April 2020 – Mature-adventurer

April 30, 2020

My 2.6 Challenge for Charity, Day 3, April 30

On this third day of my 2.6 challenge I decided to slightly modify the format of the challenge and to walk 26.2 miles in 6 days; the distance of a marathon. This will include two walks of 6 or more miles. Having completed day 3, I have now walked nearly 14.5 miles in three days, so I’m well on course to achieve my 26.2 miles target by Sunday. The other reason to modify my challenge is that I wanted to keep my blogs relatively interesting. This means that the walks on the non 6 mile days need to be around 4 miles

With this in mind I realised that If I wanted to vary my routes I was going to need to use some paths, which are relatively narrow. I chose a route that I felt I could risk taking if I got up really early, so I was up at 5.20am today The route I took turned left out of Guilden Green and headed down Oaklands to turn left onto the main Road into the Guilden Sutton. I was making my way towards the path that leads to the Greenway, a disused railway line, which was turned into a Millennial cycle way. Before I reached the turnoff my senses were accosted by the most beautiful, heady smell of a Lilac tree, which had just come into full bloom.

Beautifully scented Lilac in Guilden Sutton Lane

Shortly after this I turned right off the road into the entrance to the path leading across the railway bridge and past Park Farm

Entrance to path leading to the Greenway

After a quick look down the deserted railway line I carried on down the path. The countryside was looking very lush, recent rain having made everything very fresh. The path here goes under a railway bridge, which is part of the Greenway. I was, however, not heading for this, but instead carried on down the narrow path that lay straight ahead. Years ago this was covered by a series of styles and I used to enjoy taking my Staffy dog Leonie down there. It is quite narrow with little ditches on both sides, which were fortunately not full due to the recent sustained dry weather.

You can see the end of the path just before you arrive, because the occasional car goes flashing by

At the end of this path I turned left onto the A56 and headed up towards part of Hoole Village, the Toby Carvery Pub. There is a path beside the pub that leads back to Guilden Sutton, but that’s for another walk. Today I’d planned to walk a bit further. There was almost no traffic on that main road apart from a police car, which drove past me.

I walked along the A56, under the bridge on the M53 motorway and crossed over the roundabout, turning to carry on past the Doubletree Hotel. Everywhere was so quiet and deserted, much quieter than the A51 the previous morning. Perhaps I was just that much earlier myself.

At the big Hoole roundabout I turned left down the A41. If you take out the main road, the path itself is quite pretty.

I remember years ago when there were major discussions about where to build the missing link between the M53 and the A55. There was a lot of controversy about upgrading the A41, but in the end the event the link was built and a huge number of trees were planted on the central reservation between the dual carriageways. To see the Lilacs now as mature shrubs amongst many mature trees gives me a good appreciation of the forward thinking of the planners. This stretch of the A41 is very pretty indeed.

I soon arrived at the top of Guilden Sutton Lane and debated whether to go through the little hamlet of Pipers Ash again, but decided that I’d already been that way on the two previous walks and I wanted to go to the end of Guilden Sutton Lane.There was a lovely patch of bluebells growing on the corner, another highlight of Spring in the countryside.

After turning into Guilden Sutton Sutton Lane I carried on right down to the bottom of the village, turning right by the village war memorial, now beautifully maintained, then right again into Church Lane. The sun had come out and was casting some beautiful light on Lilac Trees and Japanese Maples, now in full leaf and looking very beautiful.

It was then back up the steps and around Oaklands, which I decided to do twice to make my walk longer and because no one else was about at all. It had turned out to be a much nicer day than I had anticipated and I had managed to complete 4.6 miles. Another good start to the day

If you would like to support me with a donation to Charity please find my 2.6 Challenge on FaceBook as the web link doesn’t seem to be working, or leave a comment at the end of this blog? There is a link at the end of the first blog.

April 29, 2020April 29, 2020

2.6 Challenge for the Charity Shelter Day 2 April 29

One of the challenges of writing a blog about my walks for my 2.6 challenge is finding sufficient variety in the walks when you are confined to home. By necessity the beginnings and endings of the walks are going to be the same. For the past few years I’ve done the majority of my walking on the Greenway, which extends from Mickle Trafford Into Wales. It is well used by cyclists and walkers alike so for me it is too risky to maintain the necessary social distance required by current circumstances. With that in mind I set off at 6.15am this morning and headed for a path that I used to frequent in my running days.

The walk began the same as yesterday but at the bottom of the steps I turned right past the pub and headed up past the Hollows.

There is a public footpath from here, which goes around the side of a farm and eventually across the Vicar’s Cross Golf course. It was lightly raining when I left so I decided to wear boots, which made my pace a bit slower. I was pleased to find the path was less muddy than I had expected. A little Wagtail was flitting about on the grooves of the ploughed field.

The path to the gate to the golf course stretched out before me, and, as already mentioned, that although there were individual puddles it was generally firm underfoot, probably due to the recent very dry conditions. The golf course was looking very lush.

In the middle of the golf course is a pretty pond upon which I’ve seen Moorhens in the past. I was amazed by how tall some of the trees are now, making the fairways more separated, but rather more difficult to find the blue posts that mark the path.

