Sue’s Favourite Walks

Local – Northwich Canals, Marbury Park and Anderton Boat List

A hop, skip and jump  from Northwich town centre this is a great walk with lots to explore. Reclaimed from industrial land, a network of paths takes you through woodlands to Marbury Park and Budworth Mere and continues along the Trent and Mersey Canal and Weaver Navigation with a pit stop for Coffee and toasted teacake at Anderton Boat Lift, a feat of Victorian engineering.

This is my favourite local walk for 2 reasons. Firstly, I am always amazed that this little oasis of calm and tranquillity is less than a stone’s throw from Northwich town centre. Secondly because as a nipper I lived in Marbury Country park. My father worked for ICI, who bought Marbury Hall (now demolished) and the Parkland in 1948. As part of the war effort some huts were built in the Park to house British and American soldiers and ICI converted these into temporary dwellings for ICI employees waiting for council houses. So I always feel that I have returned to my roots as I walk through the park, although I have no recollection of living there as I was only 2 when we left!

The photographs below show me as a baby taken in the garden with the houses in the background.

Further afield – Port de Soller to Deia, Mallorca

I have had the pleasure of walking the route from Port de Soller to Deia along the GR221 on several occasions in the past few years. This walk takes in stunning scenery along the Northern coastline of Mallorca with the Mediterranean Sea on one side and the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range on the other.  I have had the good fortune to walk this route on warm sunny days with the smell of orange blossom in the air. Part way along the route there is usually a guy (or gal) sitting in the shade of an olive tree squeezing fresh oranges offering a much-welcomed refreshing drink for passers-by. It also includes a stop at finca San Mico,  run by two Spanish sisters who make the best lemon meringue pie I have ever tasted and further on another pit stop at the beautiful cove, Cala de Deia for a late lunch at the restaurant C’as Patro March, now made famous as it featured in the TV drama ‘The Night Manager’. The walk concludes in the beautiful village of Deia with its tiny stone streets and probably the most memorable bus journey of your life back to Port de Soller (ask Bev to tell you her tale of this!)