From Cheshire to Lancashire on Foot.

Sunday 5th July, 2105 at Norton Priory, Castlefields.
This was an idyllic mooring, so peaceful and in the midst of dense woodland.
We set off early to do the two and a half miles to Runcorn. The rural tranquillity gave way to evidence of a built-up area and detritis in the canal including - would you believe - a sofa! However, it was delightful to see that the grass verges on the towpath are a haven for dozens of wild orchids.
The Runcorn Arm meets its Waterloo in the town basin with a road bridge most appropriately named "Waterloo Bridge".

Before the canal was truncated by an road "expressway" in 1970, two parallel flights of 10 locks took the canal down to the Manchester Ship Canal. We walked down along the line of the old flight and some of the lock chamber sides can still be seen.

Apparently the locks were filled in with sand and there is real hope that they can be reinstated one day. At the foot of the flight was a humble little place, built for the Duke of Bridgewater as a "temporary" residence, so that he could watch his canal being completed!

We moved MM a quarter of a mile from the end of the canal and moored her up opposite the centre of Runcorn. It was sad to see the demise of what must have been a vibrant little community in Runcorn. In the 1960's, it was designated as a "New Town" and, in addition to building vast estates of new houses all around it, the original town was dwarfed and carved up by massive expressways which fly over the little streets of red-brick terraced houses; one of these huge roads truncated the canal. The Sixties were certainly the Philistine years for the canals, the railways, town planning and architecture.

We walked through the rather depressing centre of Runcorn down to the Manchester Ship Canal where our imagination was caught by the sight of the huge suspension bridge which spans the Ship Canal and the Mersey and connects Runcorn on the south side to Widnes on the north.

Since our hopes to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco in 2012 had been dashed by torrential rain, we decided that this was too good an opportunity to miss and so set off to find our way up on to the pedestrian walkway. The views over the Mersey and the Ship Canal, divided by only a stone wall, were spectacular. In the estuary, the tide was out, exposing the sandbanks. Fascinating!

We could truthfully claim that by walking from Runcorn in the south to Widnes in the north, we had walked from Cheshire to Lancashire! The first sight of Lancashire was this very inviting looking pub.

To our surprise, another vista unfolded on the Lancashire side. The familiar sight of many green, red and white trucks could mean only one thing: an Eddie Stobart Depot! Hooray! Whilst we knew that there was a depot in Widnes, we did not realise that it was so close to the bridge. In addition to the truck depot, there is an Eddie Stobart Ports facility and we could see the huge cranes and containers. M posed happily in front of the entrance.

Other spotters were in evidence and one of them, David, very kindly ferried us round in his car to the other side of the main depot where there was a facility for handling new trucks and another for trucks that were being decommissioned - neither of which we could ever have found on foot.

All in all, we "bagged" eighty-five Eddies, an excellent haul!
M was surprised to find this lovely little specimen on one of the banks beside the depot; its a "Common Centaury", but she said it is far too pretty to be designated "common"!

By the time we had walked back across the bridge, we getting decidedly footsore but just as we got back to the canal, the dark clouds which had been gathering brought with them a massive thunderstorm and torrential rain. As the day had started warm and sunny, we were hardly dressed for rain, so we sheltered under a canal bridge in sight of MM and frustratingly only a couple of hundred yards away. We could see her in the distance - so near yet so far!

After half and hour or so, the rain eased off and we made the dash back to MM as fast as we could. We still got wet, but it was worth it as MM was warm, dry and inviting!
By six o'clock the sun came out and we decided to cruise back to the same mooring as last night by Norton Priory, passing this handsome fellow on the way.

It was so nice to back at this beautiful spot with its lovely woodland.

Today: 5 miles, 0 locks and 2.8 hours.
Trip: 105 miles, 53 locks and 69.7 hours.