Our final day in Stalybridge

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Our holiday is almost at an end. Just one more day with Kath and Albert in Stalybridge and it will be time to fly home to Melbourne.

Most of the day was spent re-packing our bags ... again! It was time to fit in our puffer vests and other heavy clothing and Murano souvenirs that we didn't take with us to the Mediterranean. We also had a poster that I purchased at the Captain Cook Schoolhouse Museum that we had to decide how to get to Australia. It needed a tube to protect it and we needed to decide whether it would fit in one of our bags or if it would be easier to post it to ourselves.

We decided to stretch our legs with a walk down to the post office in Stalybridge to investigate what sort of mailing tubes they might have. It was a beautiful day so we cut through Cheetham Park which is a magnificent green oasis that runs between Mottram Road and the commercial centre of Stalybridge. It makes for a much more pleasant walk than continuing down Mottram Road to the shops!

Our first stop was the post office. They had mailing tubes but, unfortunately, they were about three centimetres too short to accommodate the poster. Damn, how are we going to get this poster back to Oz in pristine condition? We decided to try the various discount shops to see if any of those had a tube that would be suitable. We even contemplated purchasing a couple of 'Pringles' tubes to see if we could fashion a protective casing for the poster.

Finally, in one of the discount shops, we found a small roll of corrugated cardboard that we decided we could unroll then re-roll with the poster enclosed. We purchased the roll of cardboard and some sticky tape and then went to sit on a park bench by the canal where we wrapped and taped our Captain Cook poster into its makeshift posting tube. With the poster well secured for its trip to Australia we headed back to the PO where we paid around twice the value of the poster to send it to ourselves ... as you do! Although it probably would have fitted into one of our bags we decided it was just easier to mail it. It only cost about £5.00 so it wasn't too extravagant.

With it being such a beautiful day we took a few more photos around town and then headed back up the hill, this time via the Eastwood Nature Reserve which is the section of Cheetham Park that runs alongside Acres Brook. The people of Staylbridge are very lucky to have such a lovely, green swathe in the middle of their town. There were certainly plenty of locals enjoying the parkland today in the sunshine.

A lovely, relaxing evening with Kath and Albert and then off to bed.



Steps for the day 11,015 (7.5 kms)

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