Total miles: 20.5
Elev gain: 914 ft
Time walking: 10:45am – 7:45pm
Miles to date: 580
Today was always going to be a long day and I knew it would feel harder having said goodbye to Eunice and with a much heavier bag following a restock of supplies. But considering I started out feeling a bit flat, and not quite as energised by my rest day as I would have liked, it turned out to be a better day than I thought it might!
The first part of the day followed the River Weaver, spotting great crested grebes with their funky hair-do and grey herons with their long legs and slow, steady flight. I followed the river as far as the big double locks where the river splits into two to create the Weaver Navigation (I think effectively a canal straightening out bits of the very wiggly river). The locks were huge – big enough for two narrow boats side by side – but sadly I didn’t get to see any boats going through. Shortly after the locks I cut up to the Trent & Mersey Canal, just a short distance away up a big bank, which I’d be following for the next 5 or so miles.
Canals can be both beautiful and a bit dull to walk along. This one was actually fairly interesting as it was quite busy with boats and the landscape changed around it quite frequently – tunnels, bends, woodland, marinas – and of course the famous boat lift at Anderton, where a (now electrified) contraption literally lifts boats from the Weaver Navigation down below to the Trent and Mersey canal at the top, and vice versa.
After a quick coffee and loo break (got to make the most of civilisation while it lasts…not long til 3 weeks of fairly remote walking on the Pennine Way!) I continued on into another leafier section of the canal and see two boys climbing in and out the hedge. One sees me and comes running along. Reaching me, he excitedly offers me a slightly squashed blackberry. “Would you like a blackberry? It’s not poisonous!” he announces proudly. I take offered blackberry, smiling at him. He smiled and looked at me with big eyes. “You’re very pretty”, he told me sweetly. Awww! Followed by “please can I have your number?” Oh dear….being chatted up by a 7 year old….well there’s a new one!
A few miles out of Anderton, skirting around the northern edge of Northwich, the canal passes some big industrial areas. I assume they are salt works, as Northwich (and the other wich-es in the area) grew up around the salt industry. The factories were big, noisy and smelly, fascinating but a world away from the quiet, beautiful hills and mountains in Wales and the remote moors and upland I’d come across once I reached the Peak District and onwards!
I left the canal just as I reached this industrial section and headed across country following footpaths across fields and a long track following the course of the railway, headed for the village of Plumley. I managed to pick up a post office stamp here, not technically the finish point but I didn’t think I’d get to the post office in Knutsford. There was also an open pub just down the road, the Golden Pheasant, so I popped in for a quick (and expensive!) glass of coke, well-timed as I missed a good drizzle shower!
I had intended to cross the M6 at what looked like an underpass on the map – a little road went right up to it and there was a matching track the other side – but frustratingly when I got there it was a dead end, with no way across. Argh! It had started to drizzle and I was supposed to be meeting Jen (my host for the night who was joining me for the last few miles of today’s walk) not far from the other side of the non-existent underpass, so I was somewhat annoyed! Thankfully I managed to find a different path on the map which wasn’t too far out of the way and had a very clear crossing of the M6 alongside the railway. I had to fight through some waist height nettles and a short section of ankle deep mud to get there (clearly not a very well used path, but good prep for the Pennine Way?!) but eventually I made it over the motorway. I distinctly remember driving under this bridge (or at least, a similar one in the vicinity) about 6 weeks ago on my way home from a meeting in Manchester. I remember thinking “I’ll be walking across that soon!”, and can’t believe that has now actually happened. It all seemed a bit of a distant dream back then! The motorway was very busy this evening and even though it was misting with rain and I was getting a little damp, I still didn’t envy all the people in their cars, stuck in the heavy, near-stationary traffic!
I probably should have put my waterproofs on at this point but I was hot and already damp, and I figured it wouldn’t be long until I was done for the day. It was a silly decision! The drizzle kept going steadily, the kind that craftily gets you really wet without you realising, and although after meeting Jen (having successfully arranged a slightly different meeting point) we followed roads for a while along the southern edge of Knutsford, it was not long before we were back in fields with crops and long grass. I soon wished I had my waterproof trousers on! My boots and trousers quickly became saturated, but thankfully at least it wasn’t cold!
We walked past some beautiful big houses – Cheshire has far more than it’s fair share, I’m sure – and properties with big gates hiding from view the mysterious homes beyond. This is getting towards the land of the footballers!
At one point our path followed along the edge of a damp and overgrown maize field and as we reached the hedge to cross into the next field we were faced with maize as far as the eye could see, with our path squeezed between rows of towering, wet plants. There was no way we were getting through there without getting absolutely soaked through, if I could even fit through with my pack! We ended up cutting along a private track which took us to the main road through Mobberly, and managed to find another (far more forgiving) track beyond two very nice looking pubs. So tempting to stop right there…! Along the track Jen showed me some plants which I have seen lots of already, but what I didn’t know was that if you touch the seed pods they explode! Cue lots of fun, shrieks and giggles as I had to find all of the seed pods to touch…
Finally we made it to Knolls Green which was our target for the day, wet and rather hungry. Jen’s other half was picking us up, and when we got home it was a very welcome cup of tea, a hot bath, dry socks and a BBQ with meat from the local butcher. Yum! That meat was amazing! And home grown tomatoes, divine! Happy face! After 20 miles I’m exhausted, and slightly worried about the fact that I have another 20 miles to do tomorrow, in wet boots. But I’ve had a lovely soak in the bath and tomorrow I’m headed past Alderley Edge and then through Lyme Park, where Pride & Prejudice was filmed, which I’m looking forward to! For now…sleeeeeep!
