Northern England
We'll be leaving the train at Macclesifeld and walking East over a hill called Gun, and on to the Roaches - a gritstone ridge carved by the weather to make curvy shapes. But first lets get a view of where we join the ridge...
Its the Northern end of the ridge, and behind lays the back forest, where wallabies are said to be - though none have been sighted since the 1970s. We stay the night at the nearby hostel (an old mill) with its large glass windows, before walking on to Buxton in the morning. Buxton is a very genteel sort of place so its only right that we stop for tea in an orangery before heading to the station and a train to Manchester.
Manchester is very much built of red brick, and is well worth spending time to explore - especially the industrial museum sited next to what was Coronation Street (before they moved it to a new purpose built set!). There is a strange emptiness about this quarter and particularly under the various bridges where the canals run.
From Manchester we cross to Leeds and then onto a local service that gets us to Ilkley. For a short walk we can go up Ilkley Moor, or a click or tap can take us on a longer walk into the Dales.
That would take several days, but if you can't spare the time to browse that walk we'll skip across to Sedbergh where we have transport waiting to take us to Arnside.
Arnside is one of my favourite places. Its hard to explain why, as the beach is mud, the pier is a tiny proboscis of concrete and it has only a small hill to climb. But what it does have is a wonderful calmness, that seeps into the soul, removing the tiniest traces of stress. Yet just as we are totally relaxed we hear a siren. Nothing much happens, until twenty minutes later the siren goes off again, followed just a couple of minutes later by the tide, gushing in with all the force of a mini tsunami. Its best seen with a spring tide, for with a neap tide there is nothing at all. I haven't painted anything of Arnside yet, but when I do, expect it to appear here.
From Arnside the train rattles over a long viaduct over the estuary to the genteel little town of Grange Over Sands, and then through numerous interesting places to Barrow. We may need to change trains there, but sometimes they take us all the way up the West Coast of Cumbria with plenty of places to jump off for a Lake District adventure. I recommend jumping off at the foot of White Combe or at Muncaster for a pleasant walk in. Click or tap to see the paintings.
We leave the Lakes on a Southbound train from Kendal, changing at Wigan so we return to the coast at Southport. The town has a charm, and a pier that starts well inland, but we don't stay long, as we head down the coast to explore the dunes at Formby.
Next morning its off to Liverpool on the rover ticket that gets us a ride on the infamous ferry too (and for a fraction the price the tourists pay). Across the Mersey, there is time for a walk along the shore to New Brighton, where we get this view of the docks - and a nice cuppa in an Art Deco building accompanied by a man playing the piano.
And that is where we run out of North to explore right now (but there will be more in time. So its off to Liverpool Lime Street for a fast train to Euston and another adventure from the selection below - just tap or click where you want to go...
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