Day 45 - Chester to Northwich - 19.2 miles

Before leaving Chester I ambled around the centre of town in the sunshine - its always been seen as a stylish, affluent border town. 

Historically, the streets have incorporated a raised , covered pavement - known as The Rows. This effectively increases the street frontage, increases the number of small outlets and provides shelter from the rain. A clever idea. 

Down on the river, I remember as a child having a special family outing to Chester. Mum's brother, my Uncle Ted was coming for a holiday with us from Manchester so we came to pick him up. We'd arranged to meet at the bandstand, I seem to think he was wearing dark sunglasses.  I remember him joking, and calling it a check point charlie moment. 

I've known this part of Chester as Check Point Charlie ever since.

While I lived here, I remember going on training runs with the rowing club - it used to kill me. 

Fond memories of crossing the bridge every day.

I got talking to Val and Robert with their 

4 month old adorable, very well behaved Rottweiler puppies, Cooper and Knox. 

My route out of Chester went through Hoole and Mickle Trafford before I eventually got out into proper countryside

and passed the church aat Plemstall.

A monk had lived here as a hermit on a small patch of ground raised above the marshes before he was summoned by King Alfred to join his court. In 890 he was consecrated in Rome as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Unfortunately, the church was locked but is still regularly in use and I think worth a visit.

Whoever it was at LoweAlpine, that decided to make the rain cover of my rucksack bright orange red , has a wicked sense of humour. Again today, as I trudged across the fields, these ladies seemed to want to follow me - perhaps for a chance to commiserate with a failed toreador.

Wonderful cumulus cloud scape.

For a short while today, I was walking along The Sandstone trail. Stonehouse Farm at Manley Common is strategically placed to serve teas to hungry walkers.  I had some Nepalese loose leaf tea and a slice of tea loaf made with what I think was Lapsang Souchong. Just what I needed.

Then in to Delamere forest Park where I became thoroughly lost.

I did find Blakemere Moss

and it's beautiful lillies

but at Hart Hill, where I must have lost the path completely, I gave up.

Both feet then seemed to throw caution to the wind and found bog water totally irresistable. Then throw brambles and some large nettles in for good measure

and you end up with some four letter words!!

I ended walking a large detour on a mixture of roads and paths via Norley and Cuddington. An ignominious ending to a good day.

Over supper at the pub I got talking to the manager.

 Jonathan had been a pilot with Thomas Cook before retiring on health grounds and taking up hospitality. He's since run a number of succesful pubs. Even more interestingly, we got on to the subject of boats of which he has owned a number including a Trapper 501 similar to Dragonfly and had set up the owner's association website. So we may have met in a former life. 

While talking boats, we were joined by Nigel and Fiona who were driving home from Chard to Edinburgh.

Nigel had been in the merchant navy for many years before joining the naval auxiliary. Fiona's brother has a boat, and on showing Jonathan a photograph, he was able to recognise it immeadiately. He's a walking compendium of boat information. I commiserate, it's an addiction.

It could have been a long evening, fortunately time was called!

Total distance walked so far = 581.1 miles

Total ascent so far 69 907 feet

Sally has resolved the initial issues we had with leaving comments on the blog. So, if you'd like to leave a comment, correct me on any detail or just nudge, it'd be great to hear from you. If initially it comes up as Anonymous, please just add your name at the bottom so I can see who it's from.

email: david.LL.thomas@gmail.com

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If you're tempted to contribute to any or all of the great charities I'm supporting, here are the relevant links.

Parkinsons UK   - My dad had Parkinsons in his latter years and the research work this charity funds and the support it provides to patients and their families is invaluable. - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/david-thomas215

Just Wheels UK  - this is a small charity set up to provide wheelchairs in a rural community in Tanzania. It does this through funding training, education and the local fabrication and servicing of bespoke wheelchairs. My nephew uses a wheelchair and as he grows I can see the life changing freedoms that proper wheelchairs can bring to both users and their families.- 

 https://donate.thebiggive.org.uk/campaign/a056900002H35TDAAZ

- RNLI   - these are the brave guys who selflessly head out to sea to help others. I volunteer at Littlehampton RNLI shop and often meet families of those who’ve had first hand experience of their loved ones being saved from the sea. Having sailed for years I can say thankfully we’ve never had to call on the RNLI's services but it’s amazing what it does to know they are there 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/david-thomas216