Day 55 Crossing Cheshire

Today I woke up in my lovely room at New Hall Farm. Breakfast was the best yet (I must qualify this-best at a B and B, breakfast at Stephanie’s was just as good) fruit salad on muesli, full English, home-made bread and marmalade. Yum.

I had three miles to go until I reached the canal, then 8 miles along the canal, followed by another three miles of road walking, some of it on an A-road.

I headed back along the way I had come. I took a photo of the working blacksmith’s forge in case any of you are feeling tempted by the thought of renting it

I passed the Yew Tree pub in Spurstow, The Dysart Arms in Bunbury (opens at 10 on Sunday so already open) and a very busy church also in Bunbury whose bells I had heard across the fields.

Soon after I reached the Shropshire Union canal

The tow path made for easy walking. I chatted to an angler who had just joined The Ramblers and was getting in a spot of fishing before heading home later to watch the football. After that the towpath got much rougher, clearly not walked much. I reached Calveley services-canal services that is and made use of the loos – before branching off on the Middlewich branch of the canal.

I stopped at the lock to watch several boats going through then made for the cafe where I had a milkshake

I carried on down the canal, I saw a heron and plenty of boats. There was a useful notice board at a flat area (more picnic benches, hats off to the Canal and Rivers Trust) which said that this had been a clay pit, most active in the 1980s, when the clay was used to repair the canal. The board also mentioned the canal breach in 1958 when a burrowing rat caused a whole section of the canal to empty. Seven miles of canal emptied in three hours. That’s twenty million gallons. Must have been quite a sight.

I passed another lock then my eight canal miles were over and I was on quite a busy, fast B-Road. I turned off it onto first, a more minor road, and then onto an A-road.

The A-road wasn’t much fun. It wasn’t too busy and there was a moderate verge, mostly, on the northbound side. Also on the northbound side was a pub, the Verdin Arms. I stopped. The landlord initially thought I was looking for a footpath but once he realised that I was after a pint of lime soda he asked me where I had walked from. I do love that question now. Land’s End. I spent quite a bit of time in the pub garden, talking first to the landlord’s mum and then to the two other drinkers. When I went to pay, the landlord said it was on the house. I think I’m the only LEJOGER he has ever met.

Refreshed, I navigated the A-road then turned off along the road that would lead me to my B&B in Warmingham. 14 miles done. I am now safely in my room which is self-contained. Breakfast is in a little sun house just outside