Five Days in Cheshire

Although the Liaison Rangers Conference was actually in Liverpool last weekend, it suited me to stay a few miles North of Chester, within striking distance of both Liverpool and the Cheshire Plain, and in view of a spell of nice weather to extend my stay to explore some local NCN Routes. Cheshire is a fine place for gentle touring on two wheels.
On Friday afternoon over sixty Liaison Rangers met at Liverpool Train Station  and were led on a twenty  mile tour of the city, including the Liverpool Loop Line, by the local Rangers.  Away from the waterfront, and with a couple of steep hills to climb, we visited both Liverpool and Everton football grounds, riding through some nice parks, which made up for the rather tiresome back streets.

During the ride one of the locals told me a joke which is worth repeating. It goes as follows.
Years ago, on the River Mersey there were many ships from around the world, and a local chap was leaning on the waterside handrail looking at them, when a cross-legged man came up to him and said "Where's the urinal?" to which the local replied "Dunno mate - how many funnels has it got?"

The conference on Saturday was, as usual, a hectic affair, with about 100 Liaison Rangers, mostly from Northern  England, Scotland and  six flown in from Northern Ireland. It had been decided that Liaison Rangers would in future be known as Group Co-ordinators.  A change of name only.
Malcolm Shepherd's presentation was optimistic for the future of Sustrans, although he pointed out that future funding would not be easy to come by, and it would come from local authorities rather than from Central Government meaning that negotiations would be more complicated.
Two aspects of the group discussions were of interest. Firstly, to have greater delegation of specific roles for individual Rangers, and secondly to take more interest in local planning matters.
Locally we already have quite a degree of delegation, but John Swan has agreed to take on the role of Planning Officer, which means that he will keep an eye on planning applications which may affect any of our local NCN Routes. In the last 12 months we have had inputs to two, one being the re-building of Burnaston House close to NCN R54, and the other being the proposed path on Darley Park. Both were rejected but we had objected to the first and supported the second.
Also, Steve Adams will be our Waterways Officer, to keep an eye on local canal towpaths  from the vantage point of his boat as well as on two wheels.

The conference over for another year, and Sunday was a cold starter, but with a fine day in prospect, so I took a packed lunch and headed Westwards out of Chester for a circular ride on NCN Routes 89 and 5. The former follows the dead straight flood bank on the North side of the River Dee for several miles to Hawarden Bridge, where it meets route 5 on it's way from Chester to North Wales. I had imagined that the River Dee was the border, but in fact not so, since the Welsh border crosses the wide river and Hawarden Bridge is actually in Wales but on the "English" side of the River Dee.
Returning to Chester on Route 5, I came into Blacon, a suburb of Chester, where the inhabitants have made an excellent job of the site of their defunct railway station, having landscaped the area, put in reproduction railway station seats, planted daffodils and generally made quite a feature of the place. Local schoolchildren have designed and made ceramic tiles to pave a circular area, and tree stumps have been carved into the shapes of animals by someone having a light touch with a chainsaw.
Surprisingly, in the County of the Cheshire Cat, lots of grumps about.  My cheery "Good morning" was met with a blank stare (at best) by most people I passed. Perhaps they're all stone deaf or suffering from terminal pessimism. Cheer up Cheshire!
With more fine weather forecast for Monday, I decided to stay over for another day to ride NCN R75  from Nantwich back to Chester, firstly taking my Dahon folder on the bus to Nantwich. A bus pass and a folding bike make a good combination - much benefit from minimal expenditure, and some compensation for the inevitable advancing years.

A few yards from the start, I was tempted to buy fish and chips from my very own  chip shop (right) but it was too early in the morning for that. They were open though, but who eats fish and chips for breakfast?
Very hungry people I suppose.
 R75 was well signed out of Nantwich, but out in the sticks, not a sign to be seen, so much perusal of the OS map. Through Tarporely and on then to join the well surfaced towpath of the Shropshire Union Canal which runs through Chester and onwards to Ellesmere Port, the River Mersey, and the Manchester Ship Canal. It must have been a very busy waterway years ago, and now a tranquil but interesting place. A steep flight of locks takes the canal through a sandstone gorge out of Chester, and a mile or so further on, I paused to scoff a final Kit-Kat and to admire the reflection of the trees in the limpid waters.

So concluded a great long weekend, having re-newed acquaintance with some old friends, enjoyed some good food (as well as the Kit-Kat) and had some fine cycling on new routes, making up, in part, for the recent  Winter months with few opportunities for serious cycling.