A repeat journey - Almost.

My midweek walk to Littleborough and back had Sheila chomping at the bit to go and do it as well. So today we did just that. I did include a detour from the previous route and that included a short visit to Hollingworth Lake which is just south of Littleborough.

Also, during my Thursday walk around Manchester I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time. I managed to buy a new Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ6 for £45.
It's an old model and it had only been in the shop on show, there was no software with it. That didn't bother me because I use iPhoto anyway. I was pleased it had the Leica lens.

So today's walk gave me the chance to try it out.

We started walking and within 5 minutes it rained, quite heavily. Rucksack down, waterproofs on. 10 minutes later just the reverse, rucksack down waterproofs off. It was like this for the next hour or so.

There was an official run on today. Asking one competitor we found out the run was from Manchester centre to Sowerby Bridge. That's 32 miles. Quite a few runners that we saw looked all in.

I'm not going to bore you with the walk detail because its no different to my previous one. However I do have a nice little tale to tell. Just before Littleborough, a bridge crosses the canal and heads up hill and across farm land before exiting on the main road adjacent to the lake. Just as we reached the high point we were met with a morass. It was everywhere and made progress rather precarious especially as Sheila only had trail shoes on. We tried to pick out the more solid looking bits but it was a loosing battle. The deep mud went on well into the farm itself and we were making very little progress. Then all of a sudden a tractor appeared, an MF 698. The farmer, an elderly chap, he was 80 years old, opened the door and shouted to us to get in the cab, which we did.
He was very apologetic and said it was all his fault it was a mess. He said he couldn't lift the scraper onto the tractor and he was just waiting for his son to arrive to help him.
He took us all the way through the farm and onto dry land. How kind was he.

At the lake the scenery was beautiful, we stopped for lunch for 15 minutes before the black clouds rolled in and gave us a few drops of rain. We quickly headed off.

Back on the canal we passed a field with some horses feeding quite close to the fence. Sheila went to stroke the head of one and inadvertently touched the electric fence. I bet you can imagine what was said. I couldn't possibly publish it.

Anyway here are a few pictures I took today. I must admit I think the results are better than my Sony NX9V.
I have noticed that focusing is a little slower than the Sony, but that's no big deal to me.
Slideshow here. There are only a few, honest.