Day 4 - Stockport to Woodhead Reservoir

After a very good night's sleep we woke up to a bad weather forecast threatening rain and even more rain. We had a traditional "full English" and a nice chat with the owner of the Cooper Beech B&B (where we were staying last night), who kindly donated £20 to our marching efforts.

At the start point we were met by:
Guy Shorrock
Mike Miles
Tanya Earnshaw and her dog Pebbles
Kelly Sapsford

We were joined later by: 
Peter Robertson
Kate Hanley
Peter Sharples

After listening to the morning news Tanya, Kelly and Anna decided to ward off the rain with a fashion suitable to a marshmallow. Albeit them looking... different, it must have worked, as not a single drop fell on them all day. 

 

We started with a pleasant walk with no new obstacles until somewhere in Reddish we came across some horse steps which although they had a nice steady ramp down, it was far too narrow for any wheelchair. Fortunately, we were going down so managed to drive the FourX step by step. This would not be possible had we been going in the other direction. 

The next obstacle was even more surprising. We came across a locked gate with some wooden sleepers across the narrow gap that was guarding the entrance to the rest of the TPT. We were very fortunate here and with the help of local knowledge we managed to locate the key in the nearby Visitors Center. With this information Guy quickly cycled back and managed to talk to Simon who assisted us with getting through. Thanks again, Simon, for all your help.

 

Just before walking out into the streets of Hyde another A-frame stood in our way. Because the arm rests had been taken off numerous times the screw sheared (fortunately with the arm rest off). Although we can still manage to put it on and take it off again, it now is now held together with a piece of tape. 

The last obstacle of the day was wooden sleepers blocking the way to the 500 meter path to Broadbottom. This time there was no other way but to call Roy's Dad for a rescue. The vehicle had to transport Roy and the wheelchair to Broadbottom station, where we were joined by Peter. This was also our first stop for changing batteries.

The best part of the day was arriving at the offices of United Utilities where tea and cakes were set out for us on the table, and comments of admiration and encouragement flew thick and fast. We enjoyed a homemade flapjack (thanks Charlotte and Kate), which gave us plenty of energy for the last 7 miles. 

Here Kate and Peter joined us and we all marched merrily to the finish point. Only two miles from the end the FourX said no to the amount of cakes Roy had had and started flashing with only two bars of the battery left. Another emergency call to our brilliant driver and the change was performed in record time of 3.5 minutes. 

On the last leg of our journey we were rewarded with the sighting of a Dipper to add to our list as well as orchids along the path.