A wintery local 10 miles

 Our Saturday morning 10 mile walk was a slippery one straight from the front door.
Sheila was sporting her new boots. Now that winter has arrived, she had decided that after last weekends very wet walk up Hail Storm Hill, that a waterproof, warm pair of boots was necessary. Hopefully i can persuade her to do a review on them in a few weeks time. They look good and are very light weight. She also has a new pair of gloves which i am very envious off, so maybe 2 reviews are pending.

 The sun had only just appeared about the horizon causing a lovely pink tinge to the cloud edges. The mist was still thick across some of the low fields yet others cleared as the sun warmed the air. In the cold misty fields the sheep had not yet risen from there slumbers and the tup was showing no interest what so ever. I don't blame him.

 The heavy rains of recent weeks had flooded fields that now resembled ice skating rinks with handrails full of frost. Proceeding along the Rochdale canal the ducks greeted us noisily but it was to no avail, we were breadless. They went back to bottom feeding.

 Dorothy was finding staying up on her feet quite difficult and progress was slow. We should have brought some shoe spikes with us but we didn't realise how bad it was going to be.

 One of the routes we use is usually very flooded and so today we changed paths hoping for an easier and dryer way round. It wasn't to be, it was just as wet and a lot of bog had been created by a herds of cows which were now comfortably inside the barn. Across the boggy land we made a mental note not to go that way again.
 The view over to Knowle Hill and Scout moor had the wind turbines bathed in sunshine. A bit different to last weekend.

 When we eventually reached Tandle Hill Park, via more very slippery Land Rover tracks,  it was unusually quiet, not that many dog walkers out yet. The cafe in the park was closed. What a disappointment. We usually stop here for a brew instead of bringing our own. We hung around hoping that the proprietor would turn up at any minute but it wasn't to be and so we headed off.
 We passed what looked like a TA unit doing some excercises. Good to see some hardy souls out as well as us.

 Derbyshire looks very dark at this point although North across Lancashire and East into Yorkshire was looking good. Quite a breeze was blowing and too chilly to hang around. Down and back onto more slippery tracks and homeward bound.
A few photographs of our walk can be found by clicking on the link below.

Photo’s link