)

Anil and I decided to have tea before embarking on the roughly 600 foot ascent to the Rest House next to which we were to camp.

                                                      At the foot of the climb

We had already passed fields of cannabis, and those hereabouts certainly appeared to be affected. 

                             Cannabis? no, I think this is the crop they use to mill flour

The tea shop was shut, but we persevered, and the locals arrived to open up. Unfortunately, they were unable to get the primus lit and eventually they resorted to lighting a log by the entrance. This boiled water remarkably quickly and we were soon enduring more sweet milky tea. Onlookers engaged us in conversation. "Say what you like" said Anil "they're all on trips."

Hereabouts the only men who work are those who do portering or other jobs to raise enough cash to buy a field. Once they have achieved this, they set their wife to work the land, do the housework, cooking and all other domestic chores. The men spend all day sitting around, smoking joints and drinking tea. 

There is no alcohol though, and everything seems happy and sedate, several hours away from the nearest roadhead.

The children here were a little stressed today, as a nurse had arrived to give them injections.

                                                   School house near Wan

                                                   Schoolchildren at Wan

Soon we were off to the campsite by the Rest House, with a lovely view down through magnificent tall mature pines to the roofs of Wan below.

                                                      Pony men at Wan

There is a temple near here, apparently worth a visit, but we failed to read Monte Erskine's (last year's leader) notes and missed it. There were affluent Bengalis in the Rest House. Anil likes them not! They are apparently very aggressive and uncaring and try to overload the ponies.

                                                          Villagers at Wan

                                                                     At Wan

Pawan again cooked a lovely meal, Chinese tonight, with chop suey and various other dishes. There followed coffee, Baileys, and for me much diarrhoea and Diocalm, which has ceased to work. Up at 1:00am, the still fullish moon caused nearby trees to cast a shadow on the distant hillside.

My bowels were worse than ever. I finally resorted to taking the two Ciprox antibiotic tablets kindly provided by Sue. I wish I'd taken them a week earlier. They worked immediately and gave me a 55-hour break from the toilet tent, which I (inexplicably as I've used it a lot) failed to mention in yesterday's entry.

Tonight was my turn to sleep alone, luckily for the others, but hopefully the last of the problems, thanks to Ciprox.

[NB I traced the problem back to a prawn/mayo sandwich from M&S on 9 October. It was a nasty infection, and my bowels took over a year to return to normal.]

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October 1997 - The 'Shipton/Tilman' Route - Day 5 - October 15

Wednesday 15th October

Early start at about 7am - we had no breakfast as the Rest House kitchen could only provide one cup of tea every n minutes. So we left in search of breakfast and found it about 10 yards beyond the Rest House entrance. We were watched by locals who Richard fed as they waited for their own breakfasts. They courteously allowed us to eat first. These little tea rooms / restaurants seat just a few people, this one was pretty small - just a glorified shack, with a dressmaker busy making his wares on the lower storey down the bank to the river.

Karanprayeg

Everyone is so friendly and courteous. Namaste, namaste, they say, putting hands together and bowing their heads. We try to reciprocate. Some look ferocious, some down and out. Many are just curious, and many regard having their photo taken as a great privilege.

On the bridge at Karanprayeg

The early morning journey through Karanprayeg was not without incident. A bus seemed to have parked up in the main junction, completely blocking it. Horns blared from all directions before the driver eventually returned.

A pleasant road led to the first landslide, in a village after about an hour. 

The first landslip

After much discussion, and testing of the slippery rock surface, the jeep and Tata decided not to attempt the temporary surface (no one else was). I should mention that a Jeep containing all our supplies, tents, etc plus Pawan (cook), Bagwan (assistant cook), and Alum Singh (otherwise known as Rocket) had set off from Mercury camp just before us and had been seen en route and stayed at the Rest House.

A view from the first landslip

Solution: hire a bus. Several buses appear to be trapped between landslides. All our gear was transferred to one of them, for our use only, and we were soon on our way for half an hour to the next landslip. 

This bus, trapped between landslips, took us to the second landslip

This was substantial and there was no question of doing anything other than hiring another bus at the Debal side and again transferring the gear. As before, we were not allowed to assist and were told to go to the end of the slip and walk on down the road. We did this, slowly leaving the tooting of traffic at the block - how they manage to make such a noise in such circumstances I don't know. Lots of hooting here.

The path between the landslips was precarious, the scenery beyond beautiful - a wide valley with wild dogs / foxes? running purposefully (mating?).

John crossing the second landslip

Martin negotiates the second landslip

Looking back to the second landslip

Another twisty road on a bigger bus led on to Debal (1218 metres).

Debal

We stopped here for lunch, classroom style, in a typical small restaurant with a corrugated roof. Final provisions were stowed, and the bus and gear continued up the motorable track to Mandoli (2134 metres).

So, armed with daysacks, our trek began. The road contoured up the valley very gently, the gradient barely noticeable despite the 900 metre climb (over a distance of about 20 km).

After pausing a few times for the other three to catch up, and briefly playing cricket with the locals, I finally couldn't cope any longer with the slow pace and headed off alone.

Four views from the road to Mandoli

I have forgotten to mention that the Indians seem to play cricket anywhere and everywhere, here on a precipitous road with an old piece of wood for a stump, elsewhere on any sort of rough land, using such things as piles of bricks for stumps.

The 900 metre climb took about 4½ to 5 hours - all afternoon - through a fairly monotonous cultivated area with flour mills abundant and several small villages. I stopped for refreshment at the 10 km to Mandoli sign, when a bus passed. I wondered whether the others would be in it.

With about 4 km to go, I eschewed a shortcut up the hill as I wasn't certain of the direction of the village. I was tiring as the road finally approached Mandoli. Continuing bowel problems were not helping.

Darkness was imminent. Various people tried to attract me into their accommodation, but I trudged on hopefully up the hill in search of tents. Apparently, Anil had gone looking for us, but he missed me as I wasn't on the direct path. Anyway, the tents were at the top of the hill in the grounds of a temple. We have three 3-man tents, so there is plenty of room for two to share (Richard and me tonight) and for the other two to live in luxury. There is also a small dining tent with table and chairs, for our use, and a larger and tattier cook tent, where Pawan and Bagwan are busy preparing food.

The campsite at Mandoli

The last rays of light shine brightly on distant snow-capped peaks - Nanda Ghantid perhaps - I'm just in time for a photo. Now darkness comes quickly. We are perched on the Lohajang Khal pass at 2,590 metres, with views of high mountains to the north, and views far down below to today's walk and beyond, to the south.

The others arrive with Anil after about an hour at 6:45. Anil is relieved to see that I have arrived safely. Soon we are all installed in our tents and then in the dining tent for Pawan's first meal - vegetable soup followed by rice, dahl, salad, onion and cabbage, and various other dishes (paratha, chapati), followed by bananas in custard. It doesn't sound much but it was voluminous and excellent. Great restraint was needed to look after my bowels. Failed.

It was a lovely night with many stars and a nearly full moon.

Adjourned at around 9:30 for the best sleep of the holiday.

My map of the area, courtesy of Ian Inch (click on it to enlarge)

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