Manchester

Wednesday 21st December

Walkers: Chris, Dean, Tom, Peter, Micky, George, Alastair, John Jones, Eric, Mike, Lee.  (Andy later)

Diarist: John Jones

We met at 10.00 hours just inside main doors of Piccadilly station on a cloudy but mild day. Chris was meant to be our leader and after waiting for stragglers we set off, over the A6  foot bridge and westerly past the home of the Halle Orchestra and court house. We took a left to Chorlton Street bus station, turning west again to Canal Street and soon dropping down to the murky underworld of muddy and dark towpaths.

This is the area where about 90 or so men were killed and ended up in the canal some years ago. An oriental man was found guilty of some similar crimes later but never proved responsible for the main bulk of the killings.

A green edging to the far side of the canal and bright and cheerful graffiti art works took our minds from the dark past. The high modern block buildings dragged one's eyes away from the wonderfully ornate 19th century ones with their terra cotta brickwork. At some point we came off the canal and Peter who carried a rucksack (He was bearing gifts) declared that he knew the way better than our leader Chris who had spent many years working and drinking in the city centre. pete was so vociferous that he persuaded most of our number to follow him out towards Salford. Spotting the sun casting shadows across us we headed east back to the centre. Again there was a split and Chris and I were soon in the Kabana curry house, where the seats were plentiful along with the curry and chapatis. Curry and boiled rice was £7.50. After lunch we headed to a nearby pub, being joined by most of the wanderers.  Eventually and rather haphazardly we made our way from  pub to pub and in one of which we were joined by Andy. 

In all we covered 7.5 miles or 17,000 steps on Alastair’s app. The seven pubs visited were Yates, The Old Wellington, Lower Turks Head, White Horse, The Unicorn, Port Street Beer House and Trax Brewery.

Next week's wander will be led by Peter Beal from Hayfield's Sportsman’s pub, Kinder Road at 09.45 hours.