The best piece of advice I was given when starting out diving was to take a pair of walking boots on a dive trip. British diving is great, but it can get blown out so have a backup plan. Seeing as I like walking it is not a hard rule to follow.
When Paul Moore (the TSAC social secretary) proposed a walk as one of the club social activities it sounded like a great idea. Let’s face it we have to practice our diving at inland sites so why not go and practice our walking, in case we find ourselves unable to go diving!
Saturday arrived and five of us met at Trentabank car park and headed out on our walk. It was a clear cold morning so looked like being a great day for a walk.
The plan was to walk a circuit around Macclesfield Forest that Paul had found on the online Countryfile website. A circuit of just under 10km, described as a moderate walk.
The area has a well signposted selection of walks that take the visitors along routes that suit all needs. Some are more testing, taking walkers up to the top Shining Tor and some less so, skirting around the gentler slopes. The walks pass by the many reservoirs and through a mixed fir and broadleaf woodland eventually leading onto the moorland pasture and up to the stone escarpments and pinnacles of Shining Tor and Shutlingsloe.
We started our walk heading up through the woodlands stopping every now and then to take in some of the spectacular views down the valleys. Woodland walking can be deceptive, although the paths were steep, it is difficult to tell how far and high we had gone so the clearings allowed us to judge this and catch our breath! Walking through woodland is an amazing experience, the bird life was in full voice and the sunlight breaking through the trees, incredibly relaxing.
Upon reaching a fork in the path we decided to deviate from the route and head to the top of Shuttlingsloe to take in the full view.
We left the trees behind and emerged onto the flat moorland following a stone slab footpath to the peak.
It was at this point that Jan informed us that she had never been up Shuttlingsloe without it raining! The last few meters of the hill are a steep rocky climb with steps designed for giants, but once at the summit the views over the Cheshire Plain are spectacular.
It seemed a good place to have a break, so we broke out the sandwiches and tea. Sure, enough within five minutes of us stopping Jan’s Suttlingsloe curse hit us, not rain but snow from nowhere!
We packed up and headed back down the path to our route and continued our route along the path until we began our descent back to Trentabank car park.
Once again, the path wound through woodland and past reservoirs returning us back to the starting point.
We found a van selling cake and brews, so it seemed appropriate to have a sit down, a cup of tea and a slice of blueberry and lemon cake to finish of the walk.
A really good day out, thanks to Paul M for organising it and Paul T, Jan and Dave for the great company.
I’m looking forward to our next outing (after a bit of diving).
Link to the Countryfile walk.
Walk: Macclesfield Forest, Cheshire – Countryfile.com
