Winter Walks - Along the Salt Line

Before little Waverley joined our hug, Hanley, Endon and I went for another new walk with Polar and Grizzly.  This one was along another disused railway line known as the Salt Line, which ran from Sandbach in Cheshire through to Kidsgrove.

We joined the path in Alsager, near the Wilbraham Arms pub, which is quite close to where we live but in Cheshire rather than Staffordshire.  On the way to the path from the pub car park, we passed this smiling tree, which made us laugh.

Like our other railway walks, this one is also a cycle track and has a good tarmac surface, making it good for walking even after wet weather.  Almost all the leaves are off the trees now so it isn't as colourful as it would have been a few weeks ago.  However, this does mean there are good views from the path further along.

Several footpaths lead off from the Salt Line, including one which goes around this lake.  Perhaps we will explore it one day - although we can't for the moment, because Cheshire and Staffordshire were put in different 'tiers' the day after our walk, and our humans aren't allowed to leave their area now.

We saw some super trees and lots of lichen and fungus, which gardening bear Endon finds especially interesting.  We were allowed to do some climbing too, firstly in some of the trees and then on these big logs, which have been left by the path to encourage the fungus to grow on them.

After our humans had been walking for a least a mile, they saw one of the old railway sleepers had been preserved as a little memorial and information board.  

Naturally, Hanley Bear had to investigate.  'Look!' he said.  'The trains used to go to Trentham Gardens!'

 

Mostly, the line was used for industrial freight, like coal and salt.  It was fun to imagine steam trains chugging backwards and forwards along the line.  

 

'We'll  have to ask Grizzly to make up a Salt Line train on his model railway!' Hanley said.

The end of the walk is not far from the canal, a little further along from where the trail runs underneath the M6 motorway.  Nearby, there is a house that used to be where the keeper of the level crossing over the lane to Hassall Green lived. 

That was where we stopped to turn around and make our way back.  After we had walked quite a long way, Polar noticed a post with a yellow dot and the word 'Saturn' on it, but didn't know what it was for and didn't show us bears.

Quite a long way further on, she saw another one with a smaller dot and 'Uranus'.

 

'It's a Solar System Walk!' cried Hanley Bear, scrambling up the post to sit at the top.  'I bet all the planets are along here somewhere - but we've passed most of them without noticing.  Let's go back and find them!'

 

'Sorry Hanley, there isn't time today,' Polar said.  'We'll have to see if we can find them all the next time we come here.  You might still find Neptune, if you look out carefully from the Bear Bag.'

 

And he did!

It was cold and starting to get dark by the time we finished our walk. Grizzly was sad that we couldn't go to the pub for a late lunch and a pint and Hanley was still sad about not finding the other planets, but they both cheered up when we got home and found there had been a delivery while we were out.

'Yay!' he cheered.  'Proper Stoke beer!'  

 

He opened the box at once and started sorting through it, choosing which beer he wanted. 

 

'This special Plum Porter is in a little bear-sized bottle!' he said.  'It must be for us!'

Polar says we bears are only allowed little sips of the frothy bubbles and that the beers are for Grizzly and the porters and stouts are for her.  Hanley gave her a hard stare, but she made him put the bottle back and shut the box away in the larder.

 

'If you're a good bear we'll let you try a little sip of the beers,' she said, but every now and then Hanley creeps out into the kitchen and tries to open the larder door - but it is too heavy for him!