Sunday 17 June 2012

Hayfield Walk 17th June

Hayfield Walk
What luck we had with the weather, given the bucketing torrents of the week just gone by!  No surprise to most people that it was a “Dizzy” Diz Carter walk, with a few little off piste sections. (May get drummed out of the Leader brigade at this rate). However, over all everyone enjoyed it.
Starting at Peep o’ Day just outside Hayfield, the walk took in Oaken Clough, Edale Cross and Jacob’s Ladder where we had our lunch in the lee of the hill just before the stone steps to the valley.
A minor deviation just before Upper Booth took us up and along a hefty shoulder instead of up Whitemoor Clough, which would probably have been a stiffer climb.
We had a well deserved tea break at the cairn in memory of John Gilligan, looking out over the Edale Valley.
After this we joined the Chapel Gate Trail westwards before joining the Pennine Bridleway behind 4 stinky Range Rovers doing “off roading”.
John G decided to avoid this last stretch of up and downhill tracks by cutting over to Brown Knoll and arrived back at the cars nearly an hour before the rest of us, so got home much quicker for a reviving bath and cup of tea or maybe something stronger.
There were 17 of us in total, quite a good turnout considering the slightly dodgy weather.

Saturday 16 June 2012

Gritstone Trail 16th June

Gritstone Trail


Last year seven members of the group walked part of the Gritstone Trail from Rushton Spencer to Disley, this year was to complete the trail from Rushton Spencer to Kidsgrove. The forecast for the walk was not good, in fact it was so bad that Noah was considering getting the arc out again. However, when the day arrived it was dull but not raining and so Tracy, Helen, Pam and I set off on the trail.

The walk was gentle enough to start with going through Raven's Clough when we were approach by a man from National Grid who informed us that the path was closed due to work on the overhead electrical cables and had we not seen the sign regarding the closure of the path. The only sign we had come across was a metal one that was face down and proved to be very useful in getting over a very muddy stretch of the path. This was the National Grid sign, fortunately they were not working that day so there was no danger of being the first members of SWOG to be electrocuted on a walk. We then headed for the first climb of the day up The Cloud after which we descended to the Timbersbrook Picnic Area for elevenses, and still no rain.

We then walked along part of the Biddulph Valley Way (this section was a disused railway) after we which we had lunch on the charmingly named Nick i'th' Hill when our luck ran out and it started to rain. The rain continued on our ascent of Mow Cop. We passed The Old Man of Mow a gritstone pillar over 20 metres high, left standing as the stone around it was quarried away. Stone from here was used to build the school and church at Sandbach. The folly of Mow Cop is another distinctive landmark, perched dramatically on an outcrop of millstone grit. It was built in 1754 by Squire Wilbraham to improve the view from his home Rode Hall.

As we descended to to the Macclesfield Canal, the weather was more shower like than torrential rain and just before we got to the towpath we went in the excellent Rising Sun at Scholar Green, dispensing the full range of Marston's beers. After a leisurely pint we walked the last few miles on the Macclesfield and Trent & Mersey canals to finish the walk at Kidsgrove Station. As the pubs in Kidsgrove  did not look that inviting (According to Paul! said us!) we got the train to Macclesfield and had our evening meal and more beer in the Society Rooms the Weatherspoons pub in Macclesfield.

For such a bad weather forecast the conditions were not that bad and certainly for Tracy, Pam and I, it was good to have completed the full walk of the Gritstone Trail.

Paul    

More Photos HERE           


Saturday 2 June 2012

Alnwick Camping Jubilee Weekend 1st - 5th June

Alnwick Camping Jubilee Weekend

On the 1st June five of us went to Alnwick in Northumberland; Jackie & Mark, Brian & Ursula and myself.  On the Friday night we all had fish & chips from the van which was on the Caravan & Camping Club site at Dunstan Hill, Alnwick which was very tasty.

On the Saturday morning we decided to walk to Seahouses and catch the bus back.   We set off from the campsite heading to the coast, walked along the beach then the path and along the next beach (Jackie said there were 5 beaches on the way to Seahouses).   We had a well deserved rest at Beadnell where we found two bench's for us all to sit on while having our lunch.

The next stop was Seahouses where we decided to go into the pub until the bus was due; suitably refreshed we caught the bus back to the campsite.  On the Saturday night we had a barbecue.

Sunday morning we all set off about 10.30am in Mark's car heading north up to Lindisfarne (Holy Island) knowing we had to get to the island before 12.10pm as it would be to deep to go.  Everything went ok and we managed to get across while the tide was low. We then parked up and set off walking round the island, having a stop for lunch and spotting two seals in the sea bobbing up & down.  It was warm and on the way back to the car and we stopped at a cafĂ©.  On returning to the car it was about 5pm but the tide table said it would be safe to cross at 6.15.  Therefore, after seeing a few cars heading to the crossing point we decided to follow on.  Getting nearer we could see the cars queuing up, then saw some 4x4's that had come across from the mainland but because they were higher off the ground than our car we waited until a car similar to ours came across, then we crossed.

We then drove straight to Alnwick centre and went to an Indian restaurant for a curry.
On Monday we were given cardboard crowns to put on by the warden as there was a competition between other sites for the Guinness book of records on who could get the most people wearing crowns, I think our site had about 300.

On Monday we walked to Craster and back via Dunsburgh Castle.  We all said the weekend had come up to our expectations with good food and good company.

Thanks to Jackie & Mark for organising it.

Steve.