Wandering below the Tower

Yesterday's weather forecast kept us indoors as we'd planned a walk with mums and dads at Heysham, but decided against it when it became clear that rain was on the way by lunchtime. Rain wouldn't always keep us in but it's much nicer to walk in the dry so we reverted to plan B - meeting up a little later than planned in slightly smarter attire for a relaxing afternoon instead. In the event the rain came much later than expected so we could have gone out after all. C'est la vie.

Anyway, today looked like it would be a better day so Carole and I decided to get out for a while and get some fresh air. Our first plan was to visit nearby Witton Park, but for some reason we changed our minds for something a little further afield. A good call as it turned out because we'd completely forgotten about the Easter Fair and all the crowds... which wouldn't exactly have been condusive to a relaxing stroll.

Instead we parked up at the visitor centre at Tockholes, where a total (insert your own expletive) decided on the car park to undertake me by driving through the parking bays I was turning into! Being a helpful person I felt it was only fair to give him some useful feedback to point out the error of this manouvre but instead it almost turned into full-blown car-park rage and maybe worse as he tried to tell me it was me at fault!

So much for a relaxing walk... But soon after pulling our boots on we were out in the countryside only a mile or so from home on a lovely afternoon and such trivialities were soon forgotten.

Our three mile walk took us below Darwen Tower and around Earnsdale reservoir heading back to Tockholes. On the way we passed the old water house, whose date stone of 1897 is much later than the reservoir itself, which dates from the 1850s.

Thankfully back at the car there were no flat tyres or scratches down the side so we could go home laughing about the afternoon's events.