Our first yellow arrow

We’ve had two days “training”.  Yesterday we had a lovely walk, 11km, no pack, through a wooded area, past ponds with swans and a visit to “The Dream”, an art installation done by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, in 2009. It seems to be in the middle of nowhere but the M62 goes right by, so 35 million people a year can enjoy this. 

Some of our path and our first yellow arrow. 

Nuclear station soon to be decommissioned. 

Today, we walked 18km, with a pack, along the canal, the first industrial canal in England. There are no barges in the piece we walked as bits had been filled in (neglected?) and bushes and bulrushes had grown. 

A young swan who appeared almost dead when we approached and the young woman who was trying to alert a ranger to help it. It perked up as we left, so don’t know its fate. 

The “9 arches”, now a railway bridge. 

A family of swans came rushing over as we walked closer as they are regularly fed bread by people, so assumed we had their next meal. 

The view from our table at a pub where we stopped for coffee just after 11am. By then we had walked 2 hours or so. It looked like rain so I changed from puffy jacket to gortex coat. On the way back to the house, we stopped at in town to have a look around, then stopped at Tesco for ingredients to make ice cream. As we left Tesco, Les thought he’d try on his rain pants. It was only spitting out so it was an experiment to see if he could get them on over his boots. I watched, but kept my rain pants in my pack. We headed off with another 30 minutes to walked and it poured!! We arrived back soaking, but dry where the gortex was. Unfortunately my pants are soaked. They are my only pair so I’m trying to dry them with a hairdryer. The gas to the house is off......long story, so I may be going to dinner in tights. Fetching I’m sure. 

Three gas trucks trying to solve the problem. 

Good thing it’s not going to rain in Spain!