Gritstone Trail – 21st April
Langley – Foxbank – Croker Hill – Minn End Lane – Hawkslee – Dumkins – River Dane – Rushton – Ravens Clough – The Cloud – Timbersbrook – Congleton Edge – Nick i’ th’ Hill – Pot Bank – Mow Cop – The Brake – Macclesfield Canal – The Red Bull
Distance: 24 miles
Jo Grand’s account of the day:
Our rendezvous point for today (and our finishing line by way of Langley and the Gritstone Trail) was The Red Bull at Kidsgrove and we dutifully assembled at 7.30am for the day ahead. On stepping out of the car my first thought was “who had broken wind?!” then I remembered we were right next to the sewage works. Such a pungent way to start the day!
Courtesy of two dads (Liam’s and Sarah’s) we left our cars at the pub and were chauffeured to over to Cheshire. The closer we drove to our destination the heavier the rain fell and on leaving the warm, dry cars we were all quickly leaning against the garage doors of a private car park, donning our wet weather gear! And then we were off, 20ish miles lay ahead.
We were soon into our stride, ensuring sheep safety along the way (ask Natalie) and it wasn’t long before the conversation turned to the extremely serious topic of suitable walking underwear – big pants or frillies – you decide! I’m still not quite sure if we came up with a definitive answer but it raised a laugh and the rain had eased.
It was great to meet up with some new faces, having only been on two training walks prior to today. Phil, I soon discovered, liked to whip his camera out as often as possible and was quite partial to posing on and under any object that took his fancy or that we could persuade him to pose on, he didn’t need that much persuading, especially if we took his picture.
The sound of gunfire kept us company throughout the morning (actually it was really annoying), getting louder the further we went, and myself and Louise hoped that it was the product of a local firing range rather than some nutter running amok through the woods!
Now Liam had said it would be muddy, this was in fact the understatement of the century as we wallowed our way along the trail. Some of us were muddy to our knees, for others it went just a little bit higher (dirty thighs were compared). In places it was quite treacherous but at least we all managed to stay standing (well almost but I’ll get to that bit later).
We all had ‘Dawn French’ moments when encountering puddles (if you don’t know what I mean, get hold of a copy of the Vicar of Dibley DVDs) and just when we thought we’d dried out we find ourselves up to our knees in water or mud again. I’m surprised we’re not all suffering from trench foot!
Having made it out of the mud alive we thought we’d have a pit stop at the pub (The Rushton Inn). I wouldn’t recommend it, it was shut. You can imagine how disappointed we were(!) and so we decided to deviate from our route and found ourselves outside The Knot Inn, which was open, hurrah! Those of us that could tell the difference between shoelaces and mud removed out footwear and made use of the facilities. The pie and peas meal, I’m told, was a bargain at £4.00. I stayed outside with my butties and Phil, it hailed.
Suitably refreshed, we made our way back to the trail, heading towards The Cloud and the Congleton area. Walking across a non-muddy field (for a change) we amused ourselves with a stick-sword fight, the quality of the stick being of great importance. Louise’s stick had warts and so, naturally, she was reminded of this at every opportunity.
Ascending The Cloud we ran in to our old friend, mud, again but at least it wasn’t so bad on the descent. Ahead of us on the distant horizon lay Mow Cop, behind us, far, far away stood the Congleton television transmitter passed which we had walked much earlier in the day, no wonder my legs were aching. Phil had one of those fancy gizmo’s which told you how far you’d walked, except he’d forgotten to start it off at the very beginning of our march. No matter how far we’d walked it never seemed far enough.
For me, the trudge towards Mow Cop was mentally the toughest part, my legs were sore (you’ll understand why when you see the photograph later, people of a nervous disposition should look away in 5 paragraph’s time). We were so close to completion of the walk, yet there were still another 3 or 4 miles to go). We got lost, taking a wrong turn whilst crossing a cow-pat and I think Phil was all for calling a taxi but we managed to find our way back to the trail before too long.
Most of us were carrying an injury of some description, groins had been strained, Hayley had heel-sized blisters that made her walk more of a waddle. Liam took great delight in threatening her with fines any time she mentioned pain, feet, Compeed or blisters. In fact, I think that’s how he’s hoping to make his sponsorship money! Sarah suffered possibly the worst injury out of all of us – voluntarily giving her KitKat Chunky to Phil, who’d spent most of the walk surviving on protein drinks and bird seed. Not to worry though, Sarah’s mum came good, she’d tucked a couple of mini Chomp and Fudge bars into the bottom of Sarah’s rucksack!
Having got to Mow Cop Liam stated how impressed he was that none of us had fallen over in the difficult conditions. I’m sure you can guess just how irresponsible such a comment was, fancy tempting fate. Yep, he fell over, unaided, all by himself, walking down a non-muddy path. We cheered! He didn’t get much/any sympathy as far as I can remember.
From Mow Copy we made our way down to the canal towpath that would take us straight back to The Red Bull. I think I could happily have lain down at this point and not moved ever again. Someone suggested paying a narrowboat owner to take us the rest of the way but none could be persuaded, how mean. Doggedly and little strung out we marched on, some of us rallying, knowing we were close to home.
Finally we’d made it, 24 miles, a whole day’s walk. I’ll leave you with the photo’s of mine and Hayley’s ‘injuries’, which required visits to Walk-In Centres. You can only imagine what an achievement this was …
Grindeys 24 Peaks Challenge 