Today’s weather forecast wasn’t good, so as it wasn’t raining this morning I thought I’d get my walk and my steps done first. I didn’t have a plan of where to go but fancied somewhere a little different. I headed north on the towpath, and when I got to the aqueduct I went down the steps onto the lane and walked up the hill to the National Trust holiday cottage we passed the other day. This time I went past it, up the lane. When I had a choice of routes, I opted to stay on a farm track rather than taking a footpath, because everything is rather wet and muddy.
As I went higher there were views of Manchester to the north, with the tower block seemingly emerging from the cloud.
Part of the lane had cattle grids at either end of a field, to stop the sheep getting out.
I followed the track round and then started heading downhill again, moving onto a well signposted footpath. It came out at Bridge 16; you can clearly see that it was originally a swing bridge.
Given how much effort the walk had been, I was surprised to be not even at 5000 steps, so I continued north on the towpath as far as Higher Poynton, then took Middlewood Way back.
This afternoon I’ve started proper work on Series 2 of The Water Road. I want at least a couple of episodes in the can and scheduled, so I’ve edited some interviews that I’ve already done, and researched a few more. As the afternoon has progressed, it’s got increasingly windy — although there’s still no rain. Tomorrow looks even less promising. Adrian is still away; the big meeting he went down for is this evening.