Wirral Weekend

It's great to be able to get away at weekends again in our campervan, we've really missed it.

The forecast wasn't good for this weekend, with rain showers all weekend but we decided to go for it anyway, we've been cooped up long enough.

I wanted to pop into one of the shops at Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet first thing before they got too busy so we had an early start to get there for 9am.

While we were there we did the multi from 2008. Not sure why we didn't notice it on our last visit a few years ago.

Charlie keeping watch while I looked for the cache.

Next stop was Port Sunlight.

Isn't it strange how fast the time goes, I know they say that as you get older the time goes faster but this is just getting ridiculous - If you'd asked me what year we last visited Port Sunlight I'd have said no earlier than 2017 but no it was way back in 2014!! Strange to think that back then we had no intention of moving anywhere let alone relocating to the North West! We visited to do the Port Sunlight Wherignome so we were really looking forward to coming back again and doing the Adventure Labs.

Port Sunlight is a village on the Wirral Peninsula built by Lever Brothers to accommodate its workers in its soap factory (now part of Unilever).

Port Sunlight is derived from Lever Brothers' most popular brand of cleaning agent

Port Sunlight was declared a conservation area in 1978 and contains more than 900 Grade II listed buildings in 130 acres of parkland and gardens. Today it is home to a museum, art gallery, parkland and a thriving community. In normal times it receives more than 300,000 visitors a year.

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Loved the tea room with its Fine Pair salt and pepper pots

Next stop: New Brighton.

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An enjoyable stroll around this seaside resort for a set of Adventure lab caches and a few other caches and by coincidence we met the Adventure Lab CO, SirPhilPamandRob in a supermarket car park later in the day. Seemed strange talking to another cacher about caching after this long period of time without meeting other cachers at events. Really looking forward to being able to attend some mega events again this year.

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Interestingly Wallasey was where the first British guide dogs were trained in 1931 and there's a statue in New Brighton to commemorate this.

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Torrential rain set in for the rest of the evening so we headed back to the van.

Up early the following morning to continue our walk around New Brighton to do a couple of Earthcaches and a multi.

Fort Perch Rock is a coastal defence battery built between 1825 and 1829. It was built to protect the Port of Liverpool and proposed as a fortified lighthouse to replace the old Perch Rock Light, however a separate lighthouse was built.

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After the heavy rain yesterday the skies had cleared and it was a beautiful sunny morning. Perfect for our next stop to another seaside resort, this time Hoylake.

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There is currently a local campaign to rake the beach at Hoylake - it would seem that since 2019 the beach hasn't been managed and is awaiting public consultation and a final plan which will decide whether or not the beach will be raked to remove vegetation.

Watching the world go by

A few notable people with connections to Hoylake:

The actor Daniel Craig grew up in Hoylake as did AC/DC bassist Cliff Williams. Former Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman was born in Hoylake.

Back in the van and onward to Ashton Park in West Kirby for a set of Adventure labs.

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On the way home we stopped off in Parkgate by which time it was pouring with rain.

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Parkgate is famous for its ice cream but it was far too wet to queue outside the ice cream shops so we just did the Adventure Labs and continued home.

Thanks for reading 😀

Weekend on the Wirral

SATURDAY

This weekend’s plan was to head over to the Wirral.  We assumed we’d missed out on the CITO souvenir this time round and then we noticed that a CITO had been published at short notice in Bromborough on the Wirral.  Normally if the weather forecast is bright and clear we’ll head up to the Lakes or across the Pennines and into Yorkshire but the forecast looked a little grim so as the CITO was on Saturday we thought we’d head there instead and do some caching in the area and maybe make a weekend of it in the camper.

The route we took went through the Queensway tunnel, also known as the Birkenhead tunnel, a 2 mile tunnel under the River Mersey.  Although we’ve been to the area before we’d never been through the tunnel.  The tunnel is a toll road and costs £1.70 to drive through it.  Another fun fact about the tunnel is that a scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1 was filmed here about 1.35 in

Once through the tunnel it was a short drive to the CITO which was held in Dibbinsdale Nature Reserve.   

We gathered at the visitor centre where the ranger Alan told us what jobs he had planned for us.  For 3 hours we cleared branches and cuttings from near a reed bed and shifted wood chippings to relay a path.  It was hard work but really rewarding and good fun.

 After the CITO.  We headed to LQ: Merseyside.  We’re slowly but surely ticking off the LQs and think that now leaves 23 to find.  The LQ cache was at Birkenhead Priory which is the oldest standing building on Merseyside.  We climbed to the top of St Mary's tower and enjoyed a fab view of the area including the shipyards next to the priory.

We spent the rest of the day finding a few caches before heading to New Brighton for the night.

A life-size replica of Resurgam

SUNDAY

We woke up bright and early with a lovely view of the seafront from the camper van window.  

The plan for today was to head into West Kirby to do the Wherigo around Hilbre Island.  

Hilbre Islands are an archipelago consisting of three islands at the mouth of the estuary of the River Dee.  The islands are a Local Nature Reserve and SSSI.  It was decided in 2011 that there would no longer be a resident ranger as they couldn't find anyone prepare to live without mains electricity or running water and as of 2012 the islands have no permanent residents

We spent a four hours or so exploring the 3 islands.

There were also 3 earthcaches on the island which were interesting and not too tricky.

After that we spent we enjoyed a walk and a few caches up on Caldy Hill.

The sun shone all day today and we were so lucky with the weather seeing as the forecast hadn’t been too good.

All too soon it was time to head home, this time through the Kingsway tunnel, also known as the Wallesey Tunnel - this tunnel was built because the Queensway Tunnel, which was built in the 1930s, was unable to cope with the rise of post-war traffic.