You Always Take the Weather With You

(Long Walkers Keep Trying To Warm Up)

On Friday 22nd June some of the Long Walkers set out to continue The Way for the Millenium as a warm-up for the following week.

Leaving Stafford on a wet, grey and far from warm morning they walked along the Sow towards Baswich. 'This area is prone to flooding' said the guide book, and clearly the bridge builders had thought the same.

Bridge prone to flooding

From Baswich, the Way continued to Milford and Tixall along Brindley's Staffs and Worcester canal, which at times seemed to be on the verge of overflowing.

Canal overflow

After we'd turned onto the Trent and Mersey canal at the junction, a hot drink at The Lock House, Great Heywood seemed a good idea. Despite it being June they had a stove burning merrily, but we did manage to sit outside.

Flaming June?!!

From here as far as Colton, we were following the Staffordshire Way which we will be walking again next week.
At lunchtime, as it was raining, we sat under the A51 bridge at Wolseley Bridge.
This was a walk of water birds and their young. We saw several pairs of swans, one hissing pair with just one cygnet left

and a more succesful pair with five.

We also saw ducklings, and watched a moorhen searching for titbits in the grass and then hopping back into the water to feed them to its cheeping chicks.

Moorhen collecting grubs

At Colton, diverging from the Staffordshire Way, the towpath led us around Rugeley,

its power station

and its Business Park, and we were quite surprised what a pleasant green corridor this was, although we did pass the alledgedly haunted Bloody Steps and the Rugeley Poisoner's birthplace. We continued out to Armitage, finishing our walk at The Plum Pudding. This was an easy walk with many other points of interest and plenty of refreshment opportunities. Maybe another time we'll take one of Barry's Boat Tours.

Submitted by Sarah