Northop Hall,Wepre Park and Ewloe Green 10th February 2018

St. Mary's Church, Northop Hall.

The footpath through Coed Moch.

A few Crocus flowering in Wepre Country Park.

"Are you sure this is the way to the waterfall?"

The waterfall.

The boardwalk along the West side of Wepre Brook.

Ewloe Castle and our lunch spot.

Crossing a trinutary of Wepre Brook on our way to Castle Hill Farm.

Snowdrops on the verge in Green Lane.

Is this a first - a chimp on top of the gate post.

Catkins out - another sign of Spring.

From a chimp to a monkey!

Walk stats: 7.7 miles.  Climb: 668'.

(8.2 miles and 708' if you include the walk up the hill to the Top Monkey and back to the cars).

Time: 4 hours 10 minutes (Time in the Top Monkey not included!)

Group: Martyn and Ed.

The weather forecast for Bangor was for heavy rain all day, but Ed spotted that there was a window of "not so wet" forecast for parts of Flintshire and suggested we have a walk starting from Northop Hall.

 This we did, setting off from the Institute Lane car park just as the rain stopped. It didn't last and as we headed along the path through Coed Moch, we were accompanied by very light drizzle. At this point it seemed very warm, almost "boil in bag" syndrome in  my Winter Paramo gear. 

 Singing birds seemed to be everywhere on the the walk, reminding us that Spring is on its way.

 Arriving at Wepre Park, the rain stopped - feeling on the warm  side our only problem. the ambient  for the rest of the walk must have been in double figures, especially when the Sun began to shine.

 After following Ed's rather circuitous  route we eventually arrived at the waterfall on Wepre Brook.  Our route then took along the boardwalk on the West side of Wepre Brook before climbing to Ewloe Castle where we found part of the wall a suitable place to sit a we had lunch, serenaded by Blue tits and Great tits.

 Once we left Wepre Park, most of our walk was along roads, but at least the busy ones had pavements and we knew mud wasn't going to be a problem. 

 Green Lane and Magazine Lane were very quiet lanes and where we came across the entrance to a property that had chimpanzees sitting on top of the gate posts. 

 Birds seen or heard today included: House sparrow, Common blackbird, Blue tit, Great tit, Long-tailed tit, Black-billed magpie, Eurasian jay, Wood nuthatch, European robin, Woodpigeon and Rook.

 We arrived back at the cars, having had a good walk, when at one time we thought we wouldn't get a walk in at all.

 Although we thought the walk had made us tireder than we should, we decided to walk up the road to the nearest hostelry, rather than take the cars.

 After seeing chimps earlier, it seemed appropriate that we should call in at the Top Monkey for refreshments before heading home. I enjoyed my Pepsi while Ed enjoyed a Hobgoblin (not my favourite real ale - hence the Pepsi)