Day 3 - Thelwall to Stockport

Once again we woke up to  beautiful sunshine. A full English breakfast and a kind £10 donation from the Victoria Hotel set us off in the morning. We drove to a meeting point where a big crowd of volunteers waited for our arrival.

Today’s crowd included:
Jan and Wyn Cheetam
Malcolm Grant and Cynthia Ormson with Cynthia’s dogs Bella and Charlie
Sarah and Gareth Grant with the dog Murphy
Jonathan Grant
Ethel Brocklebank
David Bowman
Dave Steel
DaveMorris with his dog Oscar
Julian Hughes
Sue Compton
Linda Mcindoe
Tanya Earnshaw and her dog Pebbles
Kelly Sapsford

At Chorlton Eeyes  we were joined by Kathy England who is TPT Ranger and was voted Day's Tour Guide.

The start of the walk was in beautiful sunshine on the old railway. We encountered similar obstacles as  previous days which required some sort of unscrewing and screwing back together, but we were well accustomed to those. It was only 10 miles into the walk and Kelly’s statement that we need something new to entertain us, we came across a chicane which was so small that even remembering all lessons from Chris, the FourX could not tackle it. We tried the chicane, the ramp over the wooden planks, and a locked gate. No access could be reached for a wheelchair (or possibly a mum with a buggy). It took 4 big man to lift the wheelchair over the chicane. 149 kilo and really nowhere to grab it, Jonathan, Julian, David and Gareth had to do it twice (repeat was needed on the other side of the road).

In the Mersey Valley near Sale another adventure entertained our march. One of the wheels blew up and required changing the tyre. Gareth and Julian had to lift and hold the wheelchair while Anna got on with the mechanics.

It was not all doom and gloom however as we had many pleasant experiences with gates that use Radar keys and different design of the A-frames. These were much more friendly.

All day we walked in beautiful countryside, had really nice sunny weather, and although it was a really long and challenging day (finishing time 7.30pm) we called the whole experience a success. We also met other TPT challengers on route. Some recognise our little party as they saw Roy on TV the previous day and were loolking out for us on the Trail.
If you want to see the article the link to YouTube is:  
http://beadnell-birding.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/an-update-on-roy.html?m=1

At the end of the day we were pleasantly surprised by a bag full of luxury sugar to boost our energy from Jonathan’s and Rachel’s delightful girls. Thank you Amelia and Katie.

We ended the day in the pub having a celebratory drink and planning a new challenge for the next year.