Plodders March 2016


Springtime in Bowland. Wednesday March 30th. 12.5 miles. Leader: Bernard Hedley

 

Fifteen Plodders (and Millie the dog) assembled on the car park in Bolton by Bowland on a day of promised showers and sunshine. A light shower just at 10 am saw most of the group set off in waterproofs.

Don’s boots attracted admiring attention as we assembled for the starting photo – everybody agreed shinier boots had never been seen.

Our route was over farmland and tracks throughout the day on a clockwise route north of Bolton – and the appearance of storm Katie the previous weekend meant every field was sodden, so underfoot conditions were challenging.

In LDWA fashion though, everybody concentrated on the positives, the generally fine weather through the day, the magnificent scenery including a snow topped Pendle Hill, and best of all the spring lambs, a lot of which were sporting the latest in lamby fashion, the orange protective plastic cape – very fetching.

Our route involved a lot of fields, a lot of farms and a fair number of farmers, some more welcoming than others!

We took a morning stop at Ray Head then headed up to Blue Scar before stopping for a very pleasant lunch in the sunshine by Tewitt Farm.

After leaving Windy Pike we passed the farm at Ellenthorpe which had a puzzling sign on the wall. This instructed that no carcases were to be dumped over the wall, There was no suggestion as to what was the acceptable treatment of any carcases and nobody could guess. Any sensible answers on a post card please.

After 12.5 miles of mud, and about 1,300 feet of ascent, we arrived back at the cars about 3.30 pm in bright sunshine and luckily we had more sunshine than showers through the day.

Don’s boots were not quite as shiny as before – but John came up with the answer when he demonstrated his new mobile boot cleaning shower on the car park – pure genius !

We repaired to the Spread Eagle at Sawley for refreshments after the walk – and the fish and chips as highly recommended by Dave and Alma proved very tempting to everybody and were enjoyed by all.

Thanks to Don for acting as official photographer for the day and to Ken for spare battery provision..

Bernard

 

The pictures are from Don.

 

Around Adlington. Wednesday March 2nd. Leader: John Pickton.

 

Twelve plodders took part. We started in a little rain, then five minutes snow, after that it was cold and windy.
 
We made our way from Adlington along cycle route 55 to Red Rock and through Worthington lakes village to the main line railway to Bradley Hall. We then took a footpath around a large house with Deer in the grounds (see photo) and proceeded towards Gorse Hall. Onwards then to Hic Bibi nature reserve. We had lunch with a view over the reserve.
 
On the way back we did a detour because of MUD. This involved a section of road walking. We then came back through Worthington lakes to my house. Edith & Betty provided us with tea, coffee and cakes.
 
A good day with just under 11 miles walked.
 
John

Click here for Ken's photos