The Sandstone Trail - The First Leg

In Spring 2009 NM and I walked most of the 37 mile long Sandstone Trail in stages. We only missed the last 5 mile section. As it is a linear route we would drive in separate cars to our end point, leave one car there and drive to our start point for the day. At the end of the walk we would then drive back to the car we had left at the start and set off home. This worked well most times apart from the occasion when NM left the keys for the second car in the car at the start point.

Today we decided that we would start again but this time complete the full walk. To save messing about with two cars we asked D to drive us to the start point, The Bears Paw in Frodsham, and come and collect us at the Barnsbridge Gates car park in Delemere forest. He was unsure of the route to Barnsbridge so asked us to go there first so that he could find his way back there at pick up time. When we got there we decided to get out and walk from there back to the start point at Frodsham. So we walked the leg in reverse. NM suggested that we should walk backwards but we decided against that.

A few years ago NM gave me a Tilley hat to protect my (bald) head from the elements. In the crown there is a secret pocket where I keep a £10 note for emergencies and a little poem. The reason why I keep a poem in there is that once when we were out walking a few years back we came across a little book hidden in a tree and a note asking you to record a memory of your walk there. I wanted to include this poem but I couldn't remember all the words.

Today we came across that tree again and the little book was still there. We left the poem and a note.

The one advantage of doing this stage in reverse is that we finished our walk at the Bears Paw pub. We enjoyed a pint outside. While we waited for D to come and collect us two people in walking gear came up and touched the post outside the pub. They had just walked the complete trail in one go. I photographed them beside the post and I have emailed a copy to them.

All in all a great day and we will possibly do another leg tomorrow.

The aforementioned Tilley hat!

The poem we left is called The Meeting of the Waters by Thomas Moore. He wrote it after a visit to the vale of Avoca in County Wicklow.

There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet
Oh the last rays of feeling and life must depart
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart

Yet it was not that nature had shed o'er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green
'Twas not her soft magic of streamlet or hill
Oh No 'twas something more exquisite still

'Twas that friends, the belov'd of my bosom were near
Who made every scene of enchantment more dear
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve
When we see them reflected from looks that we love

Sweet vale of Avoca! How calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best
Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace