Words by Alex, Photos by Pete
Crew: El Pres, TJ, Butty, 3 Sheds, Mr I, Stunt
Bench: Slim
Pub: Dunc & Nic
Route: BL, Old Road zig zags to Windyways, Teggs nose viewpoint, Smithy, Charity Lane & extension, Standing Stone, Dan’s Bench, White Rabbit descent, upper ressies, Sutton Hall
Conditions: Mild, light drizzle from 8, muddy trails
Notes:
A night with a simple mission, arrive at Dan’s bench with suitable G&T’s!
How hard could it be…?
Well it seems to take at least 4 TNR’ers to procure some cucumber slices…although there was no shortage of volunteers to provide Gin 🙂
After last weeks wintry blast it was positivley tropical..with even some bare flesh visible on some pairs of legs!
..but still not enough to stop 3 sheds heading uphill early to “keep warm”
Warm climbing up too, the zig particularly slippy with big puddles for cooling all the wrong bits 🙁
Regrouping below Windyways we see strange orange glow on the horizon..a huge fire?? Wondering what it is we head up the grassy ascent to the Teggs viewpoint, its due West…has disaster afflicted Fiddlers Ferry?? quick t’internetting provides no clues, and it’s not that warm to hang around..onwards.
Teggs is pretty dry up top, but very slippy lower down – many a muddly smile at the bottom.
Long slog up to Witches cottage, our natural sense of where we are still not adjusted to the lack of trees on the left hand side. Stunt having ditched the chubby bike this week is finding he’s somewhat faster on the five, opening gates for all…a mix of thanks and mutterings about lack of stops is his “reward”.
Fine drizzle appears of the “not very wet” variety. Finally we get to the start of Charity, and there are the last remants of last weekends snow in the shadow of the wall between the bushes!
Pretty wet lower down, but running fast, 3 Sheds finds it harder on the arms than expected…because he’s forgotten to turn on his front fork!
Extension it’s usual tricky self, and predictions of doom from the Troll seem to infect stunt who has a significant “dab”.
We can almost smell the Gin which helps us up the S bends to the top.
Pete is slumped back on the bench doing dark things with his camera (or something he doesn’t want us to see??) as he barks at the early arrivers to douse their lights..arty shot here? (Photographer’s edit – both those shots ended up out of focus !!!)
Bench becomes bar, layers are added, and El Pres drops the bombshell that he didn’t manage to get the Hendrick! (after all that cucumber faffing and Phnaar Phaaring too!) We do have Tanquary and Bombay Sapphire, lemon, cumcumber (to taste) plus some chocolaty mints in the shape of pringles (hmmm).
We drink to Dan, to Antipodean Announcments and just to being here.
The orange glow returns…Ellesmere port??
Too cold to hang around for Nic & Dunc (who sportingly update us that they have G&T and don’t expect us to wait)
White Rabbit descent…we forget how flipping fast it is (was that wise??) but all manage to negotiate the tricky corners with more or less braking..
Despite the relentless pace earlier, there is still enough in El Pres’s legs to race to the pub with Mr I and Stunt.
Arizona Dry wins over the “best name of the year so far” Laughing Juice. Steak Sandwhich continues to be the post brexit burger, Butty worries that the Gnocci is not substanital enough, but does find it excellent.
Ribaldry well underway ahead of Dunc & Nic, the bell goes all too soon…Oh and that blaze turned out to be controlled flaring at Stanlow!