I had been out walking in the countryside on Saturday and it had been a miserable et and windy day, so I was looking forward to Sunday with some trepidation. However,the day dawned bright and dry and the sun continued to shine for most of the day;it was was more like spring than winter.
heading back towards Wigan. Sue’s walking boots were buffed and polished so I
took a ‘before’ picture as we set off.
Although the towpath was muddy in places;
conditions were good in the main and I never did get to take a ‘after’ picture at the end of the walk.
We proceeded through pleasant countryside and made our lunch time stop at Appley Bridge. Some locals recommended the ‘Waterside Inn’ but this establishment managed to disappoint just about all of our party as it had neither the food or cask ales advertised on a board outside the pub.
However, we continued further along the cut to the ‘Crooke Hall Inn’. Happily this was in complete contrast to the earlier hostelry.
It had a won a ‘community local’ award and was bustling, serving yummy chips and local cask ale ( I sampled the excellent ‘Napoleon’s Retreat’, named after the Mike Harding sketch “Napoleon’s retreat from Wigan’, worth catching up with if you haven’t heard it, might well be on ‘You Tube’ somewhere.
From the pub it was only an hour’s walk on to Wigan past the newish football &
rugby ground and the somewhat underwhelming Wigan pier (just a short section of railway track where they used to tip coal from trucks into barges). We even made our train without the need to run the last few hundred yards.
We finished with our final ‘treat’ of the day on the train, Sue’s friend’s Xmas cake, a case of saving the best until last.
An enjoyable out and now only 24 miles over two walks to Liverpool.
John H
