Wednesday 23 April 7.3 miles
Jane, Tracey and Hilary
We parked at the car park on Stansfield Drive rather than on the road by the Grappenhall Heys Walled Garden. From the carpark we walked to the crossing place across Witherwin Avenue. Then followed the footpath going around the outside of the sandstone garden wall.
We continued on the surfaced path going between the houses and the newly turning green avenue of trees. Then going across fields and past the Grappenhall Cricket Club. We crossed Broad Lane, walking along a path going towards the village.
At Church Lane we turned right to walk through the village over the cobble stones towards Grappenhall Bridge. We did try to look inside St Wilfrid's Church but there was a service going on so we had to miss out.
By the canal bridge we turned right onto Canal Side, and the sign said leading to Australia Lane. As I had looked at another walk that went to Australia Lane so I automatically lead us to the lane and took the path across the fields. It is only after we had walked a bit of a way down this path that I realised we should be walking through a wood and we weren't, so we had to return to the correct path.
We found the right direction through Grappenhall Woods to the wizard, then along Broad Lane to Hall Lane that lead into the woods. We should have gone left as we saw the ponds but there wasn't an obvious path so we went only slightly too far by going straight ahead. As we came to a more open space and houses I knew we had gone too far. The path, now to the right, was much more obvious from this direction. The wavy footpath continued through the woods, and we followed the new fence that had been put up, maybe new houses are going to be built there.
Reading the instructions more carefully might have been useful, as again we continued straight on as we chatted, but we went over a stream and I wasn't sure that was correct so we stopped and realised we had again gone slightly too far. Tracey got out her phone using the Pokémon Go App and we were able to see the paths more clearly than on the ground. So we went in the correct direction, meeting Lumb Brook Road. We were able to walk on the verge until we came to the path opposite some cottages which would take us to Green Lane.
We decided it was lunch time but there wasn't anywhere we could stop on the narrow footpath, where the footpath met Green Lane we decided to sit on the grass and the stile to have our lunch. We listened to the birds singing. It was a bit cool under the dappled shade of the trees so we moved on.
Walking a bit further down Green Lane we turned into Ford's Rough and followed the winding path along the wooded valley, with the stream to the left. When we reached a road, we turned left over the bridge then right through an A-frame barrier into the Dingle woodland. The Dingle offered us a lovely walk through the bluebells and the celandines. The meandering stream added to the beauty of the place and the new green leaves with the sun shining through them made for a pleasant walk.
We walked past housing until we reached Dale Lane, here we turned into The Millennium Green. Following the almost straight path ahead to Lumb Brook Road we turned left. When we came to the kissing gate for Parr Wood we walked though the wood, around the houses and back to the walled garden.
We wandered through the Grappenhall Heys Walled Garden, there were some people working in the garden, some were volunteers working with the head gardener. Digging the weeds out of the soil looked like quite a task. Some vegetables were already in the ground and the trees were full of blossom. We walked through the garden and looked at the large fish in the ponds.
Then made our way back to the car. Our 5.5 mile walk turned into a 7.3 mile walk!!
The Hollies was an easy choice as we were passing. We had hot chocolate, two teas, carrot cake and coffee and walnut cake.
