One of the challenges of writing a blog about my walks for my 2.6 challenge is finding sufficient variety in the walks when you are confined to home. By necessity the beginnings and endings of the walks are going to be the same. For the past few years I’ve done the majority of my walking on the Greenway, which extends from Mickle Trafford Into Wales. It is well used by cyclists and walkers alike so for me it is too risky to maintain the necessary social distance required by current circumstances. With that in mind I set off at 6.15am this morning and headed for a path that I used to frequent in my running days.
The walk began the same as yesterday but at the bottom of the steps I turned right past the pub and headed up past the Hollows.
There is a public footpath from here, which goes around the side of a farm and eventually across the Vicar’s Cross Golf course. It was lightly raining when I left so I decided to wear boots, which made my pace a bit slower. I was pleased to find the path was less muddy than I had expected. A little Wagtail was flitting about on the grooves of the ploughed field.
The path to the gate to the golf course stretched out before me, and, as already mentioned, that although there were individual puddles it was generally firm underfoot, probably due to the recent very dry conditions. The golf course was looking very lush.
In the middle of the golf course is a pretty pond upon which I’ve seen Moorhens in the past. I was amazed by how tall some of the trees are now, making the fairways more separated, but rather more difficult to find the blue posts that mark the path.
On the other side of the golf course the path passes through another gate and down another short path.
At the end of the path I turned right onto the A51. I was immediately struck by the amount of traffic on the road, but I suppose being around 7am it was the time that people go to work. The footpath here is really wide and quite pretty if you ignore the traffic on your left.
For a short section before the route turns back onto Hare Lane the footpath becomes quite narrow, so I was pleased there was no one else about. I turned into Hare Lane and the traffic died. After Chester Rugby Club the road crosses the motorway. There was a wld cherry tree in full blossom adding some grace to the bridge across the motorway.
Shortly after this I turned into Bellevue Lane and was back on some of the route back to my house that I had taken yesterday. In the past I would have gone through the narrow entrance that leads into the back path, but there’s no chance of social distancing there. Instead I went round the long way down more of Bellevue Lane and turned right into Middlecroft, then right again into Oakland’s., arriving home after a distance of 3.3 miles. It’s a bit longer than my 2 mile target, but it would also be nice to cover a marathon distance of 26.2 miles over this challenge.
My next challenge is an interesting route for tomorrow. If you would like to donate to Shelter you can find the link at the end of my first blog.
Wow, another fantastic blog, illustrated with photo’s of our green and pleasant land. Hope your blisters aren’t too bad today. Can’t wait for the next instalment. xxx
Dear Lynn, Thank you so much for your encouragement. It is time consuming doing the blog, but if even just one person enjoys reading it then it makes it all worthwhile.