I am at The Shady Oak on the Shropshire Union Canal north west of Beeston, there is a camp site. I was told that the station cafe at Delamere opens at 9:00 so sacrificed an early start. It turned out not to open until 9:30 so I pressed on to the visitor centre cafe another half km up the road. I didn't leave there until 9:45. The rain started about 12:30 and hasn't stopped since. The walking has been nondescript: walking round three sides of a square for field boundaries, crop fields with no proper path, and often overgrown with sopping vegetation. Some of the time I was fighting through chest high nettles, grass and hogweeds, all drenched with the rain, and overhanging branches to be negotiated at head height.
Arriving at this pub I put the tent up in the rain and the good old Terra Nova is doing its job; all is dry and secure inside and all my rucksack contents are dry, but maintaining that through consecutive days of rain is a losing battle. I am now in the pub having a meal. Unfortunately the forecast is similar for tomorrow and, I think for the day after, so I have decided to make for home tomorrow. That might not be easy, I am in the middle of nowhere, with no bus service. Hitch hiking to civilisation may be the answer.
This has been a most enjoyable and interesting trip. My objective was to have a pleasant holiday backpack, and lightening the load carried, by dispensing with cooking gear etc. has certainly made a huge difference to daily comfort. I know it is boring, but the knee has been much more troublesome since I vacated the canals, enough to take the edge off the pleasure, and that is disappointing.
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Dusky Oak...or The Shady Oak?
ReplyDeleteJJ
You were right with the forecast, isn't it dreary for the end of June. Just back from an unusually wet week in France - so no improvement. Good to see you out and about. Shame about the weather and perhaps your knee as I found the Sandstone Trail very enjoyable.
ReplyDelete"The walking has been nondescript: walking round three sides of a square for field boundaries, crop fields with no proper path, and often overgrown with sopping vegetation. Some of the time I was fighting through chest high nettles, grass and hogweeds
ReplyDeleteall drenched with the rain, and overhanging branches to be negotiated at head height."
Good stuff. Try and analyse why I - and others, for goodness sake - might think so, grab the essence and keep it up.
A huge improvement on your line a day or two when you said you'd had an enjoyable sandwich and that was that. Not a word as to contents or why it was enjoyable. Facts paint the picture.
JJ - Quite right. The correction has been made.
ReplyDeleteBC - I know you rated this walk highly. I agree that prevailing conditions may have affected my judgement. The parts of the walk actually relating to the identifiable sandstone ridge and outcrops is excellent. We have a few of these rare occurrences of special habitat in the UK like Cannock Chase and The Broads amongst others and they stand out and give great pleasure, and must be visited, AND PRESERVED.
RR - Thanks for the encouragement. I will elaborate on the difficulties involved producing these reports in a forthcoming post.