Day 29, Carrington (Manchester) – Denton (Manchester)

Weather: ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
Picnic: 🥪🥪🥪🥪🥪(5 out of 5, a real snack track today with nice little sheds that sold food for both 2nd breakfast and lunch!)
Track: 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 (3 out of 5, nice trail along the river and through some towns. lovely food options as well! Still signposted inconsistently though)
Question we have for England: What is that you are trying to stop from entering through pedestrian gates? Because hikers don’t fit through these gates!
Disappointment of the day: the brewery we were looking forward to for 22 km was closed on Wednesdays…
Happy moment of the day: The surprise coffeplace right on trail!
Campsite: ⛺⛺ (2 out of 5, flat and sort of sheltered)
Name of followed trail: Trans Pennine trail
Special mention: Julia and Karen, the 2 lovely ladies we met on trail with whom we took some pictures and the gentleman from the children’s home who gave us water. Thanks again!

We slept in a bit on our nice and quiet spot! After breakfast we got on our way and were soon walking along the river Mersey. The river was a lot more bendy than the trail yesterday, making for a lot more interesting walk!

Along the river we find a few people wondering about where we’re going. First we meet a cyclist and 2 ladies (whom we now know to be Julia and Karen) with whom we have a nice chat. They offer to take a picture of us. We agree in this, because there are very little pictures of the two of us, if not selfies…

It’s nice to meet other people and have a chat with them. We always leave these moments with a little more energy and a smile on our faces. we can only hope to have done the same for the people we meet, even if we often leave them with more questions than answers. I guess that’s one of the things I do miss on this trail; the lack of a trail community full of idiots doing the same thing you’re doing… 😅

The trail along the river is indeed as nice as the ladies promised. We see some people with coffee, and there appears to be a shed selling coffee and pies, right on trail and right on time for 2nd breakfast! Aren’t we the lucky ones! Around lunchtime, we have a similar nice surprise with a Tibetan Kitchen café on trail. Curry and dumplings are so much better than wraps with peanut butter! Today’s trail officially qualifies as a snactrack!

We continue and come across the same gates we’ve seen on trail the last few days. We think they are meant for pedestrians, but they are not really inclusively designed, for hikers don’t fit through! It means going around, or sometimes sucking to get through , or climbing the fence next to it…We’re not even sure about what they’re supposed to stop from entering. Unless they’re actually meant to stop hikers…🤔

We manage to get past again and continue the trail, walking to Stockport, where we’re hoping to get a nice, cold beer at the brewery! Looking forward to that, because the sun is really warm🥵!

when we get there, 22 km into the day, we find out that it’s closed on Wednesday…😭 Disappointed, and after a little crying inside (especially Mark), we continue to the shopping centre and have a Coke in front of the supermarket instead before we do our resupply. After the resupply we find out that Stockport also has a Penny Lane! Lucky me!

We continue our trail along the river, get lost a few more times due to the lack of signage, and find our way to the road crossing where we knock on a door for water.

A friendly man opens the door and helps us out. After that we continue for a few kilometers before we find a good spot to pitch. Unfortunately there aren’t many spots, and the flat, sheltered bits are often littered. Humans… The spot we find is really nice though, where we can relax after a long warm, very pretty, snacktrack day!