And it all started so well...

Readers of my blog will know that I'm less than happy with Ron Freethy's Riverside Rambles along the Mersey as either the maps and/or the directions have been found to be lacking. However, having paid £8.95 for the book, I'm reluctant to bin it! So what did we do? We tried another walk. Foolish, as we discovered.
The walk (Walk 15: Moses Gate - Three Waters and two parks) is excellent but the map and directions have little relation to the 'real-world'; perhaps it's a Second-life walk?
Moses Gate with the large flocks of geese...

...was a very pleasant start and, as you can see from the photograph, the sunshine was an added bonus. Thank goodness I'd brought a map with me. The Country Park consists of 750 acres of "Urban Countryside", unfortunately the Warden Service and Information Service, located in Rock Hall was closed! Useful on what is probably one to the two busiest days (the weekend!) Note the map in the book, places the start of the walk in totally the wrong place! Take a look at the 6.594 mile walk at http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2335240. I wont go into great detail about the inaccuracies of the guide but we walked nearer 9 miles and residents, when asked for assistance couldn't help us. The map I've provided is the walk and not our wanderings!
Walking along the Old Line of the Manchester, Bury & Bolton Canal, once we found it, was a pleasure and Ringley Church with the Packhorse bridge, dating from 1677, opposite was impressive.

The walk so far had been reasonable with only two detours which I had sorted using my map and a compass.
Finding Clifton Country Park and Clifton Bridge were another matter; to be fair, there was alot of building going on and the signs may have been removed but we tried several routes and asked 'locals' with no success. However we did eventually find both. Below is a photograph of Clifton Lake...

...dug in the 1960's during the extraction of gravel to build the M62 motorway.
The stone 'sculpture' in the foreground is called Lookout and is by Tim Norris (2001)
We found the Visitor Centre and had a well deserved drink and cake! It was going to be straight forward now surely?
Thank goodness for a good sense of direction, as locals wanted us to go back across the river if we were to "pass the Stoneclough Trading Estate". Instinct helped us find our way back and, on reflection, my bloddy minded determination to complete the walk and a good sense of direction enabled us to succeed.
The question is, do we try another walk from this book?

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