Heywood to Wardle
Distance: 18 miles, about 21 in total
Weather: chilly, warm and sunny, chilly, then wet
Flies swallowed:1
Midges up noses:1
Dipper, jay, meadow pipits, curlew, woodpecker, ponies
We got buses to Rochdale and then Heywood, getting off at the cemetery where we'd ended Day 1. Uneven stone steps led down from the main road into fields, which led around to the track to Crimble Mill. There were quite a lot of dog-walkers and groups out walking here, and it was even busier when we got to Queens Park. There are old turnstiles randomly here, which date from Victorian times when the boating lake was popular but is less boating and more honky geese these days.
We left the park over a bridge into woodland and followed the river towards Simpson Clough and through the caravan park into Gelder Woods. It was slow going here, mostly because it was so lovely I kept stopping to look and take photos. It was also very wet and muddy underfoot, plenty of people have been this way but we didn't see anyone else.
We passed a cafe that was closed (one of the signs on the door said it would be open tomorrow and over the Easter weekend) where they really like monkey puzzle trees. There weren't any monkeys in the trees, but there was a squirrel. The woodland turned to farms and horse fields, then moorland. We stopped for a shoe faff and to reapply suncream before crossing the busy A680 and heading up to Knowle Moor. We had the place to ourselves, apart from the bees and some disinterested sheep.
After tea and snacks we dropped down under the wind turbines and zigzagged down the hillside to the reservoirs, crossing between Naden Middle and Lower Reservoirs and back up the other side of the valley. There were a lot of people here, especially once we got 100 yards of the carpark.
The track of the moors led to Windy Bottom Farm and Prickshaw, where the lanes are very narrow, and onto the disused railway line into Healey Dell. It was very busy here, the road we had to cross was busy and the public toilets close just before 4pm.
From Healey there are paths everywhere and it's not clear on the OS map which is the Rochdale Way. We walked up to the Pennine Bridleway to Lobden golf course, where there were many shaggy ponies, and then a path that is definitely the Rochdale Way to the top of Watergrove Reservoir and down Ramsden Road, which might be the Rochdale Way or the Pennine Bridleway.
We had a look at bus times and decided to stop here, and get the bus from Wardle. When we got there the app said it was delayed so we walked another twenty minutes down to the A58 main road where there are more frequent buses. One arrived within a couple of minutes.
