There was only one section left to complete the Wyre valley Rail trail so today was to be the final day. Caught the train to Foregate St then set off northbound. Initially the trail follows the Worcester and Birmingham canal. When the railway line is encountered at Blackpole the canal is left and the route takes you through the ravenmeadow golf course and Tappenhall until one reaches the other canal, The Droitwich canal at Porters Mill. The canal is then followed past Salwarpe to Droitwich
G4FRE OTHER BLOG
Friday, 7 February 2025
Wyre Valley Rail trail Part 1 Worcester Foregate St to Droitwich 22/2/25
Monday, 2 December 2024
Church Stretton Day 2 1 December 24
It rained most of the Saturday night but the forecast was good from 1000 to 1500 Sunday so I decided to go and visit Pole Bank, the highest point on Long Myndd.
Leaving Chursh Stretton via Townbrook Valley a lot of mist was encountered but the Pole bank summit was reached in 90 minutes encountering just 2 sheep, 1 dog and 2 humans!
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Townbrook Valley |
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The Summit at Pole Bank |
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Coming down Ashes hollow, wading was needed to go Right to Left! |
Saturday, 30 November 2024
Church Stretton Day 1 30 Nov 24
I was taking a 3 night stay at HF Holidays property at Church Stretton (again) in one of their cutprice deals. I decided to visit a couple of new places.As the weather forecast for the Saturday was better than Sunday I decided to go and visit the Wrekin while I could
One of the HF guests had done a tour of the wrekin a month earlier so he let me have his gpx file to follow. He pointed out that the starting point was not the usually used one and was free!
I drove from Church Stretton to Ercall near the Wrekin. It took 35 minutes, the lane ended at the conclusion of a one way system in the opposite direction!
The route was very wet, with many of the footpaths having been turned into babbling brooks by the recent rain. The ascent from the southernmost point up small hill (misrepresented!) was challenging and very windy. Once the summit was reached the gentle descent was very relaxing
At the bottom I noticed the map showed a quarry which I recognised from Megs OU studies as a fine example of non conformity so i just had to visit. It was as good as expected. The descent from the quarry back to the car was very wet and slippery and a number of deviations from the footpath were needed.
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The view South from Small hill |
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The Approach to the summit from the South |
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The Malverns briefly appeared |
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The approach to the Summit from the North |
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The view North during the descent |
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The Ercall nonconformity (pink on the left, grey volcanic extreme right) |
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The interpretive board |
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The route covered 9.7 miles taking 4.5 hours |
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Route Profile |
Saturday, 16 November 2024
Tenerife Day 7 16 Nov 2024
Friday, 15 November 2024
Tenerife Day 6 15 Nov 2024
Originally Ramblers were offering a cateory 4 and category 6 walk to the coast, but the category 4 was corrupted to a "forest " walk so i had to take the category 6
The route started at Cruz del Carmen and descended down to Punta del Hidalgo 8.9 miles in 5 hours walking
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The initial descent |
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The Final descent |
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The Lighthouse |
Thursday, 14 November 2024
Tenerife Day 5 14 Nov 2024
Todays walk started at Taganana after a taxi ride, the approach road was exciting:-
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Road into Taganama The morning walk was along the cliffs through the vineyards and the old winepresses 3.5 miles |
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Morning Route |
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Morning profile |
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Looking back along the morning route from the beach |
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The beach, not a friendly paddle. time for lunch
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A dyke across the gorge |
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Caves The walk ended at a small bar in arfur before the taxi back to the hotel |
Wednesday, 13 November 2024
Tenerife day 4 13 Nov 2024
This was a day off according to one published schedule and a walk day in another schedule, Tim and Julie organised a trip to the bustling seaside town of Puerto de la cruz. We caught the bus from the local bus station for the 1 hour journey
The main beach was closed due to a sewarge leak but we had a coffee before starting the walk
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The closed beach with Teide in the distance |
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The view back to town across the banana terrace |

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The coast view away from town |
Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Tenerife Day 3 12 Nov 2024 TEIDE
The highlight of the tour was to happen today, going up the Mount Teide Volcano
We were collected by the coach (which we had for the day) and headed for the El Portillo Vistor Centre at 6500 feet. We got to briefly tour the botanical gardens and see Mt Teide in the distance
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El Portillo walk |
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Teide from El Portillo |
We then continued to the Teide lower cable car cable station at 2356m
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The cable car route |
Our cable car reservation was at 1130 cable car booking. We were issued with wrist bands and sent up the 7 minute ride to the top cable car station at 3555m
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Cable car top station at the left, the summit straight ahead |
The cable car top station is the highest you can go, you need a permit (takes 2-6 months) to go up the additional 150m to the summit Upon arrival we were met by our guide who led us a tour
Next door was Pico Viejo, the second highest volcano in the Canary Island
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Pico Viejo |
He pointed out El Chinero, a smallish mount where the last eruption on Tenerife happened in 1909, We also got to see the extent of the Caldera (Teide is NOT in the centre)
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The Caldera wall with Gran Canaria in the Distance |
We came back down after the allocated hour. The next stop was at the Canada Blanca visitor centre, but we were given the option of walking there rather than going on the bus, which i took. very different walk across a variety of surfaces including a sand dune. 3.21 miles in 1 hour 7 minutes at 7550 feet
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Lunchtime walk |
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The view from the top of the sand dune |
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The view back to Teide |
After the delayed luch we continued on our 3.05 mile afternoon walk around the Roques de Garcia which was very scenic
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The afternoon walk |
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Pillow Lava |
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Teide from the Roques |
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The Roques |
Wyre Valley Rail trail Part 1 Worcester Foregate St to Droitwich 22/2/25
There was only one section left to complete the Wyre valley Rail trail so today was to be the final day. Caught the train to Foregate St t...

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Started at Malvern Railway station at 1030 11.31 Lunch on top of Old hills that was very windy. Got to Crowngate bus station at 1532. Origi...
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Since doing the Malvern to Evesham RailTrail in May 2023 another, Wyre Valley route has been produced between Worcester and Hagley (the wor...