On the other side of the golf course the path passes through another gate and down another short path.

At the end of the path I turned right onto the A51. I was immediately struck by the amount of traffic on the road, but I suppose being around 7am it was the time that people go to work. The footpath here is really wide and quite pretty if you ignore the traffic on your left.

For a short section before the route turns back onto Hare Lane the footpath becomes quite narrow, so I was pleased there was no one else about. I turned into Hare Lane and the traffic died. After Chester Rugby Club the road crosses the motorway. There was a wld cherry tree in full blossom adding some grace to the bridge across the motorway.

Shortly after this I turned into Bellevue Lane and was back on some of the route back to my house that I had taken yesterday. In the past I would have gone through the narrow entrance that leads into the back path, but there’s no chance of social distancing there. Instead I went round the long way down more of Bellevue Lane and turned right into Middlecroft, then right again into Oakland’s., arriving home after a distance of 3.3 miles. It’s a bit longer than my 2 mile target, but it would also be nice to cover a marathon distance of 26.2 miles over this challenge.

My next challenge is an interesting route for tomorrow. If you would like to donate to Shelter you can find the link at the end of my first blog.

April 28, 2020April 28, 2020

My 2.6 Challenge for the charity Shelter

While I originally started this blog as a travel blog, in the current climate travel it is out of the question. Instead I’m turning my attention to the 2.6 challenge, which has been taking place to help raise money for thousands of charities, who missed out on fundraising by people taking part in the London Marathon. Many years ago I entered the London Marathon only to fall ill on the day, so I’ve experienced the disappointment of doing all that training only to be denied the opportunity to compete. I’ve been very ill over the past few months and am now finally able to do some distance walking again, hopefully at a reasonable pace so I decided to do my walking again for a purpose. I am taking part in the 2.6 challenge to raise funds for Shelter, who provide accommodation for homeless people and work with councils to assist people living in cramped conditions, certainly some of the vulnerable in our society.

For the challenge you can choose to do anything involving the numbers 2 and 6. As I like doing speed walking my challenge is to do 6 miles for 2 days and 2 miles for 6 days. As I am myself vulnerable to Coronavirus, given my very recent health issues, I’ve been in strict lockdown since the beginning Of March. The challenge for me is fitting in the 6 mile days, which I am doing in one go.

Day one Tuesday 28 April

I decided that I would begin this challenge with one of the 6 mile walks so I set my alarm for 5am. It was very dark when I got up, overcast, but at least not raining. The reason that I’m walking so early is that I cannot risk getting too close to anyone else, so, hopefully few people will be about at that time. I managed to leave home at 5.30am and was rewarded by some amazing bird choruses. A Blackbird seemed oblivious to my presence as it hoped around the road very near to me

my 5.30am start for my six miles on day one of my 2.6 challenge

I was delighted to hear a Green Woodpecker with its distinctive call, which always sounds like they’re laughing to me. As I made my way down towards the steps to take me to the bottom part of the village I espies a clump of Cow Parsley, one of my favourite wild flowers, especially as it lines the sides of the roads with May blossom out at the same time.

down the steps to the bottom of the village.

Turning to the left on the road I was soon at the cenotaph and the pull up Porters Hill. One of the problems with doing a distance like 6 miles is planning a route that doesn’t take me too far away from home, and I wanted to avoid main roads.

heading up Porters Hill. It becomes much steeper

From here it was a slog all the way up Village Road to Piper’s Ash. One of the lovely things about walking at this time of the year is just how beautiful the countryside is and as I turned into Hare Lane I was rewarded for my efforts up the last hill with a few Hawthorn trees in full flower.

From Piper’s Ash I turned into Bellevue Lane and it was another push up the bridge over the motorway.

By now I could feel my energy flagging, a combination of months without walking and lack of food. I decided a little fuel on board would be useful so I returned home for a couple of Nutrigrain bars and the rest of my cold coffee. Feeling better for the food and a fifteen minute gap I set off again on the same route as before, but this time I took the little path by the pub and headed off towards the Gowy River. I came in on the road into Arden’s Farm to avoid people with horses, but still passed one girl closer to the river. I had taken some beautiful photos there on Friday, but today lacked any of that magic. I crossed the meadow to the style on the corner and retraced my steps from there as I now had less than 3k to go.

On retracing my steps I was delighted to come across some clumps of Marsh Marigolds I’ve been told that Guilden is an old name for Golden and Guilden Sutton was named after the preponderance of these pretty little flowers with their fleshy leaves.

After another slog up Porters Hill and a turn into Oaklands I was well passed the 6 mile mark and the welcome sight of my Cul de Sac greeted me. I had walked nearly six and a half miles. I have a few blisters for my efforts so some shorter distances are the order of the day now.

if anyone would like to support me with a donation to my Justgiving page it would be greatly appreciated?

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/raewyns-26-challenge?utm_campaign=lc_frp_share_transaction_transactional_%7C%7C_donation_received_%7C%7C_nth_donation&utm_content=e7b1873e-c12a-4547-92da-1526e10a4a6c&utm_medium=email&utm_source=postoffice&utm_term=1588071774126