Lyme Park Walk 14 April 2013

Lyme Park Walk 14 April 2013

 Denise’s mystery walk Plan X,Y,Z.   13 of us set off from Disley station car park. As I was still suffering from the tail end of a chest infection, I had decided on a “light” walk of 8 miles. Well, with plan X, Y and Z en route, we ended up doing 9.6 miles according to my trusty piece of “SWOG walk string”. Error number one was only just over a mile into the walk.

 Chris and Geoff were slightly ahead and I called them back, to go along what I thought was the path through the bottom end of Crow Wood. Naturally Chris had been right and I managed to lead us through bog and through briar like Puck in Midsumme Night’s Dream, ending in a rat trap position at a locked gate by a wall surmounted by barbed wire. Plan X was a small retreat to a gated road which took us round the north end of Platt Wood on the N.Cheshire way. For the umptieth time I left my trusty stick behind and Sheelagh kindly backtracked with me to retrieve it.

 The head wind was almost as bad as it had been on 24 March polar walk, but thankfully it was not an icy wind. After a short shower, we had no more rain and trekked down to the NT café complex by the pond where we met up with Campbell who had earlier gone AWOL over the barbed wire when we were in the “rat trap”. A good spot for a coffee break. We walked down through Haze Bank Wood to West Parkgate, a short way along Shrigley road and took the tracks down to Macc Canal where we found an ideal lunch spot sheltered from the wind at the bridge by the Lyme View Marina.

 Plan Y came into force when I mistook bridge number 17 for the following one over the canal. This took us up to the rear of Redacre Hall Farm, a most interesting building with great arches into the stabling and back on to the Shrigley Road, whereas I had intended to go on the next footbridge via Throstlenest Farm. At West Parkgate, we went on the track below Hase Bank and came back into Lyme Park with a great view of Lyme Hall. Plan Z was to cut along the original carriage drive from Lyme Hall down to the end of the Park, instead of the dog leg to East Lodge as originally planned.

 As it was, the walk was somewhat longer than planned and I think I have to go back to orientation lessons in the near future. Nevertheless, everyone still enjoyed the breath of warm fresh air as a change from the recent icy blasts.

 Denise.