Sunday, 15 December 2024

RUFFORD

 A PIECE of STRING !

STRINGERS :- John R, Jim, Anthony, Danny, Mike, John W

QUESTION - How long is a piece of string ?

ANSWER - Not as long as our walk !

3m ? er..no.  4m ? er.. no.   5m ? er..no.  6m ? er.. nearly.     6.25m    YES !

Todays walk was much longer than we anticipated. It was, however, an excellent walk in the continuing tradition of professor Danny both interesting and picturesque.

We parked up just off the A59 in RUFFORD.


Leaving the cars we set off in the direction of the railway station.


A commuter train was just arriving as we can see from the distant red lights halting the traffic.


In recent times our walk day habits have changed, We now start a little later and quite enjoy a coffee (or tea) and a chat about the day's plans, before setting off on our walk.

 

This cafe, which serves the extensive marinas, was excellent.



The cafe seemed to be situated in an area of large marinas as we discoverd when we dropped down to follow the  canal. Here it was the branch of the LEEDS/LIVERPOOL canal which joins the river Asland or Douglas at Tarleton







 


Jim seemed to be quite intrigued by the workings of the "Lock" mechanisms.


Anthony, a one time narrow boat owner, seemed rather more interested in something else.


More locks and some quite extensive reedbeds as we continued along the canal.


There are always swans on our canals, This one, however , seemed somehow different. It was solitary and rather smaller than most we have encountered. It reminded me of Hans Andersons "The Ugly Duckling. It posed rather nicely for a photograph though.
,


This post seemed rather unnecessary and  we wondered half a mile (?) from or to where ?


We were not on the canal long before we came to this swing bridge which took us across the water and down to the A59 which we crossed over before taking to the fields.



As we walked we passed small areas of civilisation in one of which was this Christmas display.  It looked expensive to me .................. "Aw......C'mon......... TOO DEAR !




We now found ourselves following an arrow straight track with deep ditches on either side. To our left were VERY large fields with narrow drills of what appeared to be grass. ?  My Agricultural and Horticultural friends assured me that it would be "WINTER WHEAT" Which having sprouted would now stay dormant until the warmth of spring would awaken it.


The ditches and dykes alongside the paths were flowing with clear water although it was an amber colour. We wondered if this was caused by iron in the soil or the run off from the peaty marshlands found in this area ?


There are five Meanderthals hiding behind this tree but we can't see them all.


Has John Russell been here before? 
We were now walking through Meresands wood in search of the activity centre and the cafe.


We stopped briefly beside this magnificent florescence of fungi to check  which path to take through the large woodland.


Then............ DOUBLE DISASTER............. my camera's battery ran out and we took a WRONG turn. We were to come past this fungi again after a long deviation which as the blog title suggests made our walk rather longer than planned.

Sorry. No more photos.

We eventually arrived at the Meresands Centre where we had brews and a snack before making our way once again through the wood, across a large field and a lengthy stretch along the Southport road and back to the cars.

NOT THE END YET
(hope to get an odd photo or two from peoples phones)

JW


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