Bitterly cold walking over Hobson Moor

Walking on the moor

We took a walk yesterday in a location that we hadn’t been to before – it was Hobson Moor (Tameside) and which can be found on the Ordinance Explorer Map (OL1 Peak District). The actual location for our walk was only a short drive from home of about 15 minutes or so, and there is every chance we will go there again and perhaps complete the circular route that also take in Swineshaw reservoir – which we visited and that I wrote about back in August of last year (see this link).

If we were to do the route that takes in the Swineshaw reservoir it would make for something like a six/seven mile circular walk … but it will have to be a bit warmer than yesterday before we do that one.

Super cold walking weather

Yesterday was proper ‘freeze the balls off a brass monkey‘ type of weather. it was truly seriously cold and made for bitterly cold walking over Hobson Moor.

The bright sunshine and blue sky was deceptive, the temperature was around about 1 or 2 degrees but the wind chill factor took it down well below that.

It should go without saying that we were properly attired with suitable walking trousers, coats, hats, gloves and boots but we hadn’t brought anything to pull up across our faces – the net effect of the biting wind was to make the side of our faces feel numb – really.

We walked about five miles and enjoyed views that can only be described as magnificent out across Manchester and even with the radio telescope at Jodrell Bank being visible (check out this link for our last trip to Jodrell Bank). and whilst Im not quite sure of the distance as the crow flies Google maps indicates that from the Trig point (Wildbank) on the moor it’s a driving distance of a shade over 27 miles.

There wasn’t a great deal to see during the time we were there in terms of wildlife – maybe the wind and cold had put them off from flying and they were literally keeping a low profile.

Although there wasn’t a great deal to see in terms of wildlife we had some fine views of aircraft heading into Manchester airport and there are a couple of pictures in the gallery below, the first is an Etihad Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner completing it’s journey from Abu Dhabi whilst the second is an Emirates Boeing 777 completing its journey from Dubai