Saturday 13 October 4.5 miles
Carol, Jane + Hilary
The forecast was for wild weather and a very high possibility of rain. We decided we wouldn't chance the weather in Chester. Carol suggested doing a walk from her house and having lunch at the Badger - that seemed like the better option unsurprisingly!
We walked from Carol's house going down their lane to the road, crossing over to join the canal towpath this the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union Canal. The canal is closed between Stanthorne Lock 2 and Wardle lock 1. We started with our jackets on as there was a bit of a breeze but once we walked along a bit the jackets came off.
There was a heron standing on the path and even though we came quite close it left it until the last minute to fly away to the other side of the canal - it was obviously very keen to get some breakfast. The canal was very quiet as there is no access to the canal in Middlewich due to the embankment collapse, hopefully it will have been repaired by the end of the year.
A rose bush had fallen across the path, it was a dog rose and very thorny so was hard to avoid being caught up in its spikes. We tried to hold it out of the way but it was difficult.
We left the canal to go towards Church Minshull the noise of the trees blowing in the wind was quite tremendous, we passed the farmhouse and joined a path to cross the River Weaver by a bridge. By the river there were groups of white flowers with fern like leaves and tiny groups of white flowers, I thought they looked like an achillea.
Just before we reached the main road we noticed a house with a very nice extension and an electric gate, it didn't leave much garden at the back, but plenty of glass to let the light in.
Then lunch at the Badger, the choices were a mezze platter, Shropshire brie on flatbread, and a 'fish finger' bap! We did have to wait a while to be served (perhaps the fish took a bit of cooking!), it is a bit disappointing when that happens.
We returned the way we came, this time with the sun in our eyes. Even with the wind still blowing we still didn't need our coats or fleeces so it was T-shirts in October! Sometimes it was hard to hear each other in places as the wind blew across our ears.
We didn't see many people on the canal either just a couple with a dog as we once again had to negotiate the rose thorns and attempt to not get too caught up. We passed two swans on the canal they looked very white in the sunshine. The wind across the surface of the canal created little wavelets but that didn't stop them from feeding on the bottom of the canal.
Then it was back to Carol's house for a cup of tea and looked at lots of lovely pictures of the wedding!
