the sandstone trail – 5 sep, 2018
Day 30 Land’s End to John O’Groats – Whitchurch to Tiverton Hall
Distance: 30km
Cumulative distance: 759km
Late start this morning – I only decided at brekky that we’d be walking today. As I expected, by the time I was all showered up last night and came down to meet Mum and Dad for dinner, I could barely walk. My knee looked fatter than it did after surgery in 2011, and walking down steps took about three times longer than normal. Over dinner last night I toyed with the idea of having a day off, then I checked the weather and saw it was meant to be delightful on the Wednesday (today) and rubbish on the Thursday. I was super keen to walk so I decided I’d leave the decision as late as possible, and after a hefty English breakfast I made the call – we’d walk today and have a rest tomorrow. In the back of my mind was the prospect of making it all the way to Preston by Monday – still a long, long way off but that would put me well on track for my ultimate goal of arriving in Glasgow by September 28.
The three of us went back to the canal where I’d finished up yesterday. Mum walked with us for a little while, but after about 10 minutes she returned to the car and left Dad and I to it. It was a nice stretch to begin the day under the sunshine, and we passed several locks along the canal near Grindley Brook. Other little treats along the way included a tiny self service honesty shop which sold plants and second-hand books. I compulsively took a peek inside (not at the plants I can assure you) but tore myself away before anything caught my eye. We turned off the canal and soldiered on through farmland, and a heap of corn. Soon enough we arrived at a little church on the edge of a cornfield, then took a wrong turn and ended up at a super busy road well south of where we needed to be. It was one of those rare cases where the only solution was to backtrack, so we did and found the hidden little turnoff through the corn we were supposed to have taken.
We were walking the Sandstone Trail today, a 55km walkway which connects Whitchurch and Frodsham through Cheshire. Most importantly, it runs virtually south to north which meant progress! After the cornfields we crossed a few working farms, and staved off a ridiculous geese attack. Attack probably isn’t the right word – the two geese came up to us making an absolute racket but they weren’t quite game enough to start nipping away at our ankles. Geez they were noisy little buggers though. It was much more peaceful strolling past the cattle and sheep on the other side of the gate – they didn’t make a sound, just stared passively in our direction as we went past. They’d seen plenty of walkers in their time no doubt.
We came to another farm and lost the trail momentarily, ending up in a little quadrangle adjacent to a cattle shed and surrounded by farm buildings. I shrewdly deduced we’d taken a wrong turn somewhere, so we backed out and went through a gate which put us back on track. But our momentum soon disappeared thanks to 300 dairy cattle being herded up the drive for their twice-daily milking. Their heaving udders swayed from side to side as an endless bovine stream slowly strolled up the hill to the milking shed. Off in the distance we could hear the farmer calmly rounding up the strays and slowly but surely the entire herd made it up the hill with the farmer at their tail. Once they were gone, we could resume the trail. Had we not taken that little unintentional detour moments before, we would have just missed the dairy cattle parade and hence arrived at lunch on time, rather than 15 minutes late. Luckily we cut out Larkton and Bickerton hills, otherwise we’d have been later still. And while we were slightly tardy again, Mum was as solid as ever and presented us with an array of tasty sandwiches, juice and other goodies in the grounds of the delightful Bickerton Church.
Once our nourishment levels were reset we headed for the red sandstone hills, the most attractive stretch of the entire trail with its rich colour and prevalence of cliff faces. This provided a series of small peaks for us to clamber over, while offering delightful views over the south of Cheshire and out towards Wales and even Liverpool. At 227m Raw Peak was the highest point, and we ran into a lovely local couple up there full of information about the surrounding area. The walk up was steep in parts but gentle enough and entirely worth the effort.
Next up was Bulkeley Hill and its shaded, green wood which also offered majestic views. After navigating Bulkeley Hill we took yet another wrong turn and ended up well off course, burning almost half an hour trying to get back on trail. It was one of those frustrating situations where we came down too far and had to reclaim our altitude – on this occasion across another farm which spat us out at a pub, and finally back to somewhere I recognised on the map. We picked up the trail again underneath Peckforton Castle which we couldn’t see, but what was visible off in the distance was the ruins of Beeston Castle perched on a rocky outcrop. The trail took us in that direction and after passing through another small wood we landed at the entrance to the castle, but declined to pay whatever it was they were charging for the privilege of walking up to the ruins.
More farmland followed, then we passed under a railway bridge and over a small creek before taking in one last wrong turn for the day. The map suggested we needed to cross a river before turning off and heading towards Tiverton where we were meeting Mum, but it turned out the river we crossed was so small it barely registered on the map. Which meant we turned off and ended up walking parallel to a canal, but on the opposite side of where we needed to be. Once we figured that out we were right, and soon after Mum had collected us and we were off back to Whitchurch with half the Sandstone Trail taken care of.
