Day: 275 25/4/04 Frodsham to Eastham

Weather:  Fine and hot. 

Distance:  23 km (14.3 miles)    Total Distance:   3552 miles

I slept like a log and got up for the breakfast that was in the overnight price – another sign of changing times in Youth Hostels and very nice it was too. 

Starting point for the day - River Weaver at Frodsham
(Geograph - ROW17)

I drove to Frodsham and parked outside the Bridge Inn with signs of the previous evenings drunkenness – a meal tipped over a car parked next to me.  The first part of the walk took me down the river’s edge, under the motorway and around an ICI landfill site.  I passed some bloke camping on a spit of wasteland just under the M56, not exactly a choice site. 

Frodsham map

This was good bird watching country, particularly at this time of year.  As the path cut back in again towards Frodsham I passed a number of twitchers.  Just before I got to the motorway again the path cut back out again onto the marsh.  The path went westwards though - not seemingly following the path marked on my 20 year old map. 

I was beginning to enjoy this stretch in the fine weather when all of a sudden it ended and I was in among a chemical factory again.  I was passed by a seemingly very fit walker who strode past me with purpose.  I asked him if he was off to Ellesmere Port and he said yes, to do the shopping!  After a stretch along farm tracks and minor roads I ended up in the village of Ince.  I took refuge in the church graveyard and dug into a packet of biscuits.  The shade of the trees was much appreciated.  I psyched myself up for the next stretch.

St James church, Ince - a good graveyard for taking a rest
(Geograph - Ian Nadin)

There now followed a three-mile stretch through Stanlow Oil Refinery and past the Associated Octel works that was being demolished.  It wasn’t as bad as it may have been.  There was a decent pavement and not too much traffic.  I took a break in the Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port – used their loo and sat on a settee in the foyer and had a can of their pop.

Ellesmere Port map

Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port with a comfy sofa in the foyer.
(Geograph - Martin Clark)

The next stretch was also none too good, on roads parallel to the motorway.  There was just one nice stretch where I found a woodland area with good paths parallel to the motorway but very peaceful.  I crossed the M53 again and approached the village of Eastham and although the scenery was getting better I decided to call it a day.

There now followed another tortuous journey back to the car.  I got a bus easily to Ellesmere Port by waking up on to the main road.  In Ellesmere Port however there were no busses to Frodsham so I walked up to the railway station and asked the guard in the waiting train who advised me to get to Chester which was a journey in two trains – one back virtually to Eastham!  Once in Chester I would have had an almost two hour wait for a train to Frodsham so decided to see if I could get a bus.  It took a while to find the bus station and then another fair wait for a bus – time for a pint in a historic Chester pub and eventually back to Frodsham, a quick trig point bag and a drive home!