Midge Walkers

Walk  No. 22

Broughton  15th May 2011

I was delegated to write the report on today’s Sunday Afternoon walk for the Midge Hall Newsletter. The day was the 15th May. The weather overcast, tending to rain, although towards the end, the rain held off.

I decided to call it “A Stylish Walk” – not particularly because it was a walk of great beauty and natural vistas (we couldn’t see much because of the cloud) – but because of the proliferation of stiles that we had to negotiate; and there were lots! I began to appreciate the value of the flexibility exercises that I had ignored when I was a member of the local gym. “A Walk of Stiles” may be a more accurate description.

There were ten of us on the walk today – hand-picked quality. The distance a modest 5.25 miles (taken from Derek’s GPS) and the duration, 3 hours and 19 minutes; the pace works out at 1.6 mph, a rather sluggish pace, one might think, but remember the stiles – perhaps as many as a couple of dozen!

Rodney was our leader and although prone to exaggerate, he was right this time – the walk was “as flat as flat can be”. An excellent leader and an easy walk; but the most entertaining aspect, along with a degree of modest exercise, was the wit and humour of our fellow walkers; a lovely bunch of folk. There was an educational aspect too – I even learned the difference between ‘hay’ and ‘straw’ (thanks to Jack).

We walked from Durton Lane in Broughton where we parked the cars; and from there, we passed the Italian Orchard Restaurant and some very stylish houses – but otherwise, the walk was fields and more fields. Great fun; thanks, Rod and thanks to his friend Derek, who provide the statistical content.

Norman Farnworth