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On a bright crisp Thursday morning in February we met at the allocated point on the pub car park ready to undertake a ramble. The first couple of cars arrived early, followed by more, and more….and then more! Until finally everyone was assembled and the head count revealed a whopping 27 people! Certainly a record for our ramble group. Maybe it was the gorgeous spring sunshine that made people venture out, or maybe the chance to walk around Lunt meadows, which was a new venture for some people. Anyway, whatever the reason, everyone was ready for a wander through our local nature reserve.

Heading off across the fields we entered the reserve and had a great circular walk, just a little over 6 miles, which was quite short for our group, spotting several species of geese, coot and various species of ducks. Sadly we didn’t see the egret or snowy owl which Gill and I spotted when we recced the walk. However the air was crisp, the walk was brisk and the chat was plenty as we navigated the various ponds and waterways. Navigating the banks of the river Alt we were treated to the sight of many hundreds of geese grazing on the carrots left behind in the ploughed field. following a quick coffee stop we continues through the reserve and, having stopped briefly at the site of the archaeological dig, exited onto the Cheshire Lines footpath, before making our way back to Ego at the Punchbowl where we took over a whole section of the restaurant to enjoy a lovely lunch. Thanks to Gill for doing the recce with me, though I was glad we had changed our original route which would have meant a very muddy walk! Thankfully today the mud scale was only moderate!

Our next ramble will be on Thursday 5th March and will be to Rivington Pike. This is a change to the advertised programme as the walk originally planned is extreme on the mud scale, so will be completed later in the year when it’s hopefully drier! Details to follow as usual, but will be posted on noticeboard at U3A next week.