Thursday toddle

Bridgewater Canal, Worsley 

Perhaps it was the change in weather, perhaps it was the couple of nights' getting home late, perhaps I'm just getting old. In any case me and the knees wanted a bit of a rest today. The arrival of the year's first singing blackcap in the back garden and the spadgers' demolition of another bag of suet balls provided some distraction but I couldn't really settle. So I did a bit of reconnaissance for a walk into Botany Bay Wood.

I've been wondering for a while how to get to Greater Manchester's biggest woodland. I'd noticed that Grange Road in Winton heads that way once it crosses over the motorway and past Birchall. There's a busy bus stop near the Worsley Road end of Grange Road so if this did turn out to be a way into Botany Bay Wood it would be extremely convenient. It was worth a nosy.

It had been cold and wet when I got the 20 at the Trafford Centre. It was cool and cloudy when I got off and started walking down Grange Road. Dunnocks, wrens and blackbirds sang in the gardens as I walked down. Goldfinches, house sparrows, great tits and woodpigeons fidgeted about in trees and bushes and starlings hopped about the television aerials on the chimneys. As the road reached the motorway it took a sudden left turn. Straight ahead was the start of four minutes' worth of footpath into Worsley, the local bit of the Port Salford Trail which stretches intermittently from Barton Moss to Worsley. I turned left and followed the road over the motorway.

I've seen fewer Keep Out signs on Ministry of Defence research installations. I turned on my heel and walked back.

Port Salford Trail

I did the four minutes' walk into Worsley. The path runs beside the motorway the whole length, robins, blackbirds and a song thrush managing to compete with the traffic noise. At the end I walked down to Worsley Road. A buzzard floated past, it's one I see quite regularly from buses at the motorway interchange. I saw the bus to the Trafford Centre go by as I reached the main road. While I was waiting for the next one I had a mooch by the Bridgwater Canal.

It was still cool but the sun came out and clouds blew away so the canal by the Packet House and Worsley Delph was looking picturesque. Three mallards cruised past the narrowboats. Three Canada geese had a fight near the Delph. Blackbirds, robins and goldfinches sang in the trees. For a moment I was tempted to walk down the canal into Boothstown. The temptation passed and I got the next bus back to the Trafford Centre and thence home.

An hour's very gentle walking had got me some exercise, crossed a possible walk off the list and given the knee something to grumble about. I got home and inspected the boots: the soles were sound enough but the memory foam insoles I'd put in to soften the walking  were as flat as sheets of paper and functionally useless. Replacing them won't stop the knee from grumbling but the bugger will have less excuse for it.