Sunday turned out to be a pleasant day with hazy sunshine; absolutely ideal for
canal walking.
We were missing one of our regular ‘gang of four’ : Linda had twisted her knee ski-ing and so was incapacitated; we wish Linda a speedy recovery and hope to see her on our next walk. However, happily our numbers were made up by Anne, SWOG’s very own web-master, who made a welcome addition to our numbers as we left from Burscough heading towards Liverpool.
We proceeded through pleasant countryside
and made our lunch time stop at a pub called ‘The Saracens Head’;
the pub was busy with Mother’s Day celebrations, but we found a pleasant spot outside by the canal to munch our sarnies and eat the rather meagre portion of chips provided by the hostelry.
We continued on and were fortunate that some helpful locals alerted us to a towpath blockage ahead. We were able to take a diversion around some local roads and found our way back onto the towpath by a swing bridge and another pub ‘The Running Horses’. This pub was also busy, and you could tell we were in the Liverpool hinterland as there were many fans eagerly anticipating the Liverpool vs Spurs match that was about to start.
We retired outside and could tell that the game was going well for those of a red persuasion by the cheers coming from the bar.
From here it was only a short walk to the railway station; uncharacteristically we were in just good time for our train to Liverpool and after a walk across the city centre, a further train back to Manchester.
An enjoyable day out on our penultimate walk on the Leeds & Liverpool canal and we look forward to the last leg into Liverpool itself.
John H
