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.

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

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.

I

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.