Chester Weekend - September 2010

Chester is a lovely town which we've visited many times over the years as we have very good friends who live there. The last time I was there I broke my wrist - dancing in flipflops - but this was to be the official Annual Gathering and I wasn't going to do that this time!

We had planned a nice gentle drive up on Thursday afternoon, and all went well as far as the other side of Birmingham. There were ominous signs warning of delays due to an accident on the M6, but there wasn't much alternative choice of route, so we carried on into the inevitable traffic jam. Creeping along in first gear, in the middle lane, I began to hear a rattling noise. While I was still trying to convince Ron to stick his head out of the window and listen a car came alongside in the outside line waving and mouthing 'exhaust'! Oh dear. It's impossible to do anything when you're creeping along at five miles a fortnight, and by the time the traffic cleared we were a couple of miles short of Stafford services, so I carried on to there, very carefully, and stopped to investigate.


In the carpark it became apparent that the entire exhaust system had come unstuck and was touching the ground. Ron felt that he would have been able to improvise a replacement bracket if I'd had a metal coathanger or two concealed about my person, but I hadn't, sadly, so we had to fall back on the tender mercies of the RAC. Who came up trumps, absolutely. It took an hour and a half to reach us, mind, and by the time that welcome orange van arrived it was dark and raining, but the mechanic was marvellous. He got underneath the car, got Ron to help with pushing and pulling bits back into position and clamped and bound and glued everything back into place so we were able to carry on our journey. All with a smile on his face, too. Absolutely first class service, for which we were very grateful. There was no noticeable difference at all in the way the car was driving and we eventually arrived in Chester just in time for last orders!

We were staying with a friend but the Gathering I'd come to Chester for was based in the Queen Hotel, opposite the railway station in the centre of town. It was, I was assured, only about a ten minute walk, so early Friday afternoon I decided to check it out. Ty needed a walk, I needed to find the hotel, so off we set together. I forget, I suppose, what cities are like, as I visit them so rarely. Walking along the main road into the centre was uncomfortably busy, loud and smelly. Still, we are not such yokels that we can't operate pelican crossings or memorise a Google map, and we found our way there without incident. But not our way in. There on the steps of the Queen Hotel I had the whitegloved hand of a tophatted doorman shoved rudely in my face - dogs were not permitted through their pseudo roman door. So dog got tied to their highly polished brass railings outside while I went in to check in, briefly, and then we took ourselves home.

Perhaps it was the less than friendly welcome that started it, or perhaps it was the severe backache which started on Friday morning, but it seemed to me that the whole weekend continued in a similar vein. When I returned without the dog for the official start of proceedings I met some old friends, and was very pleased to do so, but the usual air of relaxed friendliness seemed absent, somehow and I never really got into the Gathering mood at all.

Our hostess had mentioned casually that the cycle path which runs behind her house had been extended, so on Saturday morning I took the executive decision to ignore the AGM business meeting and go for an explore. Up until now, from Lime Wood Fields one could turn right and follow a nice made cycle path along an old railway line past the centre of Chester and a little beyond it, or turn left and follow the abandoned railway line under rubbish strewn bridges and through mud or across rubble. We had been in that direction once a couple of years ago out of curiousity, but decided that it was too uncomfortable and dangerous to repeat.


Now, however, as part of what I have learnt is the Chester Millenium Greenway Project, the path has been improved and opened offically all the way to Mickle Trafford, some 2.5 miles past Lime Wood Fields. Not only is there a decent surface underfoot, but rubbish has been cleared, undergrowth cut back, new plantings made in some places, and imaginative wooden sculptures put in place. My personal favourite is this willow horse, which is just beginning to come alive. On the way we met a working party of volunteers who were continuing with the landscaping by digging a large shallow hole at the side of the track which will be allowed to fill with rainwater and become a natural pond, hopefully attracting even more wildlife to the area. The whole project is a wonderful example of what very little money but lots of enthusiasm and imagination can do to transform urban ugliness. And nice, flat, easy walking makes a pleasant change from Cornwall!

On Saturday afternoon I went back for more Gathering but just couldn't work up enough enthusiasm to stay for Sunday, so we made our way home Sunday afternoon. The journey home was comparatively uneventful, apart from the pouring rain and dreadful visibility for the first hundred miles or so - for once, the nearer we got to Cornwall the brighter the weather became. The car stayed in one piece, the roads were quiet, it was nice to be home!