Yesterday, we followed the 'suggestion' by GMPTE to have a walk around Rivington Pike and the West Pennine Moors. The GMPTE guide was not useful, however. We needed to figure out which bus/train to take and where to board/get-off. Eventually, we gathered that we needed to go to Bolton Bus Station (Blackhorse Street) and change the local buses. We "reverse-engineered" the tour, starting from the destination Johnson Fold, rather than Horwich, which turned out to be a smart strategy.
We took bus #8 to Bolton bus station. And then bus #125 to Johnson Fold. We asked the way at a local pub on Chorley
Old Road. We started walking. When we finally found ourselves in the GMPTE map, it was beautiful (see photos).We followed the Barrow Bridge Road, then climbed up the 63-step-of-the-miners. And started the 5-mile walk in the Moors. It was lambing season - lots of gamboling lambs (see photos).
Then, we also encountered the rebuilt ruined castle in the Rivington Park.
We sometimes got lost because the map had few references. The local we approached found it difficult to point out the direction to us given this poor map. The worse situation was at the end of the journey - when we were so tired - we got lost and did not know how to find a bus stop. We ran into the Rivington High School where many were operating their noisy toy cars (I suggested to have a proper psychological study finding out why people like noisy (car) engine). It was a stressful and frustrating moment. Luckily, three local ladies kindly pointed us to the main road, Chorley New Road, where many buses going (although they made a mistake saying that there was no bus running on Lee Land on Sunday - there were). We took bus #575 back to Bolton bus station and changed for bus #8 back to Manchester.
We both felt very exhausted after walking for more than 6 miles today. We need to exercise more. But after all, it was a beautiful day-out.
