Search and Rescue mission. Day 2... I learnt something today, Nature always wins. After kitting out with some wellies and making it across to the island in the Irwell, literally hacking through all the brush, weeds, thorns and bastard nettles, (who ever invented them wants sacking) falling down several holes, I didnt find the drone, no sign of it anywhere. There are still two places, in the area I think it went down, that it could be but one is completely inaccessible without a flame thrower at this point in the year, plus would melt the drone!! So if I can walk tomorrow, I will be exploring the other place it could be, bit more danger involved here though. Some local geology for you. On the corner of the bend across from Cormar near their bridge, is a place, (that I eluded to in a previous post) that we nicknamed Flobadob land when we were kids. The reason being is this. When you walk down the Church Fields, (screw you Peel) there are some overgrown woods (Crow Lumb) to the right stretching all the way down to the bottom. A particular area in here is basically like a swamp, all the water run off from Nuttal Lane, St Andrews field etc. This then flows slowly heading towards the Irwell, over the edge of a mud cliff. How do I now this? I fell over it while exploring when I was about 12. At the bottom of about a 20 ft drop is pure, sloppy mud, like a grey clay that broke mine and my mates fall, we actually sunk into it. We managed to dig our way out and make it further up to a solid part of the river bank, I went home and got slapped by my mother for being full of grey mud. On a future expedition here, next day actually, we went back for another look with the plan to get across it somehow, cause kids did that then. We then realised how dangerous it was, totally impassable so called it, yes youve guessed, Flobadob land because thats what it was :-) The sloppy grey mud flows slowly into the river as the cliff is slowly being eroded away by the water. The river here is approximately 20 feet deep as its at the end of the concrete box for the weir just after the bridge. I know this from another expedition with our kid, Lee Marsden, Clanger and crew where we were in dinghies sailing to Bury (thats another story). From what I could see yesterday and today, a number of trees have come down here over the years, obviously eroded away by the water. If you ever happen to decide to go into these woods from the Church Fields, near the top and see swampy conditions then grey clay like mud, stop, as the edge of the mud cliff is feet away and you cant tell because of the overgrowth where the edge is, and the drop looks even bigger now. So I took the opportunity to take a few pics while the river is low. And got a really good video on my phone of a leaf floating in air, actually suspended by a single spider thread which I will post in a bit. Im absolutely knackered.....
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 22:47:19 +0000
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