Onwards into October


 

Sunday October 6th. Fairtrade Way Part 2.


Lancaster to Arnside. 21 people and 5 dogs     17 ½ miles            Ldrs : Mary Robinson and Ruth Redmayne

 

 

The Fair Trade Way Stage Two from Lancaster to Arnside, or as it was dubbed on the day the “That Was The Café Back There” Walk. The route was certainly well waymarked. All day we saw signs like “Café”, “Tea Shop”, “Butty Bar”, “All Day Breakfast, “Afternoon Tea Now Being Served”. We headed directly for these signs, looked longingly at them, but went straight past them and followed our staunch, well disciplined and deaf leaders Mary and Ruth as they trudged on totally ignoring cries like, “Please, please I need a drink and a cake”!!!!! 

 

This route linking the Fair Trade towns of the Southern Lakes is proving to be a delight and again our coach was nearly full. Setting out from Rylands Park Lancaster, we had quite a trudge up the Lancaster Canal before heading for Crag Bank, onto the Lancashire Cycle Way and up Wharton Crag; the views from the summit as ever justifying the effort required to get there. Dropping down we picked up the coach road and out to Jenny Brown's Point, round to Silverdale, Arnside, Far Arnside and a superb finish along the coastal path onto the promenade.

 

A lovely, lovely walk – well done Ruth and Mary! (Don’t tell them anyone but once they had driven off we all sneaked into the excellent Albion Pub – I bet their ears were burning as they drove home to Halton and Heysham!!)

 

The next section, Arnside to Kendal, is set for Sunday November 3rd. Don’t be put off if you haven’t done the first two sections. This is a route of six individual walks. However you must book a place on the coach – John Bullen 01942 874719 or email j.bullen1@ntlworld.com  

 

John

 

Thanks to Peter and John for the pictures.

 

Wednesday October 9th. Whittle Wander (Or - how many stiles can you fit into a walk?) 16 miles.

Leader: Kath Page. Subs: Norman Thomas, Ken Noble. 17 walkers and 3 dogs.

 
 We started from Whittle-Le-Woods in Chorley. It was a new route walk, but Jeff Parr informed me there was a Whittle Wander challenge walk years ago (before I was born!!). But my walk would prove to be a different route.
 
Well what can I say about the route, basically we made our way towards Hoghton Towers with many many stiles along the way. It was a bit of a survival walk in places with rampaging cows, sheep and horses. The cows were extremely frisky today, but John Crook, Don & Neil had the knack of shooing them away. Jeff & Neil were also stung by a wasp.
 
The route was a wander here and a wander there, over another stile!! through a farm, through a field, and yes another stile, bit of canal and so the day went on. We had a few showers along the way but kept mainly dry. No1 & 2 kept the troops in order, it was very quiet at the front, oh yes Gadget man was at the back (No3). Norman tried to sell the route description along the way but didn't succeed (better luck next time).
 
A good time was had by all, and we would have been lost a lot more - honest - if we hadn't recced the walk.
 
Kath

 

 

Wednesday October 23rd. A Zigzag Round Chipping. 16 miles.

Leader: Doreen Viney. 15 walkers.

It had rained all night and was still raining, well pouring down actually, at 9.00am. I didn’t really think anyone would turn up but East Lancs. are made of sterner stuff and 15 arrived, some doing a pre-zigzag round to the car park.

Setting off a bit late, I decided to cut a little loop out and we headed more directly up Saddle Fell. Conditions were appalling – we were head on into a strong wind, water was pouring down, both from the sky and from the fell, and to make it worse, visibility was pretty poor as well.

However, after a coffee stop at Paddy’s Pole on Fairsnape the rain eased off and we descended down the zigzag path to Higher Fairsnape farm. With weather conditions improving we continued through rather soggy fields to Bleasdale where we had lunch.

Shortly after this, John P left us to walk back to Chipping along the road. His knee had been playing up and he didn’t want to make things worse. The rest of us carried on over Beacon Fell and through more wet fields to Watery gate. There was a bit of fun (well some of us laughed anyway!) getting over one particular stile. The ground all around was an absolute quagmire and various ways were found to get round it. Hilary and Norman found an old plastic tub and made a very cautious way over to the stile using the tub as a kind of footbridge.

The remainder of the walk took us past Lower Core, Woodgates, Cold Cotes and Clarke House before arriving back at the cars, a little earlier than anticipated, at 3.45pm. According to Norman, I am on -9 points (I actually thought it would be more) but, given better weather, the walk is really good and if anyone is interested in doing it again then give me a ring.

 

Doreen Viney


 

Sunday October 27th. Todmorden Trot. 14 miles.

Leaders: Dave and Alma Walsh. 9 walkers and 2 dogs.

 
Despite the forecast the weather was still dry as 9 walkers & 2 dogs set off on this hastily arranged walk which replaced the planned walk which was cancelled due to train problems.
 
A walk along the main street took us onto the Rochdale canal. After a quick group photo we carried on along the canal to the Bacup road where a steep muddy path took us upwards to the moor. The promised rain then started with a vengeance together with a strong wind.
 
Undeterred we carried onwards & upwards to the trig point at Trough Edge End. Thoughts of a coffee break were quickly dismissed as the rain was coming down horizontally. This was taken further down the hill as the rain finally eased off a little.
 
Recrossing the Bacup Road we made our way up to Thieveley Pike where we encountered 20 or so Fylde Ramblers who like our small group were made of stern stuff & undeterred by the weather.
 
We followed & overtook them as we made our way down the Burnley Way back towards Todmorden. The weather had brightened up by now & we took a quick lunch stop. The Fylde Ramblers had now caught us up & were looking for a lunch stop so we generously gave up our sheltered position & made our way back to the starting point for an early finish.
 
Dave Walsh   
 
 
Thanks to Dave for the photos.