Bickershaw

Bickershaw Country Park 

I was desperate to get a walk done now the weather isn't ridiculously hot. The morning's train cancellations didn't bode well and the weather forecast was offering thunderstorms. So it was probably as well that the train I went for got cancelled so I didn't go for the planned wander over the Horwich Moors. I got the bus and headed over to Leigh for a walk round Bickershaw Country Park where, if the weather got nasty, I could scuttle off for the number 8 bus to Wigan or back to Leigh.

It was overcast and muggy when I left home, by the time I got to Leigh it was pouring down so I got the bus as far as Firs Park so I didn't get too wet. (Note to self: for God's sake buy a new flat cap!) The Canada geese and mallards were milling about on the grass in Firs Park while the black-headed gulls divided themselves between the nearby rooftops and the lake.

I nipped down the footpath on Hulme Walk and headed off for what turned out to be a couple of hours' aimless meandering. I still haven't got my head round the geography of this country park so I just followed a few paths round to see where they go. In the end I did a very rough circuit round and emerged at the top of Wigan Road, by which time the rain had eased off to occasional showers.

Bickershaw Country Park 

It was August quiet in the country park. A chiffchaff called in the trees by the houses and willow warblers called from the trees around the lake by the car park. A couple of whitethroats churred from the undergrowth by the tarmacked paths and a party of sedge warblers bounced around the reedmace in a dried-up pool. There was a steady traffic of woodpigeons, black-headed gulls and lesser black-backs and a pheasant called by the field on the Northern margin.

And that was pretty much that, really. Still, I'd had a bit of exercise. I got the bus to Wigan, thinking I could get the train home. Which is why I walked over to the bus station and got the 635 to Appley Bridge. Not on purpose: the bus' number board wasn't working and the station departure board said it was the number 7 to Bolton. Anyway, it was a pleasant ride and I was in plenty of time for catching the train to Manchester in between the ones that had been cancelled.