a Summer Sojourn

The Australians set off home again today. I will drive them to the airport shortly.

This will be my seventh trip to Manchester Airport in just over a month – I’ll be there again tomorrow too!

My brother Andrew and his partner Debbie have been with us since June 1st. They came direct from Perth via Dubai and were met with rain. They have endured a month of rain, always noting that back home the temperature is still in the 20’s despite it being winter over there.

They accompanied me on my trip to Glasgow at the beginning of the month and whilst I worked [this is what I did] they visited Luss on Loch Lomond. They visited York and Bridlington one weekend with my other bother Peter and his wife Linda. They liked York (even in the rain) but thought that Brid was dire! Seventeen fish and chip shops on one road apparently! I wouldn’t know, it’s years since I went to Brid.

They also spent a great deal of time with our parents, staying with them occasionally, driving them around sometimes and organising family get-togethers.

But the most memorable part of their stay, for me, was our trip to Spain. [I’m not sure I will ever complete that particular journal]. We were only there for five days but what a five days. We had sunshine, sea, sand, views, trips out to Gibraltar and Ronda – all in all a jolly good time.

It will be sad to see them go, Australia is such a long way away and getting to see them depends on Sharon’s ability to get away from the straightjacket that dictates academic holidays. But we have enjoyed having them with us and look forward to seeing them again – whenever.

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Golcar Ginnel Walk

This was the final weekend that my brother and his partner will be with us, before their return to Australia.  They fly out on Thursday and return home via a short stay-over in Dubai.

Their first weekend with us was the Jubilee weekend and lots of ‘stuff’ was going on. One of those days we heard noises (music) which appeared to be coming from across the valley, so Andrew and I set off to see what it was. When we got there (across the valley) we realised that the noise was coming from our side of the valley – the side we’d set off from (doh!). In fact, the music was coming from a couple of houses in the bottom of the valley – but the point of telling the story is that whilst we were trailing about Golcar Andrew noticed the Golcar Ginnel Trail  signs. I’ve catalogued my own sightings over the years on Flickr but a couple of the plaques have remained elusive. We said that we would ‘do’ the Ginnel Trail before he set off back home.

Now that was a month ago and a lot of rain has fallen since then, so yesterday was really the last chance to undertake what seemed like an easy task. The local information leaflets say that it’s about 3km long with some tricky uphill climbs. Now, being local I thought the uphill description was spot on but that the 3km was something of an understatement – which I think it proved to be.

We set off in a short lull in the rain and only experienced short bursts of wetness as we trailed around the hills and vales that make up Golcar. The trail starts by the church and then weaves its way down and along the hillside until it reaches the railway line. This is the main Trans-Pennine line which flits folks backwards and forwards between the east and west coasts of northern England (but mainly Manchester Airport and the big cities of the north). The trail then drops further down the hill to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.  At this point it would seem that the odd plaque has been removed/stolen/misplaced [delete as required] as there was only one at the TOP of eight and at the TOP of nine – each of the other trails having a plaque top AND bottom. This bit of the walk is also longer, with much more distance between the markers. From nine to ten, you could easily become lost and disorientated, so do make sure you have the guide with you to make sure you don’t become lost.

From here on the overarching direction is ‘UP’. Up the steep hillside to Golcar itself and for Andrew and me, even further up – to the Golcar Lily Restaurant where we were meeting family for a meal. Next time I’ll do it on a slightly warmer day 😉

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