Peat Bogs in the Rain
I left the Greater Manchester Ringway in the Holiday Inn Express. It's been a long time since I've stayed in a corporate hotel. Vaguely interesting to have a late night pint in a soulless lounge, eavesdropping on other tables of people forced into spending time with each other. There's always one talking loudly, and that one is talking about work. You can watch the eyes of their colleagues glaze over in real time.
If the question is "Where to go in a drought for a chance of rainfall?" the answer has to be Manchester.
I'm almost too scared to throw those curtains wide, with persistent thunder heard on the other side.
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| But there is hope |
Incredibly, after an attempt to break the record of most sausages eaten at a free buffet breakfast, the rain stops. And it very nearly stays stopped.
This meteorological prelude is necessary. This stage of the walk has absolutely nothing to talk about.
The Leeds Liverpool Canal is left behind, replaced by flat agricultural land on the Glazebrook Trail Long Distance Path.
To add some variety, the walk designers ask us to leave the trail for a completely unnecessary circuit of what is unidentified on my OS Map. It transpires that the series of arrow-straight canals are the Wigan and Salford Mosslands. Rewilding of peat bogs, that may provide interest to Twitchers and whatever the collective noun of lizard watchers is.
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| Could have stayed to the West on the Glazebrook trail... |
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| but I'd have missed three miles of this |
Just in case I was to get excited as to what Irlam might offer a lonely traveller, the storms come back.
Soaked to my pants, I decide to instantly get the train home, via Warrington, looking for somewhere to change.
Three stages to go - I'm no quitter.
Walk Information
Start - Leigh
Finish - Irlam
Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14, Stage 15, Stage 16
Distance - 10.5 Miles
Geocaches - 3
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