Underground Manchester

An email advertising this walk landed in my Inbox....Alistair and I were both free so we decided to turn up and find out more.

Tuesday dawned bright and sunny with a cold wind but we made a packed lunch and caught the train into Manchester........after all the wind would not be reaching us underground.  However before we went underground there was a lot of standing about in said cold wind whilst the tutor told us lots of interesting facts about what was under our feet.  We were a large group of very mixed ages ....retired people, various middle aged people, a group of young ladies who discussed fashion most of the way round and some younger couples....one of whom had a two week old baby in a sling.  I know current thinking is that having a baby need not disrupt your life but it did seem a bit extreme to me.....still baby slept all the way round.....plus he was excused the final descent to canal level.

In this picture you can see the little plastic stool the tutor carried with him (the sort you buy for children in Ikea) and he stood on it to deliver his information as we were quite a large group.  I think on the overground parts we huddled together for warmth as well as to listen to the tutor.

Air Raid shelter with toilet block in corner.

Here we have Alistair looking happy as the tunnel has lighting.  Shortly after this we were in total darkness and were reliant on torches.  It did not mention torches on the poster which would have been helpful but Alistair had brought a light from his bike and I had my tiny emergency torch I keep for holidays.  Mine prevented me from standing in too much water and showed me where I was to climb over boulders but only just.  Some people had brought strong torches and lanterns whilst others used their mobile phones. 

At the lowest point there was a disused canal and the camera flash provided good illumination.  By this time I was minus Alistair who had stayed behind in one of the larger spaces.  At the end there was a rapid ascent to find the nearest coffee shop in order to warm up.  Yes it was interesting outing and the tutor was full of tales and anecdotes but in retrospect choosing to go on this walk in one of the coldest winters may not have been one of my brightest decisions